The Cattle Killing [Paperback]

John Edgar Wideman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 15, 1997

In plague-ridden eighteenth-century Philadelphia, a young itinerant black preacher searches for a mysterious, endangered African woman. His struggle to find her and save them both plummets them both into the nightmare of a society violently splitting itself into white and black. Spiraling outward from the core image of a cattle killing--the Xhosa people's ritual destruction of their herd in a vain attempt to resist European domination--the novel expands its narrator's search for meaning and love into the America, Europe and South Africa of yesterday and today.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Set in Philadelphia in 1793, when the city was afflicted by an epidemic of yellow fever, Wideman's novel is narrated by a young black preacher whose mind seems unhinged by the terrible events he is witnessing. His apocalyptic visions reflect the confusion and delirium around him. The rich white citizens of the city are mostly shutting themselves in and sending their black servants out into the fever-ridden streets. One prominent historical figure, Dr. Benjamin Rush (Dr. Thrush in the novel), is portrayed in a very ambivalent relationship with a black servant girl. Wideman, who has dealt in a more documentary style with the epidemic in a previous collection of short stories, Fever, here combines vision, hallucination, dream, and African legend in a complex metaphorical novel. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The voice of a contemporary novelist much like Wideman opens this haunting, powerful novel with stories about the city of Philadelphia as it was in his youth. Almost immediately, these memories give way to a tale of a plague-infested 18th-century city where most blacks were free, however precariously, but victimized by poverty and prejudice. White demagogues blame the blacks for the killing fever, irrationally accusing them of being carriers of the pestilence who are somehow immune to it, despite the decimation of the "Africans" and their efforts to attend the dying. In one of several evocations of historical figures, Wideman presents a brooding portrait of Bishop Richard Allen, founder of the A.M.E. church, besieged by bigots and by his own doubts. The main narrator of the tale, however, is a free, itinerant mulatto preacher, subject to visionary seizures, who travels to Philadelphia in 1793, driven by a vision (a ghostly black servant woman, a dead white child and their spectral reappearances). Also seared into his memory are the deaths of an extraordinary interracial couple and a small community of black worshippers, both murdered by white mobs under the compulsion of a racist ideology as dramatically false as its presentation is assured and absolute. Wideman attempts to grapple with the nature of truth, presenting stories and visions of a world driven to madness by warped prophecies, failed religious dogma, professional ignorance and class hypocrisy. In a piercing metaphor for the search for truth and what often passes for it, he uses the historical figures of British painter George Stubbs and American physician Benjamin Thrush to depict the absurd medical practices of the 18th century's learned men and the comically earnest rational enlightenment of their opposites?medical amateurs trafficking in illegal corpses. At the heart of the book is the allegorical tale of the South African Xhosa people, dispossessed by white colonists, who receive a false prophecy that they must kill their precious cattle in order to magically drive the whites from their land. The misguided embrace of a prophetic lie is linked with other misshapen "truths" invoked throughout the narrative. Wideman's method here is at least as interesting as the story he tells. Sinuously winding and elliptical, brimming with mysteries and shadowy secrets, the narrative demands close attention of the reader, since the point of view segues from speaker to speaker, and time and place are deliberately left vague. His prose has never been so pure and clear, however, or so fiercely poetic. This is in essence a complex and humane riddle, an anti-prophecy that calls religious faith itself into question while invoking the tragic consequences of our racial history: the imposing spiritual presence of the uncountable souls of the dead that litter the triangle linking Europe, Africa and the New World. 30,000 first printing; author tour.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 212 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (September 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395877504
• ISBN-13: 978-0395877500
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #699,060 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

JOHN EDGAR WIDEMAN is the author of more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction, including the award-winning Brothers and Keepers, Philadelphia Fire, and most recently the story collection God's Gym. He is the recipient of two PEN/ Faulkner Awards and has been nominated for the National Book Award. He teaches at Brown University.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beatifully written, January 29, 2003

By 

Joseph - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cattle Killing (Paperback)

I feel conflicted when describing this book. The words are beautifully pieced together yet the story moved like a loose dingy caught in choppy waters, which made it difficult for me as the reader, to feel any attachment to the characters. This book has to be cradled to enjoy, meaning it requires attention like a needy relationship. I would have enjoyed the book as much if I had opened a page and read a random paragraph. Wideman has the ability to translate words into emotion. I was so moved by some of his random thoughts, which to me, were as moving and powerful as Bataille or Nietzsche. For example, "Light struck dumb since the moment it witnessed sin." Overall, I do recommend it, maybe as a bed stand companion for brief inspiration.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A challenge to the reader, but ultimately worth the effort., February 16, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: The Cattle Killing (Hardcover)

Mr. Wideman's book is a challenge to the reader, with its shifts not only in time but also in voice. This book takes the reader from 18th century England and America to the present day in a mesmerizing yet ambiguous tale. Ultimately, Mr. Wideman attempts to understand how stories can influence the understanding of ourselves. Although much of Mr. Wideman's writings have a clear Afro-American centrism, nonetheless Mr. Wideman is still able to shed light on the murkey underpinnings of present day mainstream American culture. For readers who wish a thought provoking book by one of America's most celebrated novelists, and who don't mind the challenge of a, at times, difficult-to-follow narrative style, then "The Cattle Killing" is a definite winner.

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars RESEARCH ON THE MAIN THEMES, May 6, 2004

By 

gaetan (france) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Cattle Killing (Paperback)

Iam looking for help to study the main themes (death, African influence,..) of The Cattle Killing. please help me.