Erasure: A Novel
Percival Everett's blistering satire about race and publishing, now adapted for the screen as AMERICAN FICTION, directed by Cord Jefferson and starring Jeffrey Wright and Tracee Ellis Ross
Thelonious "Monk" Ellison's writing career has bottomed out: his latest manuscript has been rejected by seventeen publishers, which stings all the more because his previous novels have been "critically acclaimed." He seethes on the sidelines of the literary establishment as he watches the meteoric success of We's Lives in Da Ghetto, a first novel by a woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days." Meanwhile, Monk struggles with real family tragedies--his aged mother is fast succumbing to Alzheimer's, and he still grapples with the reverberations of his father's suicide seven years before. In his rage and despair, Monk dashes off a novel meant to be an indictment of Juanita Mae Jenkins's bestseller. He doesn't intend for My Pafology to be published, let alone taken seriously, but it is--under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh--and soon it becomes the Next Big Thing. How Monk deals with the personal and professional fallout galvanizes this audacious, hysterical, and quietly devastating novel.BUY THE BOOK
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Community Reviews
This book presented the rare scenario where I saw the film adaptation before reading the book. The film presented a story of the black experience so compelling I had to read the source material. To be clear, the story of Thelonious “Monk” Ellison is a great one no matter what the medium. That said, the stream of consciousness perspective available in the book removes a layer from the already complex onion that while also adding more mystery to Monk.
Monk’s as represented in “Erasure” is so personally illuminating. Specifically in how it tells the story of a type of black man who cuts across the grain of the commonly held stereotype. What’s worse is that to be seen, Monk must play up the stereotype. This act of creating leads to an erasure of his own sense of identity as a writer. This contradiction doubles the initial erasure that happens because he does not fit into society’s mold. I know this conundrum too well.
Beyond the personal pull, the pacing, tone, language, and characters make this experience so engaging. You can smell, taste, and touch the awkward, contentious, and loving moments at every turn. I came away appreciating the film even more for its excellent interpretation of the original.
The witty humor is unexpected but roaringly funny. It glues together the larger commentary that calls out the joke that is the publishing industry’s and the broader society’s measure of what is “authentic.” For those looking for a reason to read “ Erasure” after watching the film, just know that Percival Everett placed land mines in the plot of the novel that were surprisingly left out from the movie. So in some ways it is a new experience.
Not 5 minutes after the end of seeing American Fiction in the theater, I downloaded this audiobook. The film is surprisingly true to the original novel, and an excellent adaptation, in my view. The book provides the added enjoyment of the full text of the "joke" novel submitted by the protagonist, Thelonius "Monk" Ellison. Having studied literature myself, and having attended at least one literary conference, this felt possible, if not probable, that a book like this could go viral.
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