Telephone
By Percival Everett
Graywolf Press,9781644450222, 2020, 224pp.
The Short of It:
Unexpectedly clever.
The Rest of It:
I read Telephone some time back and I am just now sitting down to write up my thoughts. This book was chosen for my book club and what appeared to be a story about a father and his terminally ill daughter, turned out to be a lot more. A lot.
There are failed relationships. Pleas for help from women who have been trafficked. Uncomfortable interactions between colleagues. Come to find out, the author has three slightly different versions of this book. Between the members of my club all three versions were read and when we came together to discuss the book, we quickly realized endings were different.
I really enjoyed the writing even though the story seemed a little choppy in places. I definitely appreciated its uniqueness. Our club will be reading his new book later this year (James).
Source: Borrowed
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Book Chatter 
How crazy that there are multiple versions of the book and you don’t know which one you have until you get to the end and compare it with others. Pretty clever!
If you are in the know on the different versions, you can tell which one you have by the compass photos on the cover. Ha!
So the club didn’t realize going in that there were different versions? I recall the fun (?) discussions on the blogs/TOB or maybe it was on Litsy when we were all chattering about who had what version and how it ended – Everett is a badass.
The one gal who picked it for that month knew but we didn’t know until the night of the meeting. It was wild. We have his new book chosen for the summer.
I’m glad you read this one — it sounds thought-provoking. It’s unique that the book has 3 versions & endings, wow. I look forward to reading this author this year. I might read James first. hmm