Percival Everett: A Reading Guide
For many years after his literary debut in 1983, the prolific author Percival Everett was somewhat of a prestige "cult" icon in the literary world — beloved by critics, but without widespread readership. After a streak of prestigious awards, he has been increasingly recognized as a master artist for his satire, deadpan wit and social commentary via farcical plots and literary experimentation that is unlike any other author to come before him. Everett's star is rising even higher with the release of his new book "James" which reimagines the story of Huckleberry Finn from the perspective of the enslaved Jim. The adaptation of Everett's novel Erasure, starring Jeffrey Wright, is also up for several Academy Awards. With 30+ books, it can be intimidating to know where to start for readers new to Everett. Here's a guide to the 8 books to dip into first.
8 books
One of the most anticipated books of 2024 - Out March 19
Barack Obama & Ron Charles
James
Percival Everett"Pulitzer finalist Percival Everett reimagines Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the point of view of Finn’s enslaved friend Jim in his new novel James. In this gripping thriller, Huck Finn has embarked on a journey down the Mississippi River after faking his own death to escape his abusive father, and Jim goes into hiding on an island when he finds out he’s going to be sold into slavery and separated from his family." —TIME's most anticipated books of 2024
Barack Obama & Ron CharlesHardcover, 2024
$28.00$14.00 + Free shipping50% off your first book
A new reissue of Everett's 1996 classic political thriller
Watershed
Percival Everett"Watershed has all the makings of a social thriller... Everett keeps the storytelling terse and intense, while at the same time broadening the scope of the book, moving into the history of U.S. Indian treaty making and into the science behind the search for water and the pathos of reservation life. In this novel about water and the struggle for a life free of injustice, the mix doesn't just work, it flows." – Alan Cheuse, NPR
Paperback, 2024
$17.00$8.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Before you see "American Fiction," which is out in theaters right now with Jeffrey Wright, read this satirical masterwork thought to be one of Everett's most provocative and affecting works.
Joyce Carol Oates & Ken Tremendous
Erasure
Percival Everett"Scathing, funny, and prescient, 20 years after its initial release Erasure remains one of the American literary giant's most striking and beloved works.It's a novel of ideas in conversation with other cultural touchstones and has attracted a legion of well-placed admirers." —NPR
Joyce Carol Oates & Ken TremendousPaperback, 2011
$17.00$8.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize, this book is an uncanny literary thriller addressing the painful legacy of lynching in the United States.
DUA LIPA & Mr. Bob Odenkirk
The Trees
Percival Everett"He has made some audacious leaps over nearly 40 years of writing, but The Trees may be his most audacious. He makes a revenge fantasy into a comic horror masterpiece. He turns narrative stakes into moral stakes and raises them sky-high. Readers will laugh until it hurts." —Lorraine Berry in the Los Angeles Times
DUA LIPA & Mr. Bob OdenkirkPaperback, 2021
$17.00$8.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Winner of the 2023 PEN/Jean Stein Book Award, this madcap novel is famously about "nothing," is a mischievous caper following a brilliant math professor (and expert on nothing) as the protagonist of a James Bond parody.
The Irish Times & Chanda Prescod-Weinstein
Dr. No
Percival Everett"A kind of metaphysical caper...Everett has the ability to balance wild comic sensibilities with an unmistakable seriousness of purpose." - The Guardian
The Irish Times & Chanda Prescod-WeinsteinPaperback, 2022
$17.00$8.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
A finalist for the 2021 Pulitzer Prize in Fiction, this part-campus novel, part-Western adventure was originally released with a bit of mischief. The book was printed in three different versions with barely perceptible differences.
Bethanne Patrick Is Only Here to Signal Boost & Brandon
Telephone
Percival Everett"I happily read whatever Percival Everett writes — over 30 books, to date...Sometimes, almost indifferently, one of the novels turns out to be truly exceptional and memorable, and confuses me in the best possible way — in the way that makes it endure in my mind, so that I find I’m still thinking about it in an idle moment on a subway, or while walking up stairs. Everett’s most recent novel, “Telephone,” is one of these standouts." —Rivka Galchen in The New York Times
Bethanne Patrick Is Only Here to Signal Boost & BrandonPaperback, 2020
$17.00$8.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Published in 2017, this novel about a middle-aged artist working on a painting he won't allow anyone to see, is now known as one of Everett's best works, praised by critics for its deadpan humor and intriguing interwoven subplots.
John Domini & Tom Comitta
So Much Blue
Percival Everett"Three stories, scattered across time, fuse into one stunning tale in Percival Everett’s latest novel. Each individual strand of So Much Blue has a page-turning urgency of its own — but taken together they add up to a masterpiece..." —Michael Upchurch in The Boston Globe
John Domini & Tom ComittaPaperback, 2017
$17.00$8.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book
Starting out as a standard crime novel, this experimental book gives way to a comical, yet haunting ride that upends any of the reader's assumptions about characters, plot, race, and meaning.
Irish Literary Times & Akin Akinwumi
Assumption
Percival Everett"Like everything by Everett, America’s best literary chameleon, “Assumption” is many things at once: three discrete novellas braided together into a single story; an old-fashioned murder mystery and a metafictional brain teaser; an existentially bleak story that absolutely delights." —Anthony Domestico in Boston Globe
Irish Literary Times & Akin AkinwumiPaperback, 2011
$17.00$8.50 + Free shipping50% off your first book