In \u201cErasure,\u201d Thelonious “Monk” Ellison writes historical novels that are best known \u2013 if they are known at all \u2013 for their obscurity. Your books don\u2019t sell, Monk\u2019s agent tells him, because \u201cthe line is, you\u2019re not black enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Monk rankles. \u201cI have dark brown skin, curly hair, a broad nose,\u201d he says, \u201csome of my ancestors were slaves and I have been detained by pasty white policemen in New Hampshire, Arizona and Georgia and so the society in which I live tells me I am black.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nonethelesss, Monk remains content to be his own version of Black until a first-time author writes a bestseller called \u201cWe’s Lives in Da Ghetto,\u201d a clich\u00e9-ridden work peppered with street-corner patois and lauded by critics as \u201ca masterpiece of African-American literature.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Enraged by the crudeness of the book, Monk fumes and sulks until one night, alone in his mother\u2019s house after just installing her in an assisted-living facility, fury drives him to write a parody of \u201cDa Ghetto.\u201d He finishes it in five days, titles it \u201cMy Pafology,\u201d assigns himself the pseudonym of Stagg R. Leigh (a 19th<\/sup> century Black pimp). Of course, his agent loves it and gets Monk a hefty advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe imbalance between his minimum effort and his maximum reward forces Monk to confront himself: Is he the USC academic and remainder-table novelist who fly fishes, or is he a scribbling sellout who traffics in racial tropes to bank big money? Is he more Black as the latter than the former?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is the fourth Percival Everett novel I\u2019ve read (after \u201cTelephone,\u201d \u201cThe Trees\u201d and \u201cJames,\u201d this year\u2019s National Book Award winner). All share what seem to be signature Everett characteristics: cleverness, intelligence, and characters who don\u2019t betray the complexity of being human.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cErasure\u201d entertains, but also questions. It respects the reader by allowing irresoluteness to stand. It is a delight to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(\u201cErasure\u201d gained fame last year with the release of the film \u201cAmerican Fiction,\u201d which is based on the book.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There are few cultural realms more fraught with foot-in-mouth peril than racial identity, especially when it clashes with stereotypical expectations. In \u201cErasure,\u201d Thelonious “Monk” Ellison writes historical novels that are best known \u2013 if they are known at all \u2013 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[784],"tags":[770,925,926,877],"class_list":["post-2347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","tag-book-review","tag-erasure","tag-parody","tag-percival-everett"],"yoast_head":"\nBookshelf - Erasure, Percival Everett (2001)Bookshelf - Erasure, Percival Everett (2001) - Tim Porter's Second Draft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This is the fourth Percival Everett novel I\u2019ve read (after \u201cTelephone,\u201d \u201cThe Trees\u201d and \u201cJames,\u201d this year\u2019s National Book Award winner). 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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n