The Mookse and the Gripes discussion

Percival Everett was born in 1956. He is an American writer and currently holds a position as Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. He holds a Masters from Brown University and his undergraduate work was at the University of Oregon. He is married to author Danzy Senna and they live in California with their son. Everett is also an accomplished painter and many of his poetry books also include his artwork.

Major Works in chronological order - I'll add publishers when I get a chance. Currently he publishes poetry with Red Hen Press & novels/fiction with Graywolf

Suder (1983)
Walk Me to the Distance (1985) - made into TV movie
Cutting Lisa (1986)
The Weather and Women Treat Me Fair (1987) Short Stories
Zulus (1990) - based on Greek Myth
For Her Dark Skin (1990) - retelling of Medea
The One that Got Away (1992) - children's book
God's Country (1994)
Watershed (1996)
Big Picture (1996) -- stories
Frenzy (1997) - retelling of Dionysus
Glyph (1999)
Grand Canyon, Inc (2001) - novella
Erasure (2001)
The Body of Martin Aguilera (2003)
A History of the African-American People, Proposed, by Strom Thurmond "as told to Percival Everett and James Kincaid" (with James Kincaid, 2004)
American Desert (2004)
Damned if I Do - stories (2004)
Wounded (2005)
re:f (gesture) (2005) poetry
The Water Cure (2007)
Abstraktion und Einfühlung (2008) - poetry with Chris Abani
I Am Not Sidney Poitier (2009)
Swimming Swimmers Swimming (2010) poetry
Assumption (2011)
Percival Everett by Virgil Russell (2013)
Half an Inch of Water (2015) stories
Trout's Lie (2015) poetry
So Much Blue (2017)
The Book of Training by Colonel Hap Thompson of Roanoke, Va, 1843: Annotated from the Library of John C. Calhoun (2019) poetry
Telephone (2020)

I'd like to add selected other reading about him, but that's for another day. Feel free to add whatever I've missed!

Great! What would be the best novel to start with?

Thanks Ella. I have never read him but that is an impressive list.

Thank you for this thread, Ella. I had not heard of him before.

It's so great to have this list! Thanks, Ella. I had no idea.

Robert, the books I've read are outrageously, wildly different from one another. The most fun for me to read was Assumption.

Erasure is the one he got noticed for and that is used in sentences that begin with "Percival Everett, author of Erasure,...

Erasure is, in my opinion, brilliant. It was my favorite book I read in 2019. I've also read So Much Blue. Everett definitely has a wide range in topics.

I really hope to get to some others soon.

It's hard to say where to start, honestly. His books are similarly smart and deep, yet wildly different and usually intensely readable.

I'm kind of partial to Glyph and Percival Everett by Virgil Russell, but I'd say to start, Erasure is the one everyone mentions, so it's a safe bet. (Also, if you are from the US and of a certain era, the send-up of Strom Thurmond is simply hilarious.) PS - you could also just start with the newest: Telephone!

Great! Thanks - I'll probably start with telephone

I've read Erasure and So Much Blue. Both really good, Erasure to my mind more memorable and much funnier.

H Anthony wrote: "I've read Erasure and So Much Blue. Both really good, Erasure to my mind more memorable and much funnier."

Hi H Anthony! Long time/no see. :-) I think Erasure is just hilarious. I also think it's an important book, in the vein of Invisible Man (not the Wells one) and reflected back more recently in books like The Sellout, etc.

I had never read Everett before, but I recently finished my first: So Much Blue by Percival Everett - 5 stars - My Review

I will be looking at the list posted above to add a few more to my TBR.

And Graywolf is publishing a new book of his this fall, The Trees: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...

Whoop whoop, he purportedly has a new book coming in March 2024, from Doubleday, to be titled "James" as a retelling of Huck Finn from the perspective of Jim. https://lithub.com/percival-everett-i...

Very interesting to see him move to Doubleday.

Yes I saw that news yesterday as well. Sounds terrific!!

Speaking of Everett, this week I read the introduction he wrote in 2011 for a reprint of Laird Hunt’s first book The Impossibly. Everett said he rarely agrees to do that but “I could not say no. I have always loved this novel.” Think about that and then see how extraordinary different The Impossibly is from Zorrie. The Impossibly, written in 2001, would be the book to win the Goldsmiths prize, if it had been published in the UK today.