I am a big fan of Percival Everett. His books possess the qualities every novel should have : tension and emotion. Telephone is a powerful heartbreaking grief narrative where the loss of a child is portrayed as an absolute loss. But the book is also constructed with two other threads: a sharply satirical campus novel and a contemporary page-turning thriller of incarceration and escape. As always the writer's deft intelligence and acid sharp wit are a glory to read. Chapeau, maître!