Gore Vidal continued his project of providing a
pointed, fictionalized version of American history.
Ironweed(1983) andQuinn’s Book(1988) extended
William Kennedy’s Albany cycle, his series of novels
about powerful and pitiful characters living in the
New York State capital throughout the twentieth
century. No novelist was more prolific than Joyce
Carol Oates, however, in documenting the varieties
of contemporary American desperation. In counter-
point to the realism ofSolstice(1985),Mar ya(1986),
You Must Remember This(1987), andAmerican Appe-
tites(1989), she also produced, inBellefleur(1980),A
Bloodsmoor Romance(1982), andMysteries of Winter-
thurn(1984), a bizarre Gothic trilogy.
Minority Writers Changing demographics, by which
formerly invisible groups constituted an increasingly
large percentage of the American population, would
soon render the term “minority” problematic. How-
ever, during the 1980’s, authors from groups still re-
ferred to as “minority” found and raised their voices.
The emergence of Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud,
and Philip Roth had put Jewish American writing on
the literary map during the 1950’s and 1960’s, and
those three continued to be productive during the
1980’s. Bellow publishedThe Dean’s December(1982),
More Die of Heartbreak(1987),A Theft(1989), andThe
Bellarosa Connection(1989). Malamud, who died in
1986, wroteGod’s Grace(1982). Roth produced four
works featuring protagonist Nathan Zuckerman,
Zuckerman Unbound(1981), The Anatomy Lesson
(1983),The Prague Orgy(1985), andThe Counterlife
(1986). Other notable Jewish American novelists
active during the 1980’s included E. L. Doctorow,
withLoon Lake(1980),World’s Fair(1985), andBilly
Bathgate(1989); Mark Helprin, withEllis Island, and
Other Stories (1981) andWinter’s Tale(1983); and
Chaim Potok, withThe Book of Lights(1981) and
Davita’s Harp(1985).Levitation: Five Fictions(1982),
The Cannibal Galaxy(1983),The Messiah of Stockholm
(1987), andThe Shawl(1989), works that ponder the
Holocaust and Jewish traditions, established Cynthia
Ozick as the leading figure among Jewish American
women authors. Norman Mailer rarely dealt directly
with Jewish themes, but he continued to advance his
grandiose literary ambitions with a vast novel about
Pharaonic Egypt calledAncient Evenings(1983). Neil
Simon extended his run as one of the most successful
playwrights in the history of American theater with
three popular autobiographical works,Brighton Beach
Memoirs(1983), Biloxi Blues(1985), andBroadway
Bound(1986). InGlengarr y Glen Ross(1983) andSpeed
the Plow(1987), David Mamet extended his distinctive
mastery of the speech rhythms and dreams of con
temporary Americans. Wendy Wasserstein’sThe Heidi
Chronicles(1989), a play about an art historian whose
personal independence comes at the price of alienat-
ing her from other women as well as men, became an
icon of feminist theater.
African American men who published notable
work throughout the decade included Ernest J.
Gaines withA Gathering of Old Men(1983); Ishmael
Reed withThe Terrible Twos(1982) andThe Terrible
Threes(1989); and John Edgar Wideman withHiding
Place(1981),Damballah(1981),Sent for You Yesterday
(1983),Brothers and Keepers(1984), andFever(1989).
Charles Fuller won a Pulitzer Prize for a powerful
drama about bigotry on a military base,A Soldier’s Play
(1981). August Wilson began an ambitious ten-play
cycle about African American life in the twentieth
century, in which each play was set in a different de-
cade. Over the course of the 1980’s, he covered one-
half of the century, producingJitney(1982),Ma
Rainey’s Black Bottom(1984),Fences(1985),Joe Turner’s
Come and Gone(1986), andThe Piano Lesson(1987).
While these works by men were important contri-
butions to American literary culture, it was African
American women who generated the most spirited
literary discussion during the 1980’s, some of it in re-
sponse to their perceived negative depiction of Afri-
can American men. Toni Morrison, who would win a
Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993, consolidated her
reputation as the foremost chronicler of the ordeal
of being black and female in the United States with
Tar Baby(1981) andBeloved(1987). Alice Walker
published several books of fiction, poetry, and es-
says, achieving her greatest popular and critical suc-
cess withThe Color Purple(1982). Other significant
works by African American women included Toni
Cade Bambara’sThe Salt Eaters(1980) andIf Blessing
Comes(1987); Jamaica Kincaid’sAt the Bottom of the
River(1983),Annie John(1985), andA Small Place
(1988); Paule Marshall’sPraisesong for the Widow
(1983) andReena, and Other Stories(1983); Gloria
Naylor’sThe Women of Brewster Place(1982),Linden
Hills(1985), andMama Day(1988); and Sherley
Anne Williams’sDessa Rose(1986).
WithThe Mambo Kings Play Songs of Love(1989), a
boisterous but poignant evocation of the lives of Cu-
ban immigrants, Oscar Hijuelos became the first La-The Eighties in America Literature in the United States 593