Philadelphia Fire. - book reviews

Ebony, Dec, 1990

WHEN novelists tread well-known historical waters, as John Edgar-Wideman does in his latest effort, Philadelphia Fire (Henry Holt, $18.95), they are bound to ruffle a few feathers. journalists and historians-prompted sometimes by jealousy or guilt-are quick to leap upon and batter the fiction writers for any reporting lapses. The alleged defenders of truth in both the media and the academy feel duty-bound to decry the novelist's use of literary license as an encroachment on territory they hold sacred.

It is no wonder then that when Wideman turned his attention to the explosive 1984 confrontation between Philadelphia police and the members of an unusual sociopolitical group called Move, the result would be as controversial as the incident itself Eleven people, five of them children, were killed when police bombed Move's West Philadelphia headquarters and most of the modest single-family homes that surrounded it. This riveting drama, played out before network television cameras, traumatized the city and the nation.

In Philadelphia Fire, Wideman is not so much interested in depicting this drama as he is in using it to explore contemporary Black manhood and the forces affecting it. The cataclysm of the Move incident is merely the backdrop for his examination of the cataclysm that seems to be destroying Black men in a variety of environments. If, as critics point out, he does not dissect the tragedy with the precision and complete accuracy of a sociologist or historian, it is because he is ostensibly not concerned with the whys and wherefores of this individual catastrophe. He is interested in analyzing the many crises that have brought Black American men to the brink of extinction in the last quarter of this century. Those events are the axes on which Philadelphia Fire turn.

Among the many roles for which legendary opera star Leontyne Price is famous, none stands out more distinctly than her portrayals of composer Giuseppe Verdi's Ethiopian princess Aida. It is only fitting, then, that one of the world's greatest Aidas would be tapped to tell the tale in a beautifully illustrated new picture book that brings the opera to life with all the richness of a Met production.

Aida (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, $16.95) is Price's retelling of the familiar story about the captured princess who, during her enslavement, falls in love with one of her Egyptian captors. The book is strikingly illustrated by the husband and wife team of Leo and Diane Dillon, whose vibrant paintings enliven each page. This Aida manages to pack the drama of grand opera into 32 pages.

Breaking Ice: An Anthology of Contemporary African-American Fiction (Penguin Books, $10.95)is proof that the literary legacy left by Richard Wright, james Baldwin and Langston Hughes continues in the able hands of a wealth of contemporary writers. Terry McMillan (Disappearing A the eloquent voices in this new generation of Black writers, has compiled short works from 56 of her peers into this, one of the most comprehensive collections of established and emerging Black writers to be published in the last 15 years. She has included selections from, among others, David Bradley, Rita Dove, Trey Ellis, Marita Golden, James Alan McPherson, Gloria Naylor, Ntozake Shange and Alice Walker. Breaking Ice is a valuable primer for students of contemporary Black fiction.

African-American Dress and Adornment: A Cultural Perspective (Kendall/Hunt Publishing Co., $14.95), a look at patterns of dress and adornment in Black America and the cultural and historical forces that have influenced everything from hair patterns to jewelry, by Barbara M. Starke, Lillian O. Holloman and Barbara K. Nordquist.

Gordon Parks: Voices in the Mirror (Doubleday, $22.95), autobiography of the acclaimed, multitalented 78-year-old photographer/director.

Supreme Faith: Someday We'll Be Together Again (HarperCollins Publishers, $19.95), sequel to former Supreme Mary Wilson's bestselling autobiography Dreaingirl: My Life As A Supreme.