I Am Not Sidney Poitier
By Percival Everett
- Release Date: 2011-08-02
- Genre: Literary Fiction
Description
I Am Not Sidney Poitier is an irresistible comic novel from the master storyteller Percival Everett, and an irreverent take on race, class, and identity in America
I was, in life, to be a gambler, a risk-taker, a swashbuckler, a knight. I accepted, then and there, my place in the world. I was a fighter of windmills. I was a chaser of whales. I was Not Sidney Poitier.
Not Sidney Poitier is an amiable young man in an absurd country. The sudden death of his mother orphans him at age eleven, leaving him with an unfortunate name, an uncanny resemblance to the famous actor, and, perhaps more fortunate, a staggering number of shares in the Turner Broadcasting Corporation.
Percival Everett's hilarious new novel follows Not Sidney's tumultuous life, as the social hierarchy scrambles to balance his skin color with his fabulous wealth. Maturing under the less-than watchful eye of his adopted foster father, Ted Turner, Not gets arrested in rural Georgia for driving while black, sparks a dinnertable explosion at the home of his manipulative girlfriend, and sleuths a murder case in Smut Eye, Alabama, all while navigating the recurrent communication problem: "What's your name?" a kid would ask. "Not Sidney," I would say. "Okay, then what is it?"
Reviews
Fantastic
5By ElBlakeEverett not only wields enough wry, satirical power to make himself a laconic caricature, but Ted Turner and Not or Nu-ott, or Not Sidney Poitier, or whoever he is? Deeply humorous with all the matching weight of modern literature’s finest cultural observer.Short, entertaining read!
5By lamboguy177This was an excellent novel! Everett is wry, entertaining and clever. Absolutely, one of my favorite writers. Truly a treasure.
