Book Review: Erasure by Percival Everett (2001)

Thelonious "Monk" Ellison is a tortured soul of a writer. Raised in a well-to-do family, educated at Harvard, is a published author, and black. But not "black enough". His books have nothing to do with the color of his skin, or about his "black experience". They are intellectual novels, grounded in theology and art. They are also difficult to sell, as his agent likes to point out.

But Ellison doesn't care about selling books. It's about "art".

As a child, his father once told him in a museum, when he complained about an illegible signature on a painting, "You don't sign it because you want people to know you painted it, but because you love it." Ellison was proud of his books, and proud to put his name on them.

Ellison's outlook on life and art are challenged when he finds himself in a Border's book store and locates one of his books in a section called, "African American Studies", of which, the only thing African American about the entire book is the picture on the back cover of himself. To further his dismay, he finds a runaway best seller titled, We's Lives in Da Ghetto, written by a first time black author about the "black experience". Ellison is almost brought to tears at the stereotypical depiction of the characters in this book.

Then in one anger-filled sitting, Ellison writes his own "black experience" parody – almost as a therapeutic cure to his depression – and signs it under a pseudonym, Stagg R. Leigh. The problem is, his short-term "cure" becomes his full-fledged nightmare as his parodied book becomes a huge hit and movie-in-the-making.

Percival Everett's Erasure is a parody within a parody. It is about how our society has become so obsessed with things that are shocking and awful, that we don't care if it's real or not. There's even a good stab at Oprah's book club, with an Oprah-like talkshow character picking Stagg Leigh's book for her club.

This is not a traditional satirical novel. It is almost a stream-of-consciousness piece of work, as Everett's first person character, Monk Ellison, discusses whatever is on his mind at any given moment. Whether it be Greek mythology, fishing, woodworking or memories of his father and his childhood. Thoughts that are triggered by his present day dilemmas, which include family conflicts, social and racial issues, and his impending art-compromising fame and fortune.

The other interesting facet of this novel, is the 75-page inclusion of Ellison's (Stagg R. Leigh's) parody, called My Pafology. A ghetto drama about a troubled black teenager's life.

Everett does a good job of keeping the reader on their toes, switching from humor to horrible and back again, as Ellison weaves his way through the uncontrollable pitfalls of life and the self-induced dilemma he has created with My Pafology.

In the end, Monk Ellison and his self-despised alter-ego, Stagg R. Leigh, must find a way to unravel the mess they've woven and still retain an artistic integrity.