Reviews with content warning for Suicidal thoughts - Erasure

Lord, have mercy…. The more I read Percival Everett, the less I care for his writing. But, I suppose I understand why many people like this book.

Let’s start with the successful elements of the book, for me. First of all, much like the Trees, the concept of the book itself is brilliant. So much promise of premise. The plot is engrossing and the themes are effective. I think it’s a pretty genius idea.

I appreciate that Everett offers an often nuanced critique of ubiquitous and covert forms of racism. He points towards dangerous micro-aggressions directed at Black Americans and harmful stereotypes that unfortunately prevail today.

I appreciate the experimental nature of the interwoven stories and extended metaphors. Even when those are unsuccessful for me as a reader, I think it’s intriguing how the author constructs those tangential narratives.

Ultimately, though, I did not like this book. I really tried to like it, too.

I think Everett is extremely heavy handed in his writing. Large sections of the book are nearly unreadable, as he needlessly occupies pages and pages with Monk’s purposefully boring and long winded writing. There are pages of lists: Monk’s former books, books that have inspired his character, documents, etc.. Also, Monk offers literary critique of everything he reads; criticism that is wholly irrelevant to the story. All of the aforementioned details add nothing to his character, and are horribly and (seemingly) intentionally boring. It’s really unpleasant to read, and it’s completely masturbatory.

We read the entirety of Monk’s story “Fuck,” which is supposed to be horribly written, as much a parody as it is an exposé of racist and unserious readership. Although it is attempting to satirize that style of work, and effectively emphasizes white Americans’ ignorance and discrimination, it also perpetuates many harmful stereotypes and invokes intersectional trauma without care.

In that story, “Fuck”, there are three separate instances of sexual assault, which the reader is forced to engage with in excruciatingly graphic detail. There is casual violence against women, misogyny, anti-Asian rhetoric, ableism, homophobia, etc.. Clearly, the author is trying to draw attention to those things, but the criticism does not go far enough. This is evidenced by the fact that, in Monk’s real life, he has homophobic and misogynistic thoughts and opinions. Therefore, is the story within the story effective as satire? I would argue: not wholly.

Monk is a pretty unpleasant protagonist. He’s just an asshole, to be honest. He’s casually fatphobic, he’s homophobic, he’s mean to his brother and the housekeeper. All of his negative attributes do not particularly make me want to root for him by the end.

I understand that Everett likes a vague ending to his books, leading the audience to wonder what happens next. Still, there are so many huge moments that the reader is not privy to, it seems unfinished.

There is never a discussion between Bill and his mom. We never get a clear ending to Monk’s storyline with his love interest. There is a somewhat hastily ended plot line with his Neo-Nazi half sibling? Very weird.

On top of all of this, there are gratuitous sex scenes including two memories of prepubescent sexual interactions, which are very uncomfortable to read. Didn’t like that at all.

Yeah, not for me….

(Note: Maybe it’s blasphemous to say, but I loved the movie adaptation American Fiction. For me, it amplified the best parts of the story, and edited out the parts that frustrated me so greatly, as a reader.)

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abyakron's review against another edition

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2.0

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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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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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queenoftheharpies's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

Listened to the audiobook. Just a heads up the novel within the novel is difficult to get through - and long. It was about an hour in the audiobook.

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tofufun's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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