Thoughts on Percival Everett Particularly his 2017 novel…
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Thoughts on Percival Everett
Particularly his 2017 novel *So Much Blue* https://fable.co/book/so-much-blue-by-percival-everett-9781555979744
This novel was my introduction to Everett when I borrowed it from my local library upon publication. The artist and his struggles is what initially drew me into it. I came to love his works and he quickly became my favorite author. *James* https://fable.co/book/james-pulitzer-prize-winner-by-percival-everett-9780385550376 aside (we all know he’s a Pulitzer winner now), **what do you like, dislike, or simply just think about Everett and his novels?** My thoughts are below.
The depth, struggles, and arcs of his main characters feel very real and very human; vulnerable to life’s biggest questions and its toughest challenges such as mortality and morality. The wit, cynicism, and irony in his dark humor approach is probably what resonates most with me, but the way he weaves his characters to open themselves into a life of forgiveness, grace, and love after denying their own honor and happiness for so long. Kevin Pace, the lead in *So Much Blue*, is the epitome of this.
\*\*\*SPOILERS BELOW\*\*\*
>!Everett explores the human condition of love, acceptance, and forgiveness by telling Kevin’s story from three different decades. He illustrates the conflict of a young man promise-bound to a friend in a dangerous situation that will impact his emotions and decisions for the rest of his life. Kevin’s experiences in El Salvador spur him to propose to his then girlfriend whom he has an adequate life with two children, but he doesn’t have the connection he should with her, and she slips further from his grasp with every hour he spends locked in a room with a painting he lets no one see. This painting, spurned on by his guilt from a clichéd affair with a French girl half his age and his actions in El Salvador, he locks himself up to try to work through his regrets. This causes him to miss out on a number of important familial moments, and he is well out of touch with his wife and children at this point, which only fuels to add more time and more guilt into the painting as he realizes this issue when his daughter confesses in secret that she is pregnant. All of this work and all of this guilt is wrapped up when he finally decides to let go of the lock on his heart and his studio and let the family he realizes he’s always loved is the only thing that can save him from himself. The forgiveness and acceptance of his failures as a father can turn around with the love of his family. Shoutout to The Bummer btw, whenever I read that book, I always envision him as an early 90s Kurt Russell villain lol!<
#entertainment
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Particularly his 2017 novel *So Much Blue* https://fable.co/book/so-much-blue-by-percival-everett-9781555979744
This novel was my introduction to Everett when I borrowed it from my local library upon publication. The artist and his struggles is what initially drew me into it. I came to love his works and he quickly became my favorite author. *James* https://fable.co/book/james-pulitzer-prize-winner-by-percival-everett-9780385550376 aside (we all know he’s a Pulitzer winner now), **what do you like, dislike, or simply just think about Everett and his novels?** My thoughts are below.
The depth, struggles, and arcs of his main characters feel very real and very human; vulnerable to life’s biggest questions and its toughest challenges such as mortality and morality. The wit, cynicism, and irony in his dark humor approach is probably what resonates most with me, but the way he weaves his characters to open themselves into a life of forgiveness, grace, and love after denying their own honor and happiness for so long. Kevin Pace, the lead in *So Much Blue*, is the epitome of this.
\*\*\*SPOILERS BELOW\*\*\*
>!Everett explores the human condition of love, acceptance, and forgiveness by telling Kevin’s story from three different decades. He illustrates the conflict of a young man promise-bound to a friend in a dangerous situation that will impact his emotions and decisions for the rest of his life. Kevin’s experiences in El Salvador spur him to propose to his then girlfriend whom he has an adequate life with two children, but he doesn’t have the connection he should with her, and she slips further from his grasp with every hour he spends locked in a room with a painting he lets no one see. This painting, spurned on by his guilt from a clichéd affair with a French girl half his age and his actions in El Salvador, he locks himself up to try to work through his regrets. This causes him to miss out on a number of important familial moments, and he is well out of touch with his wife and children at this point, which only fuels to add more time and more guilt into the painting as he realizes this issue when his daughter confesses in secret that she is pregnant. All of this work and all of this guilt is wrapped up when he finally decides to let go of the lock on his heart and his studio and let the family he realizes he’s always loved is the only thing that can save him from himself. The forgiveness and acceptance of his failures as a father can turn around with the love of his family. Shoutout to The Bummer btw, whenever I read that book, I always envision him as an early 90s Kurt Russell villain lol!<
#entertainment
source
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| 6,000 mlx | |
| 7 | |
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