Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    God's Gym: Stories
    Unavailable
    God's Gym: Stories
    Unavailable
    God's Gym: Stories
    Ebook216 pages3 hours

    God's Gym: Stories

    By John Edgar Wideman

    3/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    In God's Gym, the celebrated author John Edgar Wideman offers stories that pulse with emotional electricity. The ten pieces here explore strength, both physical and spiritual. The collection opens with a man paying tribute to the quiet fortitude of his mother, a woman who "should wear a T-shirt: God's Gym." In the stories that follow, Wideman delivers powerful riffs on family and fate, basketball and belief. His mesmerizing prose features guest appearances by cultural luminaries as diverse as the Harlem Globetrotters, Frantz Fanon, Thelonious Monk, and Marilyn Monroe. As always, Wideman astounds with writing that moves from the intimate to the political, from shock to transcendence.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateAug 10, 2006
    ISBN9780547346724
    Unavailable
    God's Gym: Stories
    Author

    John Edgar Wideman

    John Edgar Wideman’s books include, among others, Look for Me and I’ll Be Gone, You Made Me Love You, American Histories, Writing to Save a Life, Brothers and Keepers, Philadelphia Fire, Fatheralong, Hoop Roots, and Sent for You Yesterday. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award twice and has twice been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and National Book Award. He is a MacArthur Fellow and a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. He divides his time between New York and France. 

    Read more from John Edgar Wideman

    Related to God's Gym

    Related ebooks

    Short Stories For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Books

      Oct 16, 2023

      What a thing of joy is a new Francis Spufford novel. Golden Hill, his debut, was a transporting piece of historical fiction that captured life in early New York in all its quirk and contingence, and deservedly won a bag of awards. His second, Light P

      3 min read

    • Article

      José Donoso Saw the Future of Latin American Literature

      Nov 21, 2023

      American readers have largely forgotten the single greatest writer to come from the Latin American Boom: Chilean novelist José Donoso. The post José Donoso Saw the Future of Latin American Literature appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Six Phases Of The Moon

      Jun 1, 2023

      Six Phases Of The Moon
      6 min read

    • Article

      Clarence Page: The Age-old Trick Of ‘Passing’: Fiction Writer The Latest To Be Disgraced By Lies About Heritage

      Mar 20, 2023

      I have never known a man who faked his own death, but I have known a man who faked his own life, then sadly failed to live long enough for us to talk about it. I’m talking about the late Hache Carrillo, a rising, award-winning literary talent whose r

      3 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Deesha Philyaw

      Dec 1, 2022

      Deesha Philyaw reflects on 2022 through the books she read. The post A Year in Reading: Deesha Philyaw appeared first on The Millions.

      5 min read

    • Article

      Yvonne Bailey-Smith: ‘I Can’t Believe The Things That Priti Patel Is Coming Out With’

      Jun 23, 2021

      Yvonne Bailey-Smith had a phone call last week from the former deputy head of her daughter Zadie Smith’s school. The deputy head didn’t want to talk about Zadie or her bestselling novels; she wanted to congratulate Yvonne, who at 67 years old has jus

      5 min read

    • Article

      Apply Aesthetic Pressure to the Language: An Interview with Paul Harding

      Jun 18, 2018

      This interview first appeared in Chinese at the Shanghai Review of Books on June 3, 2018. I spent my first Iowan winter day at home reading Tinkers, the 2010 Pulitzer Fiction Prize winner. Outside, snow began to fall. I poured myself a cup of hot tea

      19 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Zoë Ruiz

      Dec 9, 2017

      I’m currently reading Aisha Sabatini Sloan’s essay collection Dreaming of Ramadi in Detroit, which was chosen by Maggie Nelson as the winner of the 1913 Open Prose Contest. I’ve been an admirer of Sloan’s essays since her first collection, The Fluenc

      2 min read

    • Article

      She’s No Saint

      Jul 3, 2022

      She’s No Saint
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Jesse Paddock

      Dec 9, 2020

      I’d gotten what I’d wanted—a room full of books and time enough to read them—but at a cost. The post A Year in Reading: Jesse Paddock appeared first on The Millions.

