The work of John Edgar Wideman arouses strong responses in readers, and critics are no exception. His work, too demanding to achieve mass popularity, is largely read in colleges and universities, where he enjoys a distinguished reputation as a black intellectual who is steeped in Western culture but who is gradually rediscovering his African roots. It has been remarked that a college education is needed to negotiate his complex prose style and understand his erudite references to various artists and philosophers. His stories and novels combine ghetto experiences with experimental fiction techniques and quasi-autobiographical material to explore social, racial, and cultural conflicts.

Revealingly, with each publication of a Wideman work, a multitude of articles appear in newspapers and magazines about the man. His early years as a basketball player and the contrast between his extraordinary academic reputation and the fact that both his younger brother and...