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Book Title

I Am Not Sidney Poitier

Subtitle
A Novel
Author 1
Percival Everett
Body

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?”

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List Price
$17.00
ISBN
ISBN
978-1-55597-527-2
Format
Format
Paperback
Publication Date
Publication Date
Subject
Subject
Pages
Pages
272
Trim Size
Trim Size
6 x 9
Keynote
An irresistible comic novel from master storyteller Percival Everett, and an irreverent take on race, class, and identity in America

 

About the Author

Percival  Everett
Credit: Michael Avedon
Percival Everett is the author of more than thirty books, most recently JamesDr. No, winner of the PEN/Jean Stein Book Award; The Trees, finalist for the Booker Prize; and Telephone, finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
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Praise

  • “[I Am Not Sidney Poitier is] one of the funniest, most original stories to be published in years. Everett has written a delicious comedy of miscommunication.”—NPR
  • “Wild, extravagant and hysterical. . . . The humor crackles and delivers visceral punches.”—Dwight Garner, The New York Times Book Review’s “22 of the Funniest Novels Since Catch-22
  • “Everett’s storytelling can’t be oversold; this is superbly written, crisp and quick-paced, punctuated with pools of simply gorgeous prose. Above all, it’s damn funny.”—Bookslut
  • “The funniest book I have read all year, if not ever. . . . Everett is razor sharp throughout, and Mr. Tibbs could have no better tribute.”The Rumpus
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