Birthday Book Recs 39-40/50 : Erasure and The Trees by Percival Everett
Erausre and The Trees by Roddy Doyle
Birthday Book Recs: 39-40/50
Erasure by Percival Everett
The Trees by Percival Everett
I could’ve snuck in a two-fer here, but both of these novels deserve an individual place on this ~very prestigious~ Birthday Book Rec list.
Percival Everett got his due when James, his retelling of Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, won the Pulitzer in 2025. But did you know that he had written TWENTY-THREE novels before that?! And this is not a James Patterson-type situation (btw, Patterson’s currently clocking in at a somewhat ridiculous 200+); each of Everett’s novels that I’ve read are so unique. There is absolutely no shtick or formula here.
Erasure is a somewhat satirical send-up of the publishing industry, particularly as it pertains to “Black Literature” (and what that even means). Protagonist Monk (as in Thelonious), an erudite author of obscure and very “writerly” books (that are always shelved with “Black books” despite not being about race), anonymously pens a novel so base and stereotypical that publishers can’t possibly love it. It is titled simply … Fuck. And in a perhaps-not-surprising twist, publishers actually love it. This one was adapted for the screen with a title change to American Fiction and was nominated for Best Picture.
The Trees is a bit harder to summarize: A spate of murders is happening — not just in Money, Mississippi, where the majority of The Trees takes place, but across the country — and someone who very coincidentally resembles Emmett Till ends up being present at every crime scene. He appears to be dead as well — until the body somehow escapes and then reappears at the next crime scene. (You gotta just trust me on this one.)
Percival Everett is like an erudite, professorial comedian. He can weave tragedy and don’t-try-to-argue-with-it social commentary with snarky humor and I have never, ever read anything like his work. Both of these books will have you laughing while simultaneously blowing your mind and if it were up to me, every American would read AT LEAST 1 of his books.
You can find all my 50th Birthday Book Recommendations HERE.
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