Erasure by Percival Everett
Aug. 25th, 2025 05:04 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
m_oonmoonI read this book while severely distracted by events in my personal life so I fear I may not have given it the attention it deserves. Although, I get the feeling that even with my full attention, bits of the book would still have flown over my head. There were short sections of the book referencing historical thinkers/intellectuals and I could not make the connection that Everett was trying to say. If I can find a more in-depth analyses of this book, I think I can appreciate those sections better.
Other than that, Erasure is fairly straight-forward. The main character, Monk, hears about a black author's success in writing a supposedly 'authentic' account of life in Harlem. Finding this offensive (as he believes that this authenticity is nothing more than white America reinforcing their prejudices and assumptions of black people's inner lives), he decides to write his own satirical take on what a 'black novel' is. To his surprise, the publishers take his work seriously and he gains the fame and recognition that he never had writing the books that he actually wanted to write (deemed too inaccessible, not black enough, by publishers and the general public). All of these take place as Monk deals with his own family problems and his conflicting feelings about selling out (is it selling out if he gets paid good money for a work that he meant as a parody but which was nevertheless taken seriously?).
I am shocked at how short the novel is. I think that given its themes and how interesting Monk and his family life is, it could have gone for a bit longer. As it stands, I felt that it was way too condensed for me to get anything lasting from it. I would have loved to read more about Monk's exploration of his art. I also felt that Monk's dynamics with his family was worth exploring with even finer detail. Nevertheless, the book left me with much to think about and I believe it would benefit from a second, closer read.
Other than that, Erasure is fairly straight-forward. The main character, Monk, hears about a black author's success in writing a supposedly 'authentic' account of life in Harlem. Finding this offensive (as he believes that this authenticity is nothing more than white America reinforcing their prejudices and assumptions of black people's inner lives), he decides to write his own satirical take on what a 'black novel' is. To his surprise, the publishers take his work seriously and he gains the fame and recognition that he never had writing the books that he actually wanted to write (deemed too inaccessible, not black enough, by publishers and the general public). All of these take place as Monk deals with his own family problems and his conflicting feelings about selling out (is it selling out if he gets paid good money for a work that he meant as a parody but which was nevertheless taken seriously?).
I am shocked at how short the novel is. I think that given its themes and how interesting Monk and his family life is, it could have gone for a bit longer. As it stands, I felt that it was way too condensed for me to get anything lasting from it. I would have loved to read more about Monk's exploration of his art. I also felt that Monk's dynamics with his family was worth exploring with even finer detail. Nevertheless, the book left me with much to think about and I believe it would benefit from a second, closer read.