forclosure
Well-known member
if you lot want to keep this going lemme know if/when you've started i'm part of the way through Damned if i do which is a collection of short stories
Percival Everett: ever interesting
- Thread starter forclosure
- Start date
forclosure
Well-known member
The Appropriation of cultures is one of his more celebrated short stories https://faculty.gordonstate.edu/lsanders-senu/Appropriation of Cultures by Evertt.pdf
Finished it last night
Quite an uncomfortable read at times, that, but it was pretty good. Hard to say what was really going on internally- is it a criticism of perception of black culture in America or is he writing about his own conceptual stasis amid success requiring stereotypes? maybe both- and it was a bit dated now in terms of media commentary, but well worth it.
Definitely a book about being black
Will probably buy another in a week or two
Quite an uncomfortable read at times, that, but it was pretty good. Hard to say what was really going on internally- is it a criticism of perception of black culture in America or is he writing about his own conceptual stasis amid success requiring stereotypes? maybe both- and it was a bit dated now in terms of media commentary, but well worth it.
Definitely a book about being black
Will probably buy another in a week or two
forclosure
Well-known member
its definitly dated in certain ways but i can see why it's his breakthrough book because it tackles a really old question in regards to black art from a perspective that's pretty left field but at the same time really simple at its core(also the novelty of a book within a book), i can see what you mean about it being uncomfortable but i feel like the more tragic aspects of the book come from how he's talking about dealing with his mother and his brother imo.
Considering certain events for me last year where my nan went from people a woman in her 80s who'd make certain comments about pensioners with no self awareness to now still talking about being dizzy and needing me to go Natwest with her just to make sure nothing bad don't happen that resonated alot.
forclosure
Well-known member
forclosure
Well-known member
hey @wild greens you read anything from Everett other than Erasure?
jenks
thread death
Influx are discounting a load of his back catalogue, they don’t have the rights to Erasure - Faber do. He seemed pissed off with F&F as they’ve done nothing with it for twenty years. https://www.influxpress.com/shop?category=SALE
forclosure
Well-known member
damn if that's the case i might have to try and get Percival Everett by Vergil Russell i hear that's one of his more moving books
IdleRich
IdleRich
I read Trees in the last few days. I enjoyed it a lot, thanks for the tip, I will check out more of his stuff. The only thing is, I did think he sometimes went a bit too far with the humour. Like, at the time, each individual line and joke made me laugh and so I enjoyed them, but at the end part of me felt as though if he had been a bit more restrained with that - had sometimes held back even when he'd seen a good joke - then possibly the overall book might have hit a bit harder.
forclosure
Well-known member
i felt by the end that he dropped alot of the humour and left it on this feeling that grand insurrection of the dead and those wrong were gonna wreak havoc on the US as a whole.
Its funny i don't often hear from people that something goes "too far" with the humour now, if anything the complaints i usually hear is that something is lacking it
IdleRich
IdleRich
Yeah authors can't win. I do feel as though I am being a bit picky in that the moments where he meant to be funny did tend to be pretty funny, so each individual one worked. Well, obviously I am being picky, I liked the book and yet I feel that for some reason I need to find something to criticise in it and that was the best I could manage.
Anyhow, I will definitely check out more of his stuff. To me it reminded me of White Tears which I read not too long ago. Both deal with revenge from the past with horrible being death being delivered to descendants of those who victimised slaves by lynching them or stealing their work. If you've not read that I'd say it makes a good kinda companion piece.
Anyhow, I will definitely check out more of his stuff. To me it reminded me of White Tears which I read not too long ago. Both deal with revenge from the past with horrible being death being delivered to descendants of those who victimised slaves by lynching them or stealing their work. If you've not read that I'd say it makes a good kinda companion piece.
forclosure
Well-known member
Hari Kunzru right? yes reading up the premise of this it sounds interesting
forclosure
Well-known member
Finished Erasure last night not my favourite of the Everett books i've read but i understand fully why its considered his most important book, funny thing though the ending to it is similiar to the one in I am not Sidney Potier
Also the part where he's on some Oprah style talk show that was well done.
Also the part where he's on some Oprah style talk show that was well done.
jenks
thread death
I finished the short stories last week - they were enjoyable enough but I think he’s better over the long sprawl of a novel. Of all of the ones I’ve read so far, I enjoyed Poitier the most but it’s not the most savage. Not read Trees yet. He is, of course, a very funny writer like a modern day Swift which makes him stand out from most others who either cannot do comedy or find it somehow beneath them. (I am now trying to think of serious comic writers of the last ten years and I’m drawing a blank - I’m sure there must be some…)
forclosure
Well-known member
Paul Beaty must count right? and there's definitley serious comic writers/ satirists out there but they're names aren't coming to mind right now lol
jenks
thread death
Yeah. The Sellout is the only one I could think of that’s got a similar vibe to Sidney Poitier.
