American Desert

Percival Everett doing what he does best – cloaking the deadly serious in farce and ridiculousness, and telling a great story along the way. Ted Street, a self-professed mediocre professor and husband dies in a car accident on his way to the ocean to drown himself. He is neatly decapitated but doesn’t let that stop him from rising from his coffin three days later (Yes, sounds familiar) and walking out of the church with his family.

Of course he becomes big news, is kidnapped by a doomsday cult, escapes, falls into the hands of a typically shadowy government organization based at Area 51, escapes, and makes it home to his family with the help of an insurance investigator sent to prove that Ted is still alive so they don’t have to show more pay out. But not before becoming a hero by saving twenty-seven children being held by the cult.

At the end, no longer truly alive or truly dead, Ted decides his own fate. Another story that only Percival Everett could have written. show less

“Actually,” Ted said, “my head was completely severed from my body and I was presumed dead until I sat up in my coffin at my own funeral…”

That decapitation happened in a traffic accident, ironically, as Ted was on his way to commit suicide. But he is alive now, though no heartbeat or pulse. And he has heightened senses and the ability to “see” events from other people’s pasts. Also, bullets don't hurt him.
And the whole world wants to know how and why!

Book One is wickedly entertaining! Just the idea of it all! The social, religious, and even militaristic implications of Ted's 'resurrection'. I kept thinking that this was a plotline that couldn't be done because it was so outrageous, but Mr. Everett proved me very, very show more wrong!

Cast of characters - Big Daddy, Jesus 19, religious zealots, government scientists, and all of those black helicopters

AWESOME ending! I had no idea how it was going to end, but that was absolutely the perfect way! show less

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 show more 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. show less

Ted Street is driving to the beach to kill himself. Suddenly, in a catastrophic accident, he's hit by a UPS truck and decapitated. Three days late, he sits up in his coffin at his own funeral. It's rather shocking and a riot ensues. In the following days, while trying to ascertain if he's alive or dead, Ted is kidnapped by a cult that believes he's Satan's emmissary, resuced by the government and taken to Area 51, escapes and runs into a cult that believes he's the messiah, and reunites with his family in the midst of it all.

Rating, 3.33 stars

While clearly not his best story, Everett uses the opportunity to jab at organized religion with a rather obtuse, quasi-fantasy approach.

Ted Street is a professor who after reviewing his life feels a failure. On his way to drowning himself, he has a fatal car accident that severs his head. After the funeral home mortician reattaches his head with somewhat primitive stitching, he's suddenly resurrected during the ceremony and arises from the casket as if nothing happened. The gathering of people that include his wife Gloria and children, Emily and Perry are startled beyond belief and soon word gets out of the strange incident.

In a matter of time, the media huddles around his home and dark humor prevails. Holed up at show more home to fend off the media, Ted and the family finally sneak out to the market only to see him be captured by Jesus freaks that are lead by a midget named Big Daddy. When he arrives at their distant complex hours later, its the beginning of a Twilight Zone type story filled with religious rants, offbeat characters and continual jabbing at religion.

From here the plot twists and turns while the jabs morph into society's failure to see life for what it is. Some feel Ted is the devil, other the messiah. With no pulse or blood, the fact Ted speaks, eats and functions baffles all, including himself. Comical at heart, attempts to 'kill someone that's dead' fail miserably.

At the end of the day, I felt there was something lacking having compared it to more current books he's written. Initially, the idea of a headless corpse arising was darkly funny, but the rest of it left me cold. Having read a dozen of Everett's books and knowing a writer's storytelling evolves, I feel he truly hit his stride 10 years ago. That said, the fact remains he's one of the most unique, multi-faceted authors in publishing who writes an array of genre with skill and deftness. A great sense of humor, appreciation for the human condition, he's rare if not anything else. show less

This was an uneasy satire, setting it's sights on the topical targets of 2004: Evangelicals, neo-cons and the media. A despondent academic is driving to his suicide when he is unexpectedly decapitated in a traffic accident. He sits up and begins speaking three days later at his funeral. How's this possible? Journalists want an interview. Zealots want to kill him as a diabolical agent and the government wants to utilize his biochemistry to create immortal soldiers. Each of these plots surface and then wilt. American Desert failed to grab this reader.

A surreal story about Ted Street, a guy who gets his head cut off in a car accident, then gets up and walks out of his funeral three days later. Panic and media frenzies ensue. Everett’s writing style is a tad too dry for my taste, and a couple of the subplots seem pointless, but he does a good job of stringing the reader along to find out just how dead (or not) Ted really is. If nothing else, you’ll get a weird theory of what’s REALLY going on in Area 51.