Okay... so everyone's raving about author Percival Everett this week. First, Tayari, who is guest blogging at The Old Hag this week. Then Rod yesterday. And now me... and I'm not just jumping on the bandwagon. Percival Everett is one of my favorite authors... so much so that one of the characters in my book searches for Everett's books at Esowon Books in L.A.
Percival Everett is one of the best authors out there, and one of the most deserving of a break-through novel. He's got quite a following already in the literary circle, but commercially... most folks are just beginning to hear about him. And this is a guy who generally puts out a book a year, kinda like fellow L.A. author Eric Jerome Dickey, but without all the fanfare and bells and whistles from the industry.
He teaches at USC. His latest, Wounded, is getting reviewed everywhere and getting RAVE reviews. And it should be of interest (and on the shelves) of those interested in gay and lesbian issues, because one of the storylines revolves around the murder of a gay youth on the ranch of the main character in Wounded. Everett's characters "happen" to be whatever they are, but those characteristics don't weigh down the stories. And that's refreshing.
I first heard about Percival Everett about three years ago, when I chanced upon his novel Erasure. Erasure is one of my all-time favorite books. A novel within a novel, Erasure examines the idea of what drives "black" books and "black" book consumers and the publishing industry to determine what will appeal to "black" readers. That's my take. There's WAY more. Others have deeper takes. It's good. Trust!
Let's help put Wounded on a bestseller list this week!
fs
2 comments:
Believe it or not Erasure was also the very first novel I read by Percival and I loved it! I even purchased it for a couple of my friends and insisted they read it. Haven't read any of his works since then, but I'm thinking of doing a drive-by and picking up his collection from my local B&N.
Good to know others are catching on.
Respect, Christopher David
It's funny. I only recently heard of Everett, rushed out to read Erasure and was blown away! I just picked up his collection of stories, Big Picture, and plan to go grab the Strom Thurmond book next week. This man is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. The funny thing is that I seem to be suddenly inundated with stories and such about him along with many others who are just now hearing of him. Peculiar that so many people at one time are catching on to the same thing. Hopefully, Wounded will be his breakthrough. Now if only he would clear out a chunk of time to do some touring.
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