Languages of Home: Essays on Writing, Hoop, and American Lives 1975–2025

Novelist, essayist, and critic Wideman (Slaveroad) delivers a profound, career-spanning collection of essays on literature, sports, and culture. Early entries consist largely of critical analyses of writings by Charles W. Chesnutt, Richard Wright, and W.E.B. Du Bois, with Wideman declaring in one: “Like Freud’s excavations of the unconscious... Du Bois’s insights have profoundly altered the way we look at ourselves.” The essays become increasingly personal over time; Wideman imbues his passion for basketball into the 1990 piece “Michael Jordan Leaps the Great Divide,” which explores how the NBA player’s success challenged racial and societal norms. Wideman has been observing societal fault lines for decades, writing more than 50 years ago that “as a society we seem to be systematically eliminating the middle ground between extremes.” Tragedy and trauma inform many of these pieces, including “Looking at Emmett Till,” in which Wideman argues that the brutal 1955 lynching of the 14-year-old “was an attempt to slay an entire generation.” Incisive and enthralling, the collection puts Wideman’s keen critical eye and cultural awareness on full display. The result is an essential chronicle of the American experience. (Nov.)