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Review
"'American Desert is Percival Everett's best novel in years - witty, savage, and explosive - a brilliant barbed work from one of America's best and most iconoclastic satirists.' Madison Smartt Bell; 'Everett is one of those rare writers who can indulge in all manner of formal boldness while still seducing the reader with his storytelling.' Sean O'Hagan, Observer"
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
"'One of America's most intelligent and imaginative satirists... Not only funny but consistently compelling, fiercely written and ultimately moving.' Patrick Ness, Daily Telegraph 'A life - affirming tale, snappily told and unexpectedly tender.' Daily Mail"
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a marvellous book. One one level it seems a bizarre story line, but it is really a brilliantly written, compassionate and humorous satire. It has a compelling story line, and is both easy and intelligent reading. There is a rare talent at work here and this book deserves a wide audience.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Bringing the dead back to life in a piece of fiction normally requires a relatively healthy dose of suspended disbelief on the part of the audience (cf. Frankenstein, Dracula, anything with Boris Karloff), so to write a book where reanimation seems perfectly reasonable and in tune with the normal world is quite an achievement, and one that Percival Everett should be proud of.
On his way to commit suicide, Ted Street's car is hit by an oncoming lorry, sending him through the windscreen and cutting his head clean off, thus scuppering his plans to kill himself. At his funeral three days later, Ted sits up in his coffin. The event makes headlines across the world, and Ted and his family are suddenly thrust into the spotlight. He becomes yet another victim of the insatiable media, his daughter finds him a source of acute embarrassment, and to all the nuts out there he is the messiah, the antichrist, and the perfect experiment for the development of invincible soldiers.
Ted undergoes a personal Odyssey, his travels bringing him into contact with religious cults determined to destroy the demon, to the heart of Area 51 where he gets caught up in a bizarre experiment to clone Jesus, while all the time he is simply trying to get back to his family.
While it is one of the most staple of all fiction plots, Ted's travels are used by Everett in a refreshingly new way, as he forces the reader to question what it is to be alive (or indeed dead), and exposes a culture that is perhaps too ready to call on religion whenever it can't explain something.
He manages to keep a serious tone throughout the book, while at the same time keeping the reader thoroughly engaged through some savagely funny and biting passages (the funeral scene is particularly memorable).
However, although it may be trying to ask the big questions of the 21st Century,
American Desert doesn't really go beyond simple, thought-provoking entertainment, but Everett deserves kudos for trying. Maybe he could take a leaf out of Ted's book and make a better go of it next time round.
On his way to commit suicide, Ted Street's car is hit by an oncoming lorry, sending him through the windscreen and cutting his head clean off, thus scuppering his plans to kill himself. At his funeral three days later, Ted sits up in his coffin. The event makes headlines across the world, and Ted and his family are suddenly thrust into the spotlight. He becomes yet another victim of the insatiable media, his daughter finds him a source of acute embarrassment, and to all the nuts out there he is the messiah, the antichrist, and the perfect experiment for the development of invincible soldiers.
Ted undergoes a personal Odyssey, his travels bringing him into contact with religious cults determined to destroy the demon, to the heart of Area 51 where he gets caught up in a bizarre experiment to clone Jesus, while all the time he is simply trying to get back to his family.
While it is one of the most staple of all fiction plots, Ted's travels are used by Everett in a refreshingly new way, as he forces the reader to question what it is to be alive (or indeed dead), and exposes a culture that is perhaps too ready to call on religion whenever it can't explain something.
He manages to keep a serious tone throughout the book, while at the same time keeping the reader thoroughly engaged through some savagely funny and biting passages (the funeral scene is particularly memorable).
However, although it may be trying to ask the big questions of the 21st Century,
American Desert doesn't really go beyond simple, thought-provoking entertainment, but Everett deserves kudos for trying. Maybe he could take a leaf out of Ted's book and make a better go of it next time round.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Thats one way of describing this incredible book! When I first picked the book up and read the fly I put it straight back down again thinking 'what on earth is all that about'! But within a few moments of reflection I picked it straight back up again out of sheer curiosity and from that point on I was hooked very quickly needing some answers!
The story centres upon a guy called Ted Street, a family man and not so hot college lecturer who ends up having an affair with one of his students. This situation leads him into dispair and he decides that he wants to end it all by walking into the sea and not returning. As it happens, on his way to the coast, driving along he suffers a fatal traffic accident involving a head on collision with a truck which swerves to miss a dog (its that kind of book!). The accident results in the complete decapitation of Teds head from his body.
The undertakers do a fantastic job with their needle and threads sewing Teds head back into place using 'blue thirty weight fishing line'.
At his funeral, shockingly and causing mass pandemonium Ted sits bolt upright in his open coffin and appears to have returned from the dead.
This fantastic story then follows on from the fear of of Teds loved ones and just about anyone who comes into contact with him. Dead or alive?? Not so dead Ted!!
Ted appears to have super senses including the capability of reading minds and super hearing. One bit I really enjoyed was when Ted brings down to earth one of these flashy TV news journalist by publicly revealing her worst secrets live on air in revenge for some nastiness that she had inflicted! We get to meet weird religious fanatics which provides some humour and some scarey bits and even get to learn what really goes on in Roswell!
The one thing the reader will hunger for is how can a decapitated person complete with fishing line neck sutures come back to life and live? Is he alive or is he dead? You will have to read it to find out as theres no way I'm going to spoil it for you!!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Killed on his way to commit suicide
Even the darkest kind of humour can be, at heart, sometimes quite serious in intent. In this wonderful book Everett satirises American cults and the very notion of death... Read more
Published on 17 Sep 2009 by Eileen Shaw
Very Simple Review......
This is a REALLY BIZARRE book...but then, a story about someone losing their head, having it sewn back on, coming back to life and the knock-on effect on society is never going to... Read more
Published on 30 July 2007 by Mr. P. C. Clowson
Don't lose your head
A suicidal man literally survives losing his head and finds himself the target of every maniac in the United States. Read more
Published on 12 Sep 2005 by J. S. Meins
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