American Desert [Hardcover]

Percival Everett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 5, 2004

art parable, part fantasy novel, part laugh-out-loud satire, American Desert is the story of Theodore Street, a college professor on the brink of committing suicide. When the decision is taken out of his hands-he's hit by a car and his head is severed from his body-he must come to terms with himself. At his funeral, he sits up in his own coffin with the stitches that bind his head to his body clearly visible. Everyone is horrified by this resurrection. He becomes a source of fear and embarrassment to his daughter, and an object of derision and morbid curiosity to the press and the scientific communities, and is anointed as a sort of devil by an obscure religious cult. In the process, Theodore manages to reestablish his relationship with his estranged wife and family and to rediscover the value of his life. In this experimental, satirical, and bizarre novel, critically acclaimed author Percival Everett once again takes on the assumptions of a culture whose priorities have gone out of whack. He lampoons the press, religion, and academia while offering, ultimately, an existential meditation of what constitutes being alive.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

When UCLA professor Ted Street sits up in his coffin at his own funeral, mayhem ensues in this smart, satirical and engrossing novel by prolific Everett (Glyph; Erasure; etc.). Ted had been planning suicide, but a car accident conveniently sliced off his head. With reattached noggin, no pulse and a few strangely sharpened senses, Ted rejoins his stunned family, feeling "like a monster, a re-animated ghoul." But his wife, Gloria, takes him to bed for newly gratifying sex, and he has other heightened powers-of understanding and even telepathy. TV vans besiege their house, and preteen daughter Emily is briefly taken by Protective Services. Venturing out for groceries with his family, Ted is kidnapped by a religious cult led by menacing Big Daddy, who's convinced Ted's the anti-Christ. After being shot numerous times, Ted escapes into the desert, only to be caught by the Feds, who whisk him away to a reanimation laboratory outside Roswell, N.Mex., to study him (they remove his organs while he's awake and put them back "much as one might stuff a turkey"). These varied confinements give Ted time to reflect on his frustrating, untenured status at the university, the birth of his beloved children, his philandering ways and his troubled marriage. Escaping yet again, this time with help from a man who makes Jesus clones, Ted rescues a group of children held hostage by Big Daddy before returning home to a family that has been forever changed. Thoughtful, darkly comic and full of heart, the novel offers a wonderfully unusual story about retrospection and forgiveness.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From The New Yorker

While on his way to commit suicide, Ted Street, an untenured English professor and philandering husband, is beheaded in a car accident. Worse, he wakes up at his own funeral, his head clumsily stitched on his neck and his mouth sewn closed. From there, Ted embarks on a wide-ranging cruise through the American landscape, as he is kidnapped by a cult convinced that he is a devil; picked up by the military to be experimented on as a prototype of the perfect soldier; and sheltered by another cult, which worships him as a messiah. While the outlandish premise imparts a good deal of comic energy, Everett's customary sarcastic and intelligent wit is oddly lacking. Much of his satire of fanaticism—the charismatic cult leader with a stockpile of weapons, secret government plots—feels worn, and, despite all the talk of resurrection, the stiff prose never perks up.
Copyright © 2005 The New Yorker

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Hyperion; First Edition edition (May 5, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786869178
• ISBN-13: 978-0786869176
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #623,518 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Keep your head up...., June 15, 2006

By 

Keith G "I can not live without books.....Tho... (Garland, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Desert (Hardcover)

Percival Everett startled me with this book. The first few pages jump out and grab you and haul you into what seems like what will be a sad story. A man on his way to committ suicide is accidently involved in a traffic collision with a truck and decapitated. All presume he is dead until he sits up at his funeral with his head crudely attached on to his shoulders by what seems almost like fishing line.

American Desert is more than just a modern day "Frankenstein" story. It is about a man who thought life was dead, only to find life in death. It is a novel about second chances and how our relationships can be anything we want them to be. In this book, we see the hurt that a family can go through because of choices a member of that family may make. Ultimately, we see that life is more than just the mundane everyday existence we know. We see that sometimes the purpose of our life can only be found when we see that we think we have no purpose.

Don't let the name fool you. American Desert is a well in the dry land of everyday reading. A good book from start to finish and an almost draw dropping ending make this book a solid form of entertainment.

5.0 out of 5 stars Original story told by a first class author, August 15, 2011

By 

Robert J. Roid Jr. (Norway) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Desert (Hardcover)

One of the best novels I've read for quite some time. The premise is fantastic and Everett carries it off with style and aplomb.
His language is economical yet rich and the tone balances faultlessly between satire and sadness, with solid doses of insight and philosophy thrown in for good measure.
The narrative arc sails along at perfect pace and we are rewarded in the end with with something so rare as a proper ending.
What more could one ask from a novel?

Thus far I've only otherwise read 'Damned If I Do' (short stories) by Mr. Everett, but I am looking forward to reading more by this truly fascinating author.

4.0 out of 5 stars Oddly satisfying, March 10, 2011

By 

E. S. Charpentier (Brainerd, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Desert (Hardcover)

Odd, existential, yet delightful, American Desert is the story of Ted Street, who, on his way to committing suicide, is decapitated by a UPS truck. However, Ted is not dead. Or is he? Sitting up in his coffin at his own funeral, Ted begins a whole new kind of life. Is Ted a devil? An angel? A ghost? The Messiah? Or, something else entirely?
This book grapples with questions of life and death in a wholly unique and hilarious way. It's laugh-out-loud funny, but also gets one thinking about what kind of life she is living and what she would do with a second chance if it was handed to her. Ted is both bizarre and relatable. His wife seems off, but genuine. The reactions of his children to this situation are heartbreaking and also incredibly genuine. Everett also gives obscurely fitting names to each of the characters, some of which are obvious, but all can be discovered or confirmed by checking Wikipedia.
My one complaint is that I wish there was a bigger payoff at the end. The conclusion is fitting, but a little anti-climactic.