A Review Of "brothers And Keepers" By John Edgar Wideman
John Edgar Wideman is a contemporary Afro American author and an outstanding scholar well-known for his intricate literary style of his novels concerning experiences of black men in contemporary urban America.His award winning novel is “Philadelphia Fire” which deals with the 1985 police bombing of a West Philadelphia row house owned by the Afrocentric cult Move. “Brothers and Keepers” is a moving autobiographical story by the writer who one day suddenly finds his baby brother Robert Douglas Wideman incarcerated at the state penitentiary in Philadelphia serving a life sentence.The book centers entirely on the author and his imprisoned brother and tells the story of an Afro-American family whose lives are torn apart by this unfortunate incident.He also unfolds and reveals his inability to understand what went wrong and tries vainly to find out the reasons which led his brother to commit the irreparable damage.The visits to the prison are regular sometimes with the whole family including his mother and his wife and children but for the most part he sees his brother alone. The main storyline is continually interspersed with short sketches and emotionally resonating narratives of the contrasted lives of two brothers who were brought up together.