Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

Erasure by Percival Everett

5 reviews

zara89's review

challenging dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Death of parent, and Cursing

Moderate: Terminal illness, Dementia, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual content, Chronic illness, Cursing, Violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Death, Drug abuse, Rape, Cultural appropriation, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, and Abortion

stephe's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Police brutality, Misogyny, Mental illness, Fatphobia, Cursing, Classism, Body shaming, Homophobia, Violence, Rape, Racial slurs, Abortion, and Murder

Without spoiling the story, nearly all of the graphic content is intentionally and satirically lurid and outlandish, not depictions grounded in the world of the story.

realtightsweater's review against another edition

funny reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Mostly read so I can go watch American Fiction. There were some parts like about fly fishing and wood working and random sentences in latin that I didn't really understand. The book didn't seem to start moving until the last third and then ended a bit abruptly.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Medical trauma, Dementia, Abortion, Murder, and Gun violence

jessicasonley's review against another edition

challenging funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Rape, Racism, Death of parent, and Dementia

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Abortion

eveningreverie's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Everett doesn't deal with too many fantastical elements in this, though it is quite City of Glass in the execution of its finale. He uses a whole lot of literary realism to confront the lenses that people in positions of power in the literary industry use in order to provide so-called "scholarly critique" of the artistic efforts of minorities. The themes of familial alienation, patriarchal discontentment, and abject violence in the face of a societal lack of understanding complement one another to create a very, very interesting world for Everett to play with these ideas of racial bias in art and what is considered "authentic." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Minor: Abortion