Erasure (novel)

Erasure

File:Erasure (novel).jpg
Author	Percival Everett
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Satire
Publisher	UPNE
Publication date	2001
ISBN	9781584651604

Erasure is a 2001 novel by American writer Percival Everett. It was originally published by the University Press of New England (UPNE). The novel reacts against the dominant strains of discussion related to the publication and criticism of African-American literature, and was later adapted by Cord Jefferson into a film titled American Fiction, starring Jeffrey Wright.

Plot

Erasure is about a writer dealing with growing old, death, and murder. The novel's plot revolves around the consequences of turning one's art into a commodity; i.e. giving in to market forces. The market force within Erasure mirrors the late-1990s' reality of the publishing industry seeming to pigeonhole black writers by valuing accounts of dysfunctional urban poor over other black lives.

Everett explores race, class, loyalty to family, sex, the theory of language, the life of canonical Western artists, abortion, and sexual identity as the novel unfolds.

The protagonist, Thelonious "Monk" Ellison, a professor of English literature, is in a rut with his writing. His agent repeatedly explains to him that publishing houses don't believe his writing to be "black enough". Ellison is confronted with the success of a novel called We's Lives In Da Ghetto, by black writer Juanita Mae Jenkins; it is becoming a national best seller, and she is a critical darling.

Monk quickly composes a satirical response, based in part on Richard Wright's Native Son (1940) and Sapphire's Push (1996). He calls his own novel My Pafology, before changing its title to Fuck.

This novel is published in its entirety within Erasure and creates a meta-narrative that challenges the reader about the value and merits of this writing in contrast to the supposedly more erudite text and characters of Erasure.

Structure

Like many of Everett's novels, Erasure is experimental in structure. It uses multiple embedded narratives, written by the main character, Thelonious "Monk" Ellison, including his mock-novel titled My Pafology.

The Guardian review described the book as a "skilful, extended parody of ghetto novels such as Sapphire's Push."

The novel has other narrative styles within the larger narrative frame, including an academic paper, personal letters, story ideas, and imagined dialogue between fictionalized historical characters. The final section is the end of Erasure as written by Stagg R Leigh, Monk's alter ego.

Reception

The novel was well received. Darryl Pinckney's review in The Guardian focused on the dark comedy that Erasure represents, describing it as moving towards "bleakest comedy" and "sly work." Ready Steady Book focused on the novel being "full of anger" about the African-American literary establishment and said that the most redeeming elements of the plot come from a "moving portrait of a son coming to terms with his mother's life."

Film adaptation

In 2023, the novel was adapted as a film titled American Fiction, written and directed by Cord Jefferson. and starring Jeffrey Wright, Sterling K. Brown, and Leslie Uggams. The film won the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival that year. The film received five nominations at the 96th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and won Best Adapted Screenplay.