In the following essay, Piedmont-Marton explores Wideman's use of the fever as a metaphor for racism.

Wideman calls "Fever" a meditation on history. Using the powerful and disturbing metaphor of plague or fever for racism and hatred, Wideman moves through history and brings together voices from the 18th to the late 20th centuries. He meditates on history, or past events, but also on history as the means by which human beings record and pass on knowledge. His commentary is as much about the process of history as it is about the events.

In the story's powerful opening paragraph, readers are introduced to the first of several unnamed characters. This paragraph is not located in any particular historical moment, and its ominous imagery of dead trees and impending darkness is timeless. The narrative then veers sharply from the universal to the specific as Wideman piles on the details...