SOURCE: "The Art of Memory," in New Republic, Vol. 207, Nos. 4,043 and 4,044, July 13 and 20, 1992, pp. 42-44.

Birkerts is a noted critic and author of several books, including The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age (1995). In the following review, he praises The Stories of John Edgar Wideman and The Homewood Books, calling Wideman "one of our very finest writers."

Success comes in different ways to different writers. Some may crash their way through with a big first book, and then spend years, even decades, trying to fulfill the promise. Others appear, disappear, and later come stumbling back. Then there are those who stoke a slow and steady fire, waiting for readers and critics to catch up with them. This has been John Edgar Wideman's way—though of course these things don't happen by design. To a large degree they just happen. The writer writes, publishes, and...