John Edgar Wideman is one of our great thinkers, and he once again proves why in this genre-bridging collection of essays, stories, and pieces of writing that fall somewhere in between. Investing history and memoir with empathetic imagination, he writes not only to make an argument about the enduring presence of slavery in American life, but also to make us feel its literal and emotional weight. I really don't have much to say besides that -- I think this book is well worth every reader's time, and I expect to hear a lot more about it over the coming year. (Excellent potential as teaching material for fiction/nonfiction writing students, too -- especially "Penn Station.")

I will be fully honest here and admit that I did not 100% grasp Wideman's themes, metaphors and writing, and I need to not only read Slaveroad again, but also analyse it.
There is nothing wrong with Wideman's writing. It is concise, accessible and clear. As to whether the reader needs to be have more prior knowledge about the subject matters prior to reading this book, my answer is 'somewhat' - though, this is subjective. To put this clearly, what gave the book its title is a terrain, a concept that Wideman uses as a both physical and psychological one crossing the Atlantic and reaching from Africa. Also a figure of speech. Wideman describes the book as fiction/autobiography. Each chapter/essay is either dedicated to a person/character or a topic related to them, and each essay, although entwining and entwining via certain themes (slaveroad), were different - sometimes more lyrical and sometimes more about the people mentioned (Sheppard, an anti-colonialist, and his wife, for example).
I enjoyed the writing and the themes, but I could not wrap my head around what was a commentary, what was narrative and so on.