Philadelphia fire / a novel by John Edgar Wideman.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Wideman, John Edgar

Contributor:

• Gotham Book Mart Collection (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• MOVE (Organization).
• African Americans--Fiction.
• African Americans.
• Philadelphia (Pa.)--Fiction.
• MOVE (Organization)--Fiction.
• Bombings--Fiction.
• Bombings.
• Fires--Fiction.
• Fires.
• Pennsylvania--Philadelphia.

Genre:

• Fiction.
• Suspense fiction.

Penn Provenance:

• Wideman, John Edgar (autograph) (inscription) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copy 2)
• Gotham Book Mart (former owner) (Gotham Book Mart Collection copies 1 & 2)

Physical Description:

199 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Holt, [1990]

Summary:

Eleven people - five of them children - are killed in west Philadelphia when 6221 Osage Avenue is bombed out of existence. One small boy is seen to escape the fire. From his life of self-exile on an island in the Aegean, Cudjoe mourns the child until it becomes an obsession, leading him home, forcing him to face up to his own profound alienation and to the wrenching realities of his native land. He searches for the boy and, as he does so, he searches out his own past. Reconstructing his life plunges him backwards into memories both personal and communal, forwards inch by inch into a city fast becoming a nightmare.

Local Notes:

• Gotham Book Mart Collection copies 1 & 2 has dustjacket retained.
• Gotham Book Mart Collection copy 2 has ms. inscription on title page: "Thank you for being a kind host. Best wishes John Wideman".

ISBN:

• 0805012664
• 9780805012668

OCLC:

21041041