Erasure
November 9, 2023 3:57 PM - Subscribe
Thinking of seeing American Fiction (previously)? Read its origin story--Percival Everett's Erasure--first.
"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."
(Continued) "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." (Graywolf Press)
Review: Colour bind (Guardian)
Essay: "By becoming the writer he hates, Monk becomes an extension of the industry bigotry he was intending to fight. By this time, Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, the man whose name calls back to icons of African American art and culture, vanishes, erasing himself while attempting to fit the model he is forced into." --What Percival Everett’s ‘Erasure’ Can Tell Us about Authenticity, by Alcy Leyva (The Millions)
American Fiction trailer (YT)
(Continued) "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." (Graywolf Press)
Review: Colour bind (Guardian)
Essay: "By becoming the writer he hates, Monk becomes an extension of the industry bigotry he was intending to fight. By this time, Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, the man whose name calls back to icons of African American art and culture, vanishes, erasing himself while attempting to fit the model he is forced into." --What Percival Everett’s ‘Erasure’ Can Tell Us about Authenticity, by Alcy Leyva (The Millions)
American Fiction trailer (YT)
(I finished the book last night, and it got less light)
posted by Acari at 2:52 PM on November 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Acari at 2:52 PM on November 15, 2023 [1 favorite]
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The names alone are gold.
Considering all that happens in both levels of the story, this somehow still feels light.
posted by Acari at 11:41 AM on November 14, 2023