Hello one and all!
Well, I picked up a new book last week and I just wanted to let you know about it because it is fantastic! Erasure, by Percival Everett - has anybody here read it? It is about a black novelist whose agent tells him that his books are "not black enough". He is angry and depressed by this, and eventually responds by writing a parody of "life in the ghetto/misery memoir"-style books, and submitting it to his agent. He expects his agent to say, "Whoops... What I said to you was unbelievably crass and stupid, and I apologise." Of course, what his agent actually says is, "Yep, this is fantastic! You have finally written your breakthrough novel!"
After much soul searching, he decides to publish it. His reasoning is that the book was created as an expression of disgust with the marginalisation of black people's experiences. As such, it is a valid artistic statement, and if people misinterpret it, well, people misinterpret it. You can lead a horse to water, etc, etc.
The parody, entitled My Pafology, is inevitably a huge success and turns him (or rather, his alter-ego, because he published it under a pen-name) into an instant celebrity. While all of this is happening, several other sub-plots unfold, such as his mother's continual slide into Alzheimer's (a clear metaphor for the erasure of a person's identity and history), the murder of his sister (the erasure of a life), the discovery that he has a half-sister whose mother was white, and other things besides. The writing is intense and focused and there is barely a wasted word in the prose, but despite its intensity and seriousness the book manages to be hilariously funny in places, and Everett wraps it all up in less than 300 pages. It is an incredible achievement, and an important and insightful book.
Has anyone else read it, and did you enjoy it?
Well, I picked up a new book last week and I just wanted to let you know about it because it is fantastic! Erasure, by Percival Everett - has anybody here read it? It is about a black novelist whose agent tells him that his books are "not black enough". He is angry and depressed by this, and eventually responds by writing a parody of "life in the ghetto/misery memoir"-style books, and submitting it to his agent. He expects his agent to say, "Whoops... What I said to you was unbelievably crass and stupid, and I apologise." Of course, what his agent actually says is, "Yep, this is fantastic! You have finally written your breakthrough novel!"
After much soul searching, he decides to publish it. His reasoning is that the book was created as an expression of disgust with the marginalisation of black people's experiences. As such, it is a valid artistic statement, and if people misinterpret it, well, people misinterpret it. You can lead a horse to water, etc, etc.
The parody, entitled My Pafology, is inevitably a huge success and turns him (or rather, his alter-ego, because he published it under a pen-name) into an instant celebrity. While all of this is happening, several other sub-plots unfold, such as his mother's continual slide into Alzheimer's (a clear metaphor for the erasure of a person's identity and history), the murder of his sister (the erasure of a life), the discovery that he has a half-sister whose mother was white, and other things besides. The writing is intense and focused and there is barely a wasted word in the prose, but despite its intensity and seriousness the book manages to be hilariously funny in places, and Everett wraps it all up in less than 300 pages. It is an incredible achievement, and an important and insightful book.
Has anyone else read it, and did you enjoy it?