"He writes the way we talk." This phrase sums up perfectly the atmosphere I felt during John Edgar Wideman's speech last Wednesday. His special attention to diction, dialect and talking voice of his characters have made him a recipient of an innumerable number of awards and prizes. He manages to convey a sort of immediacy and realism in his writing that not many authors can express.
We were lucky enough to listen to a fragment from his work in progress, titled thus far Fathers and Sons. It's a novel heavily based on autobiographical events, yet he still considers it fiction. The initial chapter starts with a young boy seeing the picture of a dead and battered Emmett Till on a newspaper. This causes a big impact on the boy, because he sees himself identified with the image in print. From this pont, Wideman cleverly inserts quotations regarding Till's murder trial as if to give the reader an idea of how the media viewed this trial, and the social ramifications of this fact. Though a lot of attention is, so far, payed to the trial itself, it appears as though the focus of the book will eventually shift and focus on Louis Till, the boy's father, who has a dark story himself.
I found the fragment to be really interesting. I would definitely read a book based on this premises, since trials and semi-autobiographical writings are a personal favorite of mine. But going beyond the presentation of this new book, Wideman was willing to offer the audience some advice. The one thing that hit me the most was him urging people to do and study what they are really passionate about. Sure, we all have economic concerns in mind, but these should not limit us when choosing a carrer path. Pretty solid advice, if you ask me.
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