Notes from Maine - 2025/11/09

November 9, 2025

My brother told me to read The Trees (by Percival Everett). I’m about halfway through. It’s a good book—fascinating premise. In a BBC interview last year, Professor Everett described himself as “pathologically ironic.” The characters move through a world where everything is presented as potentially metaphorical. They don’t (at least not yet) mention it outright, but you can sense the raised eyebrows and frowns of the newcomers to Money Mississippi in the book. 

I might have to re-read it at some point just to appreciate the names. 

We have a “Junior Junior,” who has a son (you guessed it) named “Junior Junior Junior.” There’s a Helvetica who didn’t take her husband’s last name for fear that she would be considered a font. Gertrude works at the diner but goes by Dixie because “Dixies get better tips than Gertrudes.” Jim Davis is an investigator but I can’t help but picture the cartoonist who drew Garfield. 

There’s a Wesley Snipes (no relation). There’s a McDonald McDonald, and a Mr. Mister to repeat the double-name phenomenon. 

The big joke name is Herberta Hind, who was nicknamed “Herbie” by her parents to toughen her up for the real world. Took me a minute on that one—“Herbie Hind” = “Her Behind.” 

I wouldn’t have noticed one or two name quips, but this book is full of them. If the characters weren’t engaged in such interesting problems, I think the names would steal the whole show.

I’ve written plenty of books where the characters deal with multiple names. There’s the name you grew up with and the name that you choose for yourself when you enter adulthood. I’ve known quite a few people who had different childhood and adult names, so I’ve written that element into my book. A person can be put on their heels when they get name-checked, or a pet name can clue us in to a closer, non-public relationship. 

“Why do serial killers/assassins always have three names?” used to be a common question. I think most of us realize now that the authorities and media intentionally use all three names so that other people with the same first and last name don’t get slandered because of the actions of a murderer. There were probably plenty of people named John Gacy around, so we refer to the killer clown as John Wayne Gacy. By the way, I’ve looked up the art of John Wayne Gacy and there’s no way that those paintings are worth thousands of dollars. The price is obviously inflated by his crimes. I can’t imagine hanging the art of a person who was convicted of killing thirty-three people. I guess that’s the point. 

Once I finish The Trees, I’m probably going to move on to James, which is about the character “Jim” from Huckleberry Finn. I’ll be interested to see if Percival makes a point of the names of other characters in that book as well. 

I listen to a podcast with Mike Nelson (from MST3K) and Conor Lastowka called 372 Pages We’ll Never Get Back. The podcast is essentially a book club where they read books they assume will be horrible and then point out all the absurd parts chapter by chapter. They are always quick to point out any “self-inflicted wounds” of an author. If a character has a name that everyone is constantly commenting on (like Herbie Hind), and it seems to hinder the progress of the book, that’s a self-inflicted wound. I like to imagine that Percival Everett has some point to the odd names in The Trees, but I’m not finished with it yet so I’m not sure.