Mississippi Goddam

Percival Everett was shortlisted for the 2022 Booker Prize for his satirical novel, The Trees (2021). This clever, witty, dark and insightful book is a thought-provoking page-turner that had me gripped from the outset and left me enraged by the unending racism, inequality and injustice which continues to flourish.

In the small town of Money, Mississippi a brutal murder has taken place. A white homeowner is found dead with the body of an unknown young black man. Within days, this scene is recreated several times in Money, baffling local police who are more concerned about their white townsfolk than the black victims. Two special detectives from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) drive up from Hattiesburg to support the investigation, and they realise that the black victim is reminiscent of Emmett Till, a teenager who was lynched in Money decades earlier, and whose murder propelled the civil rights movement. 

The detectives suspect that these killings are belated retribution for the murder of Till. As similar murders start taking place across the country, they realise there are larger forces at play. Ed and Jim have such a wonderful rapport as friends and work partners. Their jokes and sly comments serve to emphasise the absurdity of the Trumpian racism and MAGA revisionist history, and provide comic relief to the dark subject matter. 

The redneck white characters in the novel are hillbilly caricatures - gun-totting, evangelistic, uneducated, KKK enthusiasts. Their casual use the N-word and overt xenophobia is jarring, but illustrates America's failure to understand and reconcile its past. Everett reminds readers of America's dark history of lynching, which continues today. There was no justice for Emmett Till, or the hundreds of others who have lost their lives (before and since) in similar ways.

The Trees is unlike any novel I have ever read and one I will be thinking about for a very long time.