Book Review: God's Gym by John Edgar Wideman

Wideman, John Edgar. God's Gym Stories. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005. 175 pages. $23.00.

At the time of publication John Edgar Wideman was a teacher at Brown University. He has twice been the recipient of the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1984 for Sent for You Yesterday and in 1990 for Philadelphia Fire. His second memoir, Fatheralong, was a finalist for the National Book Award. His most recent books are Hoop Roots and The Island: Martinique.

After ten years John Edgar Wideman one of the true masters of the short story returns with a perfect ten. In God's Gym a fiction collection of ten short stories, Wideman unceasingly holding the reader captive magically weaving narrative that is borderline fiction and reality. Some of the stories at times seem to be a story within a story, as Wideman's stream of consciousness is ever present, which creates a refreshing point of view. Overall Wideman stays true to form as his writing focuses on great American themes such as strength, faith and fate.

Some of the issues in the collection seem to hit home for Wideman. Several of the stories have a racial theme involving biracial relationships where Wideman has been in a biracial relationship for years. Wideman has always been one to dance along racial lines as was done in his previous works Brothers And Keepers and Philadelphia Fire, and he does so brilliantly. There is another story where a young man is sent to prison for life, whereas Widemans' youngest son was given a life sentence and sent to prison for the unfortunate stabbing death of a young friend at summer camp.

More importantly Wideman's characters comes to life on the pages. From the character Rastus in the story Who Invented TheJump Shot to the visual description of his mother in the first story Weight, to the ranting and ravings of the character Monk in the story The Silence of Thelonius Monk, Wideman has developed characters you will remember and who you will be able to visualize as you absorb the stories.