Erasure is a 2001 novel by American writer Percival Everett. It was originally published by the University Press of New England. 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.[1]
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| Author | Percival Everett |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Genre | Satire |
| Publisher | UPNE |
Publication date | 2001 |
| Publication place | United States |
| ISBN | 9781584651604 |
Upon its release, Erasure was widely praised by critics.
Plot
editErasure's protagonist, Thelonious "Monk" Ellison, a professor of English literature and novelist, is in a rut. He writes novels that are highly academic and philosophical, often with reference to Greek mythology and literary theory. The book establishes itself during a trip to Washington, DC, where Ellison presents a paper to a literary society. During the visit, he witnesses his aging mother, now cared for full-time by his sister, suffering from declining memory and health issues.
Ellison struggles to get his books published because, as his agent repeatedly explains to him, publishing houses do not believe his writing to be "black enough". Ellison is also confronted with the success of a novel, We's Lives In Da Ghetto, by first-time writer Juanita Mae Jenkins. Despite Ellison finding the book full of cliches and lazy stereotypes, it becomes a bestseller and makes Jenkins an instant critical darling. Ellison's sister dies unexpectedly, and he moves to DC to replace her as his mother's caregiver.
Frustrated with his job prospects in DC, Ellison sits down to write a "black" novel that will be palatable to the publishers. Using the assumed identity of a black convict named Stagg R. Leigh, Monk quickly composes a satirical response to Jenkins' text, 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 simply Fuck.
Fuck is written in ten chapters, as a novel within a novel. The plot is an exaggerated story of a young black man who has several babies by different women whom he abuses as he falls into a life of delinquency and crime with his friends. The dialogue is deliberately written in a style that relies heavily on African-American English and phonetic spellings that reflect that variety of English.
To Ellison's shock, his agent is able to quickly get a publishing deal for Fuck, earning him half a million dollars in advance fees. The novel quickly becomes his best-selling work to date and gets optioned by a film producer. Throughout the process of selling and optioning the film, Ellison fashions a persona as the convicted "author" Leigh in order to maintain his credibility.
In his personal life, his mother's mental health goes downhill. They take a "last vacation" to their weekend home on the Chesapeake, where Ellison briefly strikes up a relationship with a local woman. At the end of the novel, Leigh wins a major publishing award for the success of Fuck. As Ellison approaches to stage to accept it, he hallucinates the people he's known throughout his life and imagines himself looking in a mirror and seeing Leigh.
Structure
editThe Guardian review described the book as a "skillful, extended parody of ghetto novels such as Sapphire's Push."[2]
Reception
editThe novel was well received. According to Book Marks, based on mostly American publications, the book received "rave" reviews based on thirteen critic reviews, with nine being "rave" and three being "positive" and one being "mixed".[3] The Daily Telegraph reported on reviews from several publications with a rating scale for the novel out of "Love It", "Pretty Good", "Ok", and "Rubbish": Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Times, Sunday Times, and TLS reviews under "Love It" and Independent and Sunday Telegraph reviews under "Pretty Good".[4]
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."[2] 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."[5]
Erasure won the inaugural Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in 2002.[6]
In 2024, it was listed on The Atlantic's The Great American Novels list.[7] In the same year, the New York Times named it the 20th best book of the 21st century.[8]
Film adaptation
editAfter receiving literary praise for the novel, Everett was initially reluctant to license the novel for adaptation.[9] American filmmaker Cord Jefferson, however, presented a compelling case for an adaptation and the changes to the plot and story in the script satisfied Everett.[10]
After several years of production, the film adaption was released in 2023 under the title American Fiction, written and directed by Jefferson and starring Jeffrey Wright, Tracee Ellis Ross, Erika Alexander, Sterling K. Brown, and Leslie Uggams.[1] The film won the Toronto International Film Festival People's Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival that year.[11] The film received five nominations at the 96th Academy Awards, including Best Picture and won Best Adapted Screenplay.[12]
References
edit- ^ a b Willmore, Alison (September 10, 2023). "We're Going to Be Talking About This Book-World Satire All Fall". Vulture. Archived from the original on September 25, 2023. Retrieved September 20, 2023.
- ^ a b Pinckney, Darryl (April 18, 2003). "Colour bind – Percival Everett's new novel, Erasure, is an intriguing, richly layered satire on the commercialisation of literary culture, says Darryl Pinckney". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on September 10, 2014. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
- ^ "Erasure". Book Marks. Retrieved January 16, 2024.
- ^ "Books of the moment: What the papers say". The Daily Telegraph. April 26, 2003. p. 158. Retrieved July 19, 2024.
- ^ Tripney, Natasha (February 5, 2010). "Erasure by Percival Everett". Ready Steady Book. Archived from the original on September 2, 2014. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
- ^ "The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award". African American Literature Book Club. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
- ^ "The Great American Novels". The Atlantic. March 14, 2024. Archived from the original on April 24, 2024. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
- ^ "The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century". The New York Times. July 8, 2024. Retrieved July 16, 2024.
- ^ Bell, Carole V. (December 12, 2023). "Advice from a critic: Read 'Erasure' before seeing 'American Fiction'". NPR. Archived from the original on April 29, 2024. Retrieved May 1, 2024.
- ^ Uwagba, Otegha (January 28, 2024). "How Cord Jefferson turned a novel about race into American Fiction – the year's buzziest comedy". The Guardian. ISSN 0029-7712. Archived from the original on March 22, 2024. Retrieved March 22, 2024.
- ^ Pulver, Andrew (September 18, 2023). "Literary satire American Fiction takes Toronto film festival's top award". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Archived from the original on February 27, 2024. Retrieved October 18, 2023.
- ^ Clark, Jason (February 6, 2024). "'American Fiction' Oscar Nominee Cord Jefferson Says He Stills Feels Like a Journalist at Heart". TheWrap. Archived from the original on February 9, 2024. Retrieved February 28, 2024.
Further reading
edit- Russett, Margaret (2005). "Race Under Erasure". Callaloo. 28 (2): 358–368. doi:10.1353/cal.2005.0059. ISSN 1080-6512. S2CID 162296410. Retrieved April 25, 2014.
- Eaton, Kimberly (2006). "Deconstructing the Narrative: Language, Genre, and Experience in Erasure" (PDF). Nebula. 3 (2/3): 220–232.
- Moynihan, Sinead (2008). "Living Parchments, Human Documents: Racial Identity and Authorship in Percival Everett's Erasure and Hannah Crafts' The Bondwoman". Engaging Tradition, Making It New: Essays on Teaching Recent African American Literature. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 103–21. ISBN 9781847185280.