Trout's Lie

by Percival Everett

In Trout's Lie , Percival Everett explores the semantic relationship between sense and so-called nonsense―and questions whether either is actually possible.

Genres: Poetry

72 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2015

About the author

Percival L. Everett (born 1956) is an American writer and Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California.

There might not be a more fertile mind in American fiction today than Everett’s. In 22 years, he has written 19 books, including a farcical Western, a savage satire of the publishing industry, a children’s story spoofing counting books, retellings of the Greek myths of Medea and Dionysus, and a philosophical tract narrated by a four-year-old.

The Washington Post has called Everett “one of the most adventurously experimental of modern American novelists.” And according to The Boston Globe, “He’s literature’s NASCAR champion, going flat out, narrowly avoiding one seemingly inevitable crash only to steer straight for the next.”

Everett, who teaches courses in creative writing, American studies and critical theory, says he writes about what interests him, which explains his prolific output and the range of subjects he has tackled. He also describes himself as a demanding teacher who learns from his students as much as they learn from him.

Everett’s writing has earned him the PEN USA 2006 Literary Award (for his 2005 novel, Wounded), the Academy Award for Literature of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award (for his 2001 novel, Erasure), the PEN/Oakland-Josephine Miles Award for Excellence in Literature (for his 1996 story collection, Big Picture) and the New American Writing Award (for his 1990 novel, Zulus). He has served as a judge for, among others, the 1997 National Book Award for fiction and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction in 1991.

Reviews

[Rebecca · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The line of time / Is past. / The line folds back, / Splits. / Two lines now, future, present. The past / Is a circle of / Abstraction, regret.” There is a lot of repetition and wordplay in these poems. The title piece uses a line in Italian from Dante – translating to “in the middle of our life’s path” – that forms another recurring theme: being stuck between times or between options and having to decide which way to go. These read quickly, with the run-on phrases flowing naturally from topic to topic. I’m not sure this was the best introduction to a prolific author I’d never heard of; I’ll have to look into his other work.

[Patty · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it.

[Jeff Wait · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm trying to read more poetry and 2025 made me a Percival Everett guy. This book was exactly what I was looking for. Drawing from his background in math and philosophy, Everett pens poems that make you think and feel plenty. One of the early ones required me to google a ton of math references, but once I pushed through, I found some quick silly ones and then some deep and powerful poems that had a similar feel to the prose I love. It's smart and witty mixed with deep and emotional. I wish I knew more about poetry so I could better articulate why I liked this; instead, this collection will be a foundational brick in my poetry enjoying house.

[chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

Imagined, so loved,
In a world of fancy,
Shuffling memories
And desires, solitude
And wet dreams,
The logic of sacrifice.
-- "Against Sense"

Ocean, where lies
Your virtue?
Acting outside yourself,
Spring up from without.
Where is your virtue?
All this water,
Pushing against sense.
Water is, above all
Other things, necessary.
Water is above
All other things.
Where is this
Machinery of water?
-- "Against Sense"

[Anatoly Molotkov · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Someone counted/ For me when/ I pressed into/ This life./ It has been up to me/ To count them/ Since then." This tender poetry collection from the celebrated novelist bristles with emotion as it investigates the love, the fear, and the irony that life and death have to offer.