Sent for You Yesterday

Rating:
Summary: Musical Excursion Into a Haunted Past
Review: I chose this book at random while looking for literature for my students.I found the book brilliant. The author's use of imagery is captivating and the story teaches you its style as you go along. In the beginning the lack of quotation marks is frustrating but then you fall into the rhythm of the voices and you cannot stop reading. By the last third, I was snarling at people who dared to try to interrupt me while I breathlessly pawed through page after page of lyrical poetry and metaphor disguised as a prose work.

Rating:
Summary: James Joyce in America
Review: Wideman's constant changing point of view and temporal setting and reminds this reader very much of James Joyce Ulysses; this work is a tour of the consciousness of an entire American Black community spanning several generations in the mid 20th century. The vivid poetry of Black American English speaks immediately of characters predicaments, desires, and dreams. If white folks want to begin to understand black folks, they might take a sip of this fine wine.