I had tried The Trees by Percival Everett before, but couldn’t quite get into it—largely due to the audio narration. I faced a similar issue with James, his clever retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
That said, I finally revisited The Trees, and I’m glad I did. It starts off in Mississippi as a seemingly straightforward family tale but quickly morphs into a crime thriller laced with biting humor. Then, almost without warning, it pivots—linking the present-day murders to the real-life lynching of a Black boy by Klansmen. One of the white women central to the family being investigated is directly tied to that historic crime.
From there, the novel becomes sharply political, weaving in powerful social commentary and delivering its critiques through smart, darkly funny prose. What a writer.
I had seen the 2018 film adaptation of the novel Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer and assumed the book would be more of the same—so I almost skipped it. That would’ve been a serious mistake.
The novel is entirely different in tone and substance. It’s quieter, more introspective, and haunting in a way the movie only brushes upon. The central female character is deeply nuanced—remarkable considering the male authorship—and her emotional worlds feel fully realized. Some passages hit unexpectedly hard. I was so taken by it that I immediately started the next book in the series.
I’ve just started The Elsewhereans by Jeet Thayil—an author I hadn’t read much before. He reminds me a bit of Arundhati Roy in his style.
The book begins with the story of how his parents met, including a hilarious bit about his father arriving in the U.S. wearing a heavy coat, only to realize it was summer. There’s also a wonderfully chaotic passage about the preparations for his parents’ wedding—featuring a perpetually angry cook who brings a different hot-tempered woman each time, only for the two of them to fight and sleep together in frenzied chaos. It’s wild and vivid.
Proust: Still making slow progress—no real update yet.
Superman: Watched it recently. It had its moments, but overall felt a bit flat. The “American savior” trope is wearing thin. That said, the film stays loyal to its comic book roots, which may have been its primary intention.
I picked up several titles on sale—excited about this mix: Stanisław Lem, Ursula K. Le Guin, Jeet Thayil, Jun’ichirō Tanizaki, among others.
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Until next week—happy reading!