I Am Not Sidney Poitier: A Novel Paperback – May 26, 2009

I Am Not Sidney Poitier: A Novel by Everett PercivalIn this dizzy, profound merry-go-round of a read, the author initially seduces readers with outrageous humor. Three Stooges “Who’s on First” variety puns spin off “Not Sidney Poitier.”  Given this odd name by his unusual mother and fated to bear an uncanny resemblance to his “not” namesake, Not Sidney remains straightforward and perplexing:  “Really you’re not Sidney Poitier are you?” “Yes, I am.” This wordplay runs throughout as Sidney’s life unfolds, managing to remain an entertaining personal saga as well as a multilevel irreverent exploration of the black experience, the American experience, and the elusiveness of identity in the face of stereotypes and media images. Not Sidney enacts the “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner?” scenario with his girlfriend’s color conscious black family who distinguish to a nicety the various shades of skin and their meanings. They expect a darker black man to be poorer and less successful than themselves. Wealthy Not Sidney confounds them and ultimately rejects the movie paradigm of begging for their acceptance. The parallels to Poitier movies continue. Not Sidney is bound “Defiant Ones” style to a redneck as they escape from a prison. Later, he uses a hilarious technique called Fesmerism to compel a bigoted sheriff to become his only trustworthy protector (shades of actor Poitier’s “In the Heat of the Night.”)In the end “Not Sidney” seems to become his almost namesake for the space of an evening.I adored this book’s clever, entertaining, existential profundity. The author even “Mary Sues” himself, becoming Not Sidney’s college professor and mentor under his own name and profession. Everyone assumes the professor is being brilliant when they can’t follow his mental leaps—everyone except Not Sidney who calls nonsense, admits he doesn’t understand and shows that the emperor wears no clothes—or does he?The title suggests this book will repudiate the saintly black characters portrayed by actor Sidney Poitier.  My expectations were met, confounded and exceeded all at the same time, perhaps in the same way that Not Sidney Poitier meets and confounds questions about his name and identity throughout the novel. I will be looking at more books by this author. I just got the ebook version of "A History of the African-American People (Proposed) by Strom Thurmond, as told to Percival Everett & James Kincaid (A Novel)." I think it's bound to be interesting.https://www.amazon.com/Am-Not-Sidney-Poitier-Novel-ebook/dp/B005EXSNMA/ref=sr_1_1?crid=37XC9FOQS7BCW&dchild=1&keywords=i+am+not+sidney+poitier&qid=1633726529&s=digi

Although not up in the stratosphere of greatness with Erasure, this novel was a great read, and very much imbued with the ghost of Percival Everett. Not that he's dead. I mean his spirit, his Everett-ness: smart, wry, sardonic, concise, and lots of compelling characters, including Everett himself! I do hope he's not that cavalier as a teacher; I'm guessing not.My one quibble is the one-dimensional Southern white characters. I do think there's still a lot that's worthy of skewering in the Southern white racial psyche, but some of the characters here are cardboard stereotypes trucked in from Tobacco Road. That seemed too easy.Overall, though, this book is sort of an updating of Ellison's Invisible Man, with an even more absurdist twist. It's also very realistic, in that it exposes many of the absurdities that remain in our ever-raced and -classed society.

This was the first Percival Everett book that I've read and am I looking forward to more of his work. This book was hysterical and had me laughing out loud throughout the book. A young man named Not Sidney Poitier, yes that is his name, encounters life without a family -- he doesn't know who his dad is and his mother has died. And by the way, he does bear a striking resemblance to you guessed it -- the real Sidney Poitier.Fortunately for Not Sidney, his mother invested in Turner Broadcasting very early on and made a fortune. Ted Turner happens to hear about him and next thing we know Not Sidney is living in Turner's sprawling mansion outside of Atlanta. Not Sidney buys his way into college even though he isn't very interested in formal education. Not Sidney sets out to go back to LA, where the fun and games rev into high gear.Everett's dialogue is first-rate and the exchanges between Not Sidney and Ted Turner had me laughing every single time. Not just smiles, but laugh out loud funny. And Not Sidney's trek through the South has to be one of the great send-ups of racists from the South.My one small quibble, and I want provide any spoilers, is that the last 20 pages didn't match the quality of the rest of the book. Outside of that, this is pure genius and Everett is a writer not to be missed -- I can't wait to begin my next Everett novel.

Kind of a quirky book. Well written but not as funny to me as some of the other reviewers.

Prior to reading this book American Desert was the book I told people new to Everett to read in order to transition them to his style, in a sense. This book has taken the crown! Unlike Glyph, A History of The African American People (Proposed), and Erasure, this book tells its story without the (wonderful) intermissions and interludes that some readers have found disconcerting. (Those tools do, however, drive the story, in my opinion, just not in the straight-forward narrative sort of way.)This book retains his "Percival Everett-ness" with all the whimsy, profundity, and outright silliness of his kind of storytelling. Often the protagonist is as bewildered by the nonsense swirling around him as the reader is, even while being quite absurd - and always cool in an offbeat way - in his own right. And, as one would expect from an Everett book, our hero is often an anti-hero to the world around him. That's all I will say about the story itself as the editorial review/synopsis gives a good description.His work is timeless and this is no exception. You are pushed to laugh out loud, giggle, smile, and think. He has the ability, unmatched, in my opinion, to dissect the society we find ourselves in; praising - in his way - its positives, mocking its flaws, and finally giving the whole kit-and-kaboodle a firm finger (you know the one). This is a must read, especially if you are new to Everett's work. I hope he never gets tired of writing because I will never get tired of reading his work!

Hillariously funny dialogue, in poignant narrative from behind a black skin. A truly original and gifted creative writer.Tremendously entertaining and at the same time thought provoking. Having looked at some professional and non reviews I see critics and readers referring to their first and second readings of it... I will definitely follow this author.

Un bon "scenario", plutôt bien mené, mais un peu lent par moments et partant un peu dans toutes les directions.Un jeune noir portant le nom de famille "Poitier", que sa mère a appelé "Not Sidney", se trouve confronté à toutes sortes de malentendus lorsqu'il donne son nom, d'autant qu'en vieillissant il finit par ressembler à l'acteur. A ce qui pro quo permanent, s'ajoute ses difficultés en tant que noir + jeune + riche, très riche - jusque là, tout va bien. Là où la lecture devient un peu fastidieuse, c'est lorsque l'auteur met en scène un professeur loufoque à l'université où étudie le jeune Poitier, dont le nom n'est autre qu'Everett, celui-là même qui écrit le roman. Ce personnage pourrait être parfait mais l'auteur change subtilement de ton pour lui, en faisant sans doute trop dans l'auto-dérision.Un livre plaisant, qui se lit facilement, partant d'une excellente idée, mais qui aurait mérité un peu plus de cohérence et de rigueur d'écriture.

Ce roman est attrayant, rafraîchissant, le style loufoque m'a fait sourire souvent, la lecture est aisée. Pourtant, je suis restée un peu sur ma faim...

Unnecessary sexual content spoilt this for me.

I approached this book with lots of hope on the back of what is in my opinion Everett's most accomplished novel Erasure and i saw sorely disappointed. In short what a load of tripe. The main joke that runs through the entire book,i.e the name Not Sidney Poitier gets a bit tedious after a while and essentially is the only funny aspect of the book;humour was seriously not forthcoming anywhere else. In the end it,the final chapter,was just a number of paragraphs of baffling and nonsensical storytelling predicated on an idea that came from nowhere and went nowhere and made no sense.