Odd. I expect my body to follow me or me to follow it. Inseparable. One perhaps. Necessity perhaps. United against a world that is as unaware, as unconcerned about me as each part is of every other part.
I expect the blindness of one part to another part won’t end. I expect the lie of color not to cure blindness.
I expect Nat Turner. I expect he will die again for the sin of color.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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© JEAN-CHRISTIAN BOURCART
John Edgar Wideman’s books include Philadelphia Fire, Brothers and Keepers, Fatheralong, Hoop Roots, Sent for You Yesterday, and Writing to Save a Life. He is a MacArthur Fellow, has won the PEN/Faulkner Award twice, and has been a finalist for the National Book Award and a two-time finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award. He divides his time between New York and France.
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2018 by John Edgar Wideman
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First Scribner hardcover edition March 2018
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Interior design by Jill Putorti
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Jacket photograph © Vincent Yuen/Eyeem/Getty Images
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-5011-7834-4
ISBN 978-1-5011-7836-8 (ebook)
Versions of “Williamsburg Bridge” and “JB & FD” previously appeared in Harper’s Magazine.
American Histories Page 19