Criticism > Contemporary Literary Criticism > Wideman, John Edgar - Gary Dretzka (review date 29 November 1987)

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Gary Dretzka (review date 29 November 1987)

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...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Criticism
   1. James W. Coleman (essay date March 1985)
   2. Jacqueline Berben (essay date Fall 1985)
   3. John Bennion (essay date Spring/Summer 1986)
   4. Gary Dretzka (review date 29 November 1987)
   5. Harold Jaffe (review date March-April 1988)
   6. Matthew Wilson (essay date March 1990)
   7. John Edgar Wideman with Charles H. Rowell (interview date Winter 1990)
   8. Jacqueline Berben (essay date April-June 1991)
   9. Ashraf H. A. Rushdy (essay date Fall 1991)
   10. Jan Clausen (essay date Spring 1992)
   11. Michael Gorra (review date June 14 1992)
   12. Sven Birkerts (review date 13 and 20 July 1992)
   13. John Edgar Wideman with Jessica L. Lustig (interview date Fall 1992)
   14. James Robert Saunders (essay date December 1992)
   15. Mel Watkins (review date 13 November 1994)
   16. Mark Shechner (review date March/April 1995)
   17. Sanford Pinsker (review date Spring 1995)
   18. Paul West (review date 29 September 1996)
   19. Gene Seymour (review date 28 October 1996)
   20. Sven Birkerts (review date 3 November 1996)
   21. Joyce Carol Oates (review date 27 March 1997)
   22. Michael Wood (review date 27 November 1997)
4. Further Reading
5. Copyright

1. Joyce Carol Oates