PERCIVAL EVERETT — I AM NOT SIDNEY POITIER

Sidney Poitier

By far the funniest book I read this year. Sent me straight to the bookseller for more Percival Everett. Also to the video store for some Sidney Poitier movies (not much luck there, oddly). Good reminder that the picaresque ain’t dead. I had some remarks a year or so ago about David Foster Wallace’s supercharged picaresque, The Broom of the System, and I’m finding it sad he died before he got the chance to read this, cause I can imagine him having a cool perspective on it and maybe writing some jacket copy that goes something like, ‘Everett’s supercharged picaresque is what I was trying to write with The Broom of the System, but he did a far better job — check it out.’ 

Read August 2022.