jim crow. >> reporter: who, besides percival everett, would have a pet crow named jim crow?redit him for having written some of the novel. >> reporter: consider the irony. one of everett's favorite literary devices that jim crow helped him write a book about race. a novel within a novel, satirizing publishing industry complicity and perpetuating stereotypes of black america. "erasure" has been turned into the oscar-winning film "american fiction," starring jeffrey wright. >> that's brlack, right? >> want to rub their noises in it. >> reporter: another irony, the film he had nothing to do with but likes has given percival everett more visibility than the 30-plus books he has written, or the fact that he has been short-listed for the booker prize, and a finalist for a pulitzer. everett's books are often perversely funny. imagine a funny novel about lynching, written in the form of a police procedural. funny, until it isn't. >> humor is interesting because if i can disarm a reader with humor, i can address serious stuff. >> reporter: everett's latest novel, "james," just out, i