RaveThe Pittsburgh Post-Gazette\"...an important addition to Mr. Wideman’s body of writing and a remarkable demonstration of his ability to address social issues through a range of fictional forms and styles ... The form works well for Mr. Wideman, highlighting his interest in modernist collage and emphasizing the incredible range of material in his fiction ... Like all fiction, Mr. Wideman’s work can’t redeem or overcome these conditions. But maybe it can suggest something about who we might be without them.\
Philip Roth
PositiveThe Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRather than view these pieces as Mr. Roth stepping out from behind his fiction, it’s better to read them in dialogue with it. Why Write? helps illustrate continuities in his work more clearly, for example his ongoing concerns with freedom and belonging, which Mr. Roth explored primarily through Judaism in his early fiction and American patriotism after that … Philip Roth never worked with nonfictional forms enough to develop their potential in similar ways, but Why Write? still stands as an important contribution to one of the most important bodies of writing in the postwar era, even if that’s mostly because it might persuade readers to pick up a novel.
