SOURCE: "Haunting Novel of Rage and Love Packs a Punch," in Chicago Tribune Books, November 29, 1987, p. 6.

Dretzka is an American journalist and critic. In the following review, he offers a favorable assessment of Reuben.

I wasn't prepared for this book, the impact it would have on me. Sure, I knew that any novel by John Edgar Wideman would pack a substantial wallop, but the title was misleading.

Reuben, I thought, picking up the galleys, could be about a 5-year-old boy, a racehorse or a sandwich. Indeed, the opening pages didn't reveal much beyond the fact that the book's central character—a wizened, rat-faced old lawyer who lives in a cluttered trailer in Pittsburgh's Homewood ghetto—was eccentric and, perhaps, something of a miracle worker.

But soon the powerful engine within Wideman's vehicle kicked into gear and the full impact of Reuben's story hit me with the force of...