      6 min read

    • Article

      Social Promotion

      Mar 19, 2024

      I didn’t understand. If that boy couldn’t read, why was he up there? The girl they originally had hosting the ceremony didn’t show, but why they put that boy there? Just because he volunteer for everything? You can’t read off enthusiasm. It made the

      21 min read

    • Article

      The Maybe-Messiah and His Grandmother’s Ghost: On Olga Tokarczuk’s ‘The Books of Jacob’

      Apr 25, 2022

      That Tokarczuk's Nobel nomination was rumored to be greatly based on the accomplishments of this book has only magnified the anticipation. And now, it is here. The post The Maybe-Messiah and His Grandmother’s Ghost: On Olga Tokarczuk’s ‘The Books of

      5 min read

    • Article

      Tommy Orange

      Jun 13, 2018

      whose debut novel, There There, was published in June by Knopf. INTRODUCED BY Claire Vaye Watkins author of two books, including the novel Gold Fame Citrus, published by Riverhead Books in 2015. The first thing one not ices about There There, Tommy O

      4 min read

    • Article

      When Lanka Burned

      Apr 29, 2023

      In her powerful novel Brotherless Night, V.V. Ganeshananthan tells the devastating story of the Sri Lankan Tamil conflict that burned for decades on the front pages of newspapers. Her narrator is Sashikala Kulenthiren, who is 16 as the story begins.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Monstrous Achievement

      Jun 4, 2018

      Pegasus, 304 pp., $28.95 WHEN MARY SHELLEY, having lost her adored and difficult husband and three of her children in Italy, at last returned to England in 1823, she chanced to ask an acquaintance for advice on choosing a school for her surviving so

      3 min read

    • Article

      Best Translated Book Awards Names 2020 Longlists

      Apr 1, 2020

      The 35 books on this year's fiction and poetry longlists represent 20 different countries and feature authors writing in 18 languages. The post Best Translated Book Awards Names 2020 Longlists appeared first on The Millions.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Rabbits

      Sep 15, 2018

      The place where you came from ain’t there anymore, and where you had in mind to go is canceled out. —Joyce Carol Oates, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” A guy’s looking at you.” Lexy knew better than to turn around. The swings were twisted

      27 min read

    • Article

      The Lighter Side of Dan Chaon

      Apr 11, 2022

      I had a dystopian idea in the beginning, and in the end the dystopia caught up with me. The post The Lighter Side of Dan Chaon appeared first on The Millions.

      4 min read

    • Article

      One Carrot

      Jul 2, 2020

      One Carrot
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tuesday New Release Day: Starring Castillo, Hokeah, Murphy, and More

      Jul 26, 2022

      Here’s a quick look at some notable books—new titles from Elaine Castillo, Oscar Hokeah, Dwyer Murphy, and more—that are publishing this week. Want to learn more about upcoming titles? Then go read our most recent book preview. Want to help The Milli

      4 min read

    • Article

      Fourteen First and Last Sentence Novels

      Apr 22, 2022

      I think of this as a new literary form, a type of novelistic prose poem, a hybrid, a chimera, whose main currency is delight, wonder, and mystery. The post Fourteen First and Last Sentence Novels appeared first on The Millions.

      13 min read

    • Article

      Pipe Dreams

      Aug 26, 2022

      Pipe Dreams
      7 min read

    Reviews for God's Gym

    3/5

    7 ratings1 review

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 3/5
      I like reading short stories on my KIndle, and this one was readily available. So I checked it out. I could tell I wasn't going to like it from the first story,but I stuck with it and read quite a few of the stories before I gave up on it. Wideman's writing is somewhat incoherent, and I didn't have the time or interest to figure out what he was trying to say. The main message I got from his stories is: poor me.