Erasure, by Percival Everett

 

Erasure was my Albany book club's May pick and I was excited to read it because it's the book behind the film American fiction, which I saw in a local theater back in February. I loved the film and I'm happy to say that I love the book as well. Now that I've read the book, I'm impressed by how closely the film followed the book, although it comes across as much funnier on screen. Erasure is about a novelist and professor named Thelonious Ellison, who goes by his nickname, Monk. Raised in a well-off and highly educated family, he writes literary fiction with fairly modest sales. A death in the family leads to Monk's relocation to the Washington, D.C. area to be his mother's caretaker; she has dementia and is becoming more and more difficult to manage at home. After several scary incidents, Monk puts his mother in a nursing facility, leaving himself more and more isolated. With his latest book rejected by multiple publishers, and in need of funds to support his mother, he decides to write a parody of urban fiction that ends up becoming a best seller. Trying to maintain his anonymity, dabbling in a new romantic interest, and taking care of his mother, he struggles to forge a path forward with many comical outcomes. I loved Everett's writing and look forward to reading more by him. His latest novel, James, tells the story of Huckleberry Finn from the enslaved man Jim's viewpoint. That book has been selected for my local book club's September read, along with the original Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, giving us the summer to read both.