Philadelphia Fire

John Edgar Wideman. Vintage Books USA, $12 (208pp) ISBN 978-0-679-73650-9

While investigating the police firebombing of a black cult's headquarters in his native Philadelphia, expatriate black writer Cudjoe is haunted by vivid memories. ``In incantatory, lyrical, naturalistic and inventive prose, Wideman writes of sex and race and life in the city, with all the beauty, profane humor and literary complexity of Joyce writing about Dublin,'' said PW. Author tour. (Nov.)

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