A philosopher, psychiatrist, and political activist, Frantz Fanon was a fierce, acute critic of racism and oppression. Born of African descent in M...
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reviews
Feb 05, 2009
Reviewers' reactions to Fanon seemed largely based on their willingness to go along with Wideman's postmodern experimentations and to be swallowed up by his labyrinthine prose. Critics who expected a more straightforward biography of the fascinating, but often overlooked, radical Frantz Fanon were inevitably disappointed, and more than one reviewer accused Wideman of indulging in a tedious level of self-reflection. However, reviewers who were willing to take the historical figure of Fanon as a m
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Oct 18, 2011
Jay
rated it: 
I was really excited to read this book, being I had heard that it was good. I heard wrong this was a hard book to get into and I really tried but after a bit I had to call it quits and stopped. Maybe I'm not intellectual enough to read this book, because I could no make heads or tales of it. And where was the plot? If he was going to use Fanon as a title he should have just wrote a biography.
Jul 29, 2011
Marcos
rated it: 
It's definitely a thought provoking treatise on racial tensions today; and speaks much about the impact of Fanon's stances of equal justice.
Nov 29, 2009
Joselynn
rated it: 
This book is so trippy I still really couldn't tell you what it was about. It's about Fanon, and then it's not at all about Fanon. Go read it.
Apr 21, 2010
Jen
rated it: 
I wanted to eat this book. So beautiful. But if you're the sort of reader that needs, um, a plot, this may not be a wise choice for you.
Aug 04, 2009
Eric
rated it:
I can't belive this dud used Fanon as a pretext to write a stream of conscience
soliloquy about the( mostly) boring minutia of his own( Wideman) life and when he does actually focus on Fanon its all most just as useless information. Seriously this book represents the hight of arrogance. Dear Wideman, you are no
Cormac McCarthy, let alone
Faulkner. And the fact that you have a smiling picture of yourself on the back cover of his novel makes the insult to the reader worse because More...
soliloquy about the( mostly) boring minutia of his own( Wideman) life and when he does actually focus on Fanon its all most just as useless information. Seriously this book represents the hight of arrogance. Dear Wideman, you are no
Cormac McCarthy, let alone
Faulkner. And the fact that you have a smiling picture of yourself on the back cover of his novel makes the insult to the reader worse because More...
Jul 27, 2010
Jane
rated it:
Moments of lucidity that were quite striking or moving, buried in an overwhelming pile of assholery.
Jul 03, 2008
jo
rated it:
i'm returning this to the library unfinished. the writing is breathtaking, but i don't have the head for the rigors of experimental fiction right now. entirely my fault.
i am half-way through and there is way too little fanon. i was hoping for tons of fanon. some scenes are priceless, though. god, ALL scenes are priceless, but the scene in which the writer-persona visits his brother in jail with their ailing mother is excellent, and, also, hilarious. i promise i'll finish this book. More...
i am half-way through and there is way too little fanon. i was hoping for tons of fanon. some scenes are priceless, though. god, ALL scenes are priceless, but the scene in which the writer-persona visits his brother in jail with their ailing mother is excellent, and, also, hilarious. i promise i'll finish this book. More...
Oct 21, 2008
Elizabeth
rated it: 
i really wanted to like this book as i love john edgar wideman. i just couldn't get into the storyline. it felt too fractured to follow. i am half way through and i've decided to give up. i feel with the title of fanon i should know more about this activist, but i really don't. it makes me curious to read a biography or works of fanon, but not to finish this particular novel. i also felt that the long-flowing sentences and often times grammatically incorrect english became a distraction.
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Jan 02, 2009
Luke read Fanon for one of his classes in Fall 2008, so I was interested in this book, but it's just not my thing -- too theoretical and "male" for me.
May 18, 2008
Sara-Maria
rated it:
I did not especially care for this book. My inner literary critic is undeveloped (probably for the better), so there's undoubtedly a lot of stuff going on here that I missed, but aside from a few choice lines (the section about his brother's prison sentence had the most heart) I felt it's stylistically all too playful for the subject at hand.
Jun 09, 2010
Alessandra
rated it:
non linear, hard to read, but very educational and groundbreaking in genre and beautiful on a sentence level. only read it if you have an interest in the conflation of author/narrator/reader/character or fanon or non-linear story telling or severed heads being shipped to you in the mail as a reminder of injustice in the world.
Jul 03, 2008
Steve
rated it:
Wideman's written better--Philadelphia Fire, Brothers & Keepers--but still worth reading.
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