''Hiding Place'' is a novel by the American writer

John Edgar Wideman John Edgar Wideman (born June 14, 1941) is an American novelist, short story writer, memoirist, and essayist. He was the first person to win the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction twice. His writing is known for experimental techniques and a focus o ...

set in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

, during the 1970s. It was first published in 1981 by

Avon Books Avon Publications is one of the leading publishers of romance fiction. At Avon's initial stages, it was an American paperback book and comic book publisher. The shift in content occurred in the early 1970s with multiple Avon romance titles reach ...

in New York, and subsequently in London by

Allison & Busby Allison & Busby (A & B) is a publishing house based in London established by Clive Allison and Margaret Busby in 1967. The company has built up a reputation as a leading independent publisher. Background Launching as a publishing company in May ...

in 1984. The novel tells the story of Tommy, a character who first appeared in Wideman's short-story collection ''Damballah''. Tommy is a party to a bungled smash-and-grab raid that leaves a dead man in a parking lot, so he hides out with Mother Bess, a crazy old woman who lives in Homewood, an

African-American neighborhood African-American neighborhoods or black neighborhoods are types of ethnic enclaves found in many cities in the United States. Generally, an African American neighborhood is one where the majority of the people who live there are African American. ...

of the East End. Elements of the character Tommy parallel the life of Wideman's brother Robbie, whose story he relates in a memoir published three years later called ''

Brothers and Keepers ''Brothers and Keepers'' is a memoir written by John Edgar Wideman. It was published by Holt, Rinehart and Winston in 1984. Plot summary Two brothers, Afro-Americans, John and Robert, grow up together in the same neighborhood in Homewood. But t ...

''. ''Hiding Place'' is the middle volume of what some critics call "The Homewood Trilogy". The other books are ''Damballah'' and ''

Sent for You Yesterday ''Sent for You Yesterday'' is a novel by the American writer John Edgar Wideman, first published in 1983 (in New York by Avon Books, and subsequently in London by Allison and Busby, 1984), set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the 1970s. The n ...

''. In 1992 the

University of Pittsburgh Press The University of Pittsburgh Press is a scholarly publishing house and a major American university press, part of the University of Pittsburgh. The university and the press are located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. The press ...

published the three in one volume under the title ''The Homewood Books''. In its preface Wideman admits discomfort with the term trilogy because it implies a plan of linking the volumes, and he claims he did not compose the books that way.

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hiding Place 1981 American novels African-American novels Allison and Busby books Avon (publisher) books Novels by John Edgar Wideman Novels set in Pittsburgh