Booksology Subscribe to the “Zero to Well-Read” Podcast Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or join Zero to Well-Read Patreon to get this newsletter delivered to your inbox, early ad-free access, and bonus content. This week’s bonus episode of Office Hours is a power ranking of America’s nominees for the Nobel Prize in Literature.
Please read carefully according to zero Instagram, TikTokand YouTube.
Please email us: (email protected)
with leading color
A weekly newsletter focused on literature by and about people of color.
fun facts
- Percival Everett came up with the idea to write. james A story about when I was playing tennis.
- Everett teaches novel writing at the University of Southern California (USC)
- Seriously, you (Vanessa) went to the University of Southern California (good luck! ✌🏼), but at first you declared yourself a pre-med student because you were proud of your immigrant parents, and then you realized it was a mistake and studied business.
- If I had actually wanted to write back then, I would almost certainly have enrolled in one of Everett’s introductory novel writing courses and shared Rebecca’s absolute fear of having my stupid short story graded by that guy.
- This man was many things: he trained horses and mules for 12 years, was an avid fly fisherman and woodworker, repaired musical instruments, played jazz guitar, and taught and wrote literary masterpieces.
Book Award Trivia (and Tea!)
- James is one of only eight novels to win both the National Book Award and the Pulitzer Prize. Others are:
- Thomas Pynchon almost made it onto this illustrious list, but the reason he didn’t is a bit of a scandal.
- In 1974, he won the 1974 National Book Award for Fiction for his novel. gravity rainbow.
- He should have won the Pulitzer Prize. The award was the unanimous recommendation of three members of the Novel Prize Committee.
- At the last minute, the Pulitzer Advisory Committee rejected the nomination, calling the book “unreadable,” “creepy,” and “obscene,” and decided not to award any fiction prizes that year. Escandalo!
- Mr. Pynchon Vineland Based on the film by Paul Thomas Anderson Battles continue one after another. You can listen to episodes about the novel here.
Show out-of-context quotes
- “He knows what we know, or what we think we know.”
- I grew up on the MTV show: “This is Percival Everett’s Diary.”
- “Penelope, for those of you who don’t know, is the wife of Odysseus. For 20 years, he has been using trickery to keep men at bay, men who frankly don’t understand the art of weaving.”
Bringing supporting characters to the forefront
setup james Matatabi is one of my personal brands of fiction. It is a retelling told from the perspective of a supporting character or simply a different protagonist from the original. Here are some of my favorites (and more).
- Achilles’ song Written by Madeline Miller: The story of the Trojan War and Achilles through the eyes of Patroclus (warning: have tissue paper ready). See also: girls’ silence Written by Pat Barker (Queen Achilles taken prisoner, as told by Briseis) a thousand ships Written by Natalie Haines (Stories of women on both sides of the Trojan War)
- wide sargasso sea Written by Gene Rhys: remix Jane Eyre Told through the perspective of Rochester’s wife, Bertha Mason, aka “The Madman in the Attic”
- beautiful villain Written by Rebecca F. Kenny: vampire story the great gatsby Told from Daisy’s point of view
- lady macbeth Written by Eva Reid: A gothic and gloomy story that asks, “What would happen if the woman in this famous story was branded as a villain in order to make excuses for the man’s evil sins?” various, loosely based macbeth
- march Written by Geraldine Brooks: Interpretation of Louisa May Alcott Little Womenretelling the story from Mr. March’s perspective.
- I, Tituba Written by Maryse Conde: This is not a retelling of a fictional work, but rather a fictional account of a historical event told from the perspective of a character who is usually left out of the story. In this case, that person is Tituba, an enslaved woman who was first accused of witchcraft in the 1692 Salem Witch Trials.
- Penelopiad Written by Margaret Atwood – I’m not going to explain this any better than Jeff did in the “Show quote out of context” section.
quotation
james This book is full of great quotes about everything from the act of reading to the plight of black people surviving in a racist society. Here are some great points:
- “In that moment, the power of reading became clear and real to me. If I could see words, no one could control them or what I got from them. They didn’t know if I was just seeing them, reading them, making sounds, or even understanding them. It was completely private, completely free, and therefore completely destructive.”
- “I wrote who I am with a pencil.”
- “What a strange world the world is, and that one must assert one’s equality, that one must be in a position to broadcast that argument, that one cannot make that argument oneself, that the premises of that argument must be examined by equals with whom one disagrees.”
- “Luke chuckled. So when we then see him stumbling around playing the fool, is that an example of foreboding irony or an example of dramatic irony?”
adaptation
It was announced that Steven Spielberg will executive produce the film in 2024. jamesTaika Waititi has been tentatively named director. That was a while ago, and we haven’t heard much about the cast or anything else since then. Adapting any work is a huge undertaking. adapt this work? It is a project that needs to be handled carefully and carefully. I share Rebecca’s nervousness. I’m that anxious Kermit meme again.
The good news is that Everett himself wrote the screenplay and will also serve as executive producer. I crossed my fingers and held my breath!
additional credits
Similar products etc.
sold out Written by Paul Beatty
A satire about a young man’s isolated upbringing and his racial trial before the Supreme Court for attempting to reinstate slavery and racial segregation. This book contains plot points from Huck Finn. Characters wrestle with the N-word. huck finnAnd their solution is to change every description in the book with “racially sensitive” language
Penelopiad Written by Margaret Atwood
Again, see Displaying Out-of-Context Quotes.
subway Written by Colson Whitehead
The central conceit of this award-winning novel is that, with a touch of magic realism, the subway was an actual railroad rather than just a metaphor.
Supplementary reader (and viewing)
- In this YouTube clip, Percival Everett talks about the anti-intellectualism he observed among American students. This clip is over 15 years old, but every time I go on social media and see younger readers feeling uncomfortable reading difficult texts, I want to send it to them.
- LeVar Burton used to host a great podcast called. Read by Levar Burtona show dedicated to short stories handpicked and performed by Burton himself. As far as I know, the show ended in 2024 and one of the last stories it featured was Percival Everett’s “Cultural Appropriation.” The story of a young black musician heckled by his white fraternity brothers first appeared in Everett’s 2014 collection of stories. If it’s shit.
- Dua Lipa continues to impress me with the book selections, interviews, and insights shared in her Service95 Book Club. In a September 2025 interview with Percival Everett, the two discussed Everett’s 2021 novel. The Trees.
- Singer read the title in 2022 when she worked on the entire shortlist for the book award after being asked to give a speech at the awards ceremony.
- She describes the book as “classic Percival: wickedly funny, deeply moving, and always one step ahead of expectations.”
- Quote from an interview: “It would be great if you could write a novel that everyone hates… What power would that be! That would be great!” Sorry, Mr. Everett. The odds are against you there.
- ICYMI: Everett’s acceptance speech for the 2024 National Book Award for Fiction. It’s elegant, funny, tackles AI, and despite the state of the world, it’s beautiful and full of defiant hope.
