Big Picture

the long version

The characters in Big Picture, Percival Everett's darkly comic collection of stories, are often driven to explosive, life-changing action. Everett delves into those moments when outside forces bring us to the brink of insanity or liberation. The catalysts in Everett's tales are surprising: a stuffed boar's head, mounted on the wall of a diner, becomes an object of intense, inexplicable desire; a painter is driven to the point of suicide by a mute who returns day after day to mow the artist's lawn; the loss of a pair of dentures sparks a turn toward revelation.