{"id":2283,"date":"2024-05-31T10:33:37","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T17:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2283"},"modified":"2024-05-31T10:43:29","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T17:43:29","slug":"bookshelf-the-trees-percival-everett","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2283","title":{"rendered":"Bookshelf \u2013 The Trees"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, a way to never be disappointed by yet another so-so book: Only read what Percival Everett writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few weeks ago, I gushed over \u201cJames,\u201d Everett\u2019s current reimagining of \u201cThe Tales of Huckleberry Finn,\u201d this time told from the perspective of Jim, the slave. Seeing my comments in an online book group, someone suggested that \u201cThe Trees\u201d was equally terrific.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it is.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

\u201cThe Trees\u201d also uses history as a fulcrum, in this case the 1955 murder in Mississippi of 14-year-old Emmett Till, who was tortured, shot and lynched after being falsely accused of flirting with a white woman. Till was one of more than 4,000 Black victims of lynching and other documented acts of racial terrorism that occurred in the United States between the Civil War and World War II. (Read more: https:\/\/lynchinginamerica.eji.org\/report\/).<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Set in the present day in Money, Mississippi (where Till was killed), \u201cThe Trees\u201d begins as a crime story: A white resident, Junior Junior, turns up dead and emasculated in his home. Near his bloody corpse lies the body of a Black man. Both cadavers are hauled to the morgue, but that of the Black man disappears, only to reappear again in similar circumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the dead won\u2019t stay dead, it\u2019s a mystery enough for the state police to send a pair of Black detectives to Money, where they find a townful of cartoonish Southern crackers, a 105-year-old great-grandmother who has amassed thousands of files about lynchings, and a passing-for-white diner waitress who is hiding more than her skin color.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Little by little, \u201cThe Trees\u201d reveals itself to be less of a crime story and more of an artful, incisive indictment of America\u2019s shameful past and of the shameless persistence of racist values disguised as regional culture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everett pulls off this impeachment with a mix of violence, sarcasm, caricature, and humor (the latter especially evident in the book\u2019s wonderful dialogues). To say more is to reveal too much, so I\u2019ll end with this: \u201cThe Trees\u201d is inventive, entertaining, and enlightening, a virtuoso work that anyone who loves good books should read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finally, a way to never be disappointed by yet another so-so book: Only read what Percival Everett writes. A few weeks ago, I gushed over \u201cJames,\u201d Everett\u2019s current reimagining of \u201cThe Tales of Huckleberry Finn,\u201d this time told from the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[784,1],"tags":[862,882,881,877],"class_list":["post-2283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-uncategorized","tag-booker-prize","tag-emmett-till","tag-mississippi","tag-percival-everett"],"yoast_head":"\nBookshelf \u2013 The Trees - Tim Porter's Second Draft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Finally, a way to never be disappointed by yet another so-so book: Only read what Percival Everett writes.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/www.timporter.com\/seconddraft\/?p=2283\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bookshelf \u2013 The Trees - 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