- Paperback: 242 pages
- Publisher: Mariner Books; Reprint edition (26 Jan 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0618509631
- ISBN-13: 978-0618509638
- Product Dimensions: 20.4 x 13.8 x 2 cm
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,351,890 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Now in paperback, this is the story of the author and his younger brother who were raised by the same parents in the same environment. Today, John is a college professor and an acclaimed novelist, his brother is serving a life sentence for murder. The author searches for an answer to the searing question of why this is so.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From the Publisher
Powerful autobiographical soul-searching
John Edgar Wideman and his younger brother, Robby, were raised by the same parents in the same environment - the Black ghetto of Homewood, in Pittsburgh, Pennysylvania. But today, John, a Rhodes Scholar, is a college professor and a highly acclaimed novelist; Robby is in prison, serving a life sentence for murder. In Brothers and Keepers, Wideman searches for an answer to the searing question: 'Why Robby there behind bars - why me here?' "One of the best American writers of any generation" Caryl Phillips; "Powerful...guaranteed to shock and sadden" Washington Post --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
John Edgar Wideman and his younger brother, Robby, were raised by the same parents in the same environment - the Black ghetto of Homewood, in Pittsburgh, Pennysylvania. But today, John, a Rhodes Scholar, is a college professor and a highly acclaimed novelist; Robby is in prison, serving a life sentence for murder. In Brothers and Keepers, Wideman searches for an answer to the searing question: 'Why Robby there behind bars - why me here?' "One of the best American writers of any generation" Caryl Phillips; "Powerful...guaranteed to shock and sadden" Washington Post --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Amazon.com:
16 reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
A compelling biographic memoir
6 Aug 2001
Format:Paperback
John Edgar Wideman's brilliant prose breaks through the humdrum of standard biographies and presents readers with a combination of family memoir, true crime narrative, and a scathing indictment of the "justice" system. His own learned, scholarly discourse and his brother's street dialect alternate throughout to give readers a dual perspective of family, culture, and society.
Wideman neither lionizes nor blames his brother, Robert, but not so ironically, he recognizes in his little brother the true modern day romantic: the chance-taker, the rebel with a cause, and the convict who retains his dignity through loss and ordeal.
Nevertheless, I would not undermine or degrade Wideman's book by calling it "uplifting" or "inspirational." There are enough canned chicken-soup books for those who prefer spoonfeeding to hard realism and true brotherly love.
16 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Too many techniques distract from the story
16 Feb 2003
Format:Paperback
I started this book really wanting to like it. From the jacket blurbs it looked like a book right up my alley (creative non-fiction.) Brothers&Keepers seemed like a book where the author had stretched the limits of creative nonfiction -- brought in different perspectives, used different voices, used different narrators. Overall, for me though, the book did not work. Ironically, I don't like the book for the very reason I was attracted to it. I think he went to far in adding new techniques and tricks at the expense of the story I thought he was trying to tell.
Wideman covers just about every possible combination of voice, tense, point of view, and narration. One of the old "rules" of fiction was to keep POV changes to a minimum. This is supposed to help the reader identify with a character and not have to reorient himself or herself and thus "fall out of the story." Likewise, the rules of writing discourage tense changes, hoping to keep a supple continuum going in the reader's mind. But in this book, Wideman wanders all over the place, sometimes shifting three or four times within the same page. (see page 8). Although I admire Wideman for trying this, for me as a reader, breaking the rules had exactly the effect the rulemakers fear -- I fell out of the story and became confused, disoriented, and disinterested.
But If You Must Do It, DO It.
To compound this problem, Wideman makes one more mistake in shifting realities. He doesn't keep it up. The first chapter of the book makes it seem as though we are going to get a heck of a ride, running all over the place looking for the truth. But in the last two sections, Wideman seems to fall into a reporter's notebook and never come out. Granted we do get to see Robby's words both printed and spoken, but the mishmash of thought, opinion, different tenses and voices is much quieter as the book drones on.
Many times it felt like he was showing off the fact that he was breaking the rules, rather than breaking the rules in order to tell a story that could not be told any other way. This may be because he is an academic, a professor who discusses the structure of literature all day long. He might feel a certain obligation to approach his writing from a litcrit perspective and deliberately do things in his writing that would make for good English papers.
11 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Not Wideman's Best Work, But Still Interesting
4 April 2000
Format:Paperback
Perhaps Wideman should have let his brother Robby tell more of his own story because John's rants about the injustice of prisons wears thin quickly. Robby Wideman comes out as honest through his words, but neither Wideman seems to think Robby's crime was really not that important of a matter. I do not understand this, but every person is entitled to their own thoughts. An encouraging aspect of this book relates to the progress Robby makes in becoming a more genuine person. This is often a frustrating book, but it is still engaging in many passages.
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