A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK by LitHub, The Millions, and Bustle TOP TEN BEST BOOK OF 2021 by the Wall Street Journal "This collection, published in the author's 80th year, finds John Edgar Wideman at the apogee of his considerable powers. Seamlessly fusing history with personal tragedy, the stories present swirling collage-portraits of the black American experience. Notes of vulnerability add layers of pathos. Though cleaved by doubts about the purpose of his writing, Mr. Wideman remains desperately committed to recording "the long, crowded passage of time within each moment."
–Wall Street Journal, 10 Best Books of 2021 "Master of language... Wideman has always been less interested in what a story tells than how it gets told, how the telling shapes our perception of our world. In works that erode the boundaries between fiction, memoir and essay, Wideman explores the impulses that drive storytelling itself, returning to some enduring themes and formal devices."
–New York Times Book Review "Mr. Wideman is one of the great tragedians of American literature... this collection, Mr. Wideman's artistic consummation, is also the site of his unraveling, and there are moments of unbearable vulnerability when the author puts aside his great gifts to lie down in the rag and bone shop of the heart."
–Wall Street Journal "
Look for Me and I'll Be Gone, a short-story collection that draws fluidly from his personal life, is John Edgar Wideman's extended farewell to outrage... The book's style is so deceptively modest it stares you down and waits for you to realize it's cut your heart out while you coasted along on the calm surface of the syntax into a seething indictment of every aspect of society."
–4Columns "Philosophical, ruminative, and alive with wordplay ... In each story, Wideman illustrates just how intricately the past is interwoven with the present, and there is plenty here to satisfy fans of captivating literary storytelling."
–Booklist (starred review)
