Reviews with content warning for Cursing - Erasure

Erasure is definitely one of the best books I've read this year. This book took me by complete surprise. I immediately connected with Monk, our African-American main character who is well educated and comes from a loving and stable home. Monk reminisces on how he has strived and given his all to his literature, which he calls his art, and how it has not been received well. Specifically, the feedback is that nobody wants to read it and it isn't 'black' enough. In his frustration, as he is dealing with very real and relatable problems in his personal life., monk pens a work of fiction under the name 'My Pafology' that is offensive, ridiculous, and shocking. I have to admit that I only read a few pages of 'My Pafology' as Percival Everett includes it in this book and its entirety. But even having read that gave me plenty of background to enjoy the rest of the novel. I felt Monks disgust with himself and our culture throughout this book as his satirical work is applauded as some of the best fiction ever released in African American literature. Monk is offended, and I'm offended for him. This book made me laugh and cry, sometimes on the same page. It has definitely has earned a place on my shelf.

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stephe's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Picked this up after seeing American Fiction and I really wish I had read it before seeing the film. I thought the film was great, but fairly easy to grasp in a way that the book is not. I was surprised by how at a loss I felt reading, my lack in theory and arts making itself felt sharply throughout. More than anything, I think I was surprised that this seems more of a book that has a beef with academia even more than pop fiction—an angle that is not as visibly present in the film.

Still, feeling my own lack is not a bad thing. This book made me think more than many books do, and even the elements that left me out in the deep end still got their sustained engagement out of me. Heck, this book even made trout fishing sound great, a feeling I don’t think I’ve ever had.

One thing I really recommend, for either reading the novel or viewing the film: read James Baldwin’s essay “Everybody’s Protest Novel” in Notes of a Native Son alongside. I just happened to be reading through Baldwin’s collected essays as I worked through Erasure, and it dovetails quite nicely.

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f6x's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

The heartbreakingly real travails of an American family shimmer vividly against this backdrop of satire, perception, and social commentary. A remarkable journey.

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kreglow's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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joshhornbeck's review against another edition

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challenging dark funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is an absolutely outstanding work of literary and experimental fiction, satirizing white liberal expectations for Black creatives. The central character is prickly and complicated, and the narrative doesn’t leave us with easy answers or simple moralizing. It forces us to wrestle with questions of identity and our own bias, even as the author finds his ability ground his identity further and further out of reach due to issues within his family. The digressions and formal choices made throughout the novel are brilliant, and the book is absolutely hilarious at times. A wonderful, wonderful novel.

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carriepond's review against another edition

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challenging funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Erasure is the best thing I've read this year. It is hilarious, biting satire, which I expected, but also a tender and moving portrait of a middle-aged man as he grapples with grief, family drama, and his mother's advancing Alzheimer's.

For those unfamiliar, Erasure is the novel on which the movie American Fiction is based. Its recent adaption makes sense; although it was written in 2001, the book's critique of what books by Black authors are published and marketed and how they are consumed by a largely white audience is just as relevant in 2024 as it was in 2001. And there are so many layers to the book's critiques about race, class, and art that not even our main character, Thelonius "Monk" Ellison, is safe from Everett's skewering.

I laughed so much during this book, but I was also blown away by it. This book is way smarter than I am, which I mean in the best way-- it doesn't feel pretentious, it doesn't try to be smarter-- it just is smart in a way that made me want to live in Everett's mind to move even a couple notches closer to his level. I wish I had read this with a book club because there is so much I admire that I want to talk with others about, and I know it would help me get even more out of it through the collective wisdom that comes with reading in community with others.

Highly recommend this book. It is awesome, and I am absolutely going to read more books by Percival Everett.

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sarahbiegelsen's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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shay43geek's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny lighthearted reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A mixture of satire and family drama that I enjoyed very much! Monk's issues are so much of the same one that Black and POC authors face in the publishing industry.

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