Erasure

A Novel

De: Percival Everett

Narrado por: Sean Crisden

Percival Everett's blistering satire about race and publishing, now as the Oscar-nominated film, American Fiction, directed by Cord Jefferson and starring Jeffrey Wright and Tracee Ellis Ross.

Thelonious "Monk" Ellison's writing career has bottomed out: his latest manuscript has been rejected by seventeen publishers, which stings all the more because his previous novels have been "critically acclaimed." He seethes on the sidelines of the literary establishment as he watches the meteoric success of We's Lives in Da Ghetto, a first novel by a woman who once visited "some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days." Meanwhile, Monk struggles with real family tragedies—his aged mother is fast succumbing to Alzheimer's, and he still grapples with the reverberations of his father's suicide seven years before.

In his rage and despair, Monk dashes off a novel meant to be an indictment of Juanita Mae Jenkins's bestseller. He doesn't intend for My Pafology to be published, let alone taken seriously, but it is—under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh—and soon it becomes the Next Big Thing. How Monk deals with the personal and professional fallout galvanizes this audacious, hysterical, and quietly devastating novel.

©2001 Percival Everett (P)2023 Tantor

Great performance of a great book

The vocal performance is perfect and the satire is hilarious. I highly recommend this book before you see the movie…

Recommend reading over listening

Extremely uneven sound quality meant I was constantly turning the volume up and down as I listened.
For me, this story would have been better read than listened to. It is complex, with a plethora of art and history references. My brain didn’t have time to digest Percival’s no-doubt brilliant writing before the story would pivot to another character or time.

Authentic Storytelling

Erasure was thoughtful, funny, and sensitive. I enjoyed how the writer shared the balancing act he has navigating his expected and desired life and the lives of his loved ones past and present.

Didn’t see the movie… loved the book!

I wish I’d known about this book years ago. It would’ve saved me a lot of anguish.

The Parody itself…

I liked the display of intelligence and versatility of the protagonist. The juxtaposition of Monk’s family ( with all the family’s shortcomings and failings) against the gross parody of “Van Go’s”life and those of other black lives. The lumping, the stereotypical grouping that supports “ the suspension of disbelief “ for white folks. In most cases so that “hands can be washed clean”
I liked this book very much!!