Erasure is a witty, intellectual, and very human novel about many things. Writing (artistically and commercially), family, identity, probably some other stuff I left off this very short list. I do think it's well written and biting, but at the same time it didn't grab me personally the way some other books have.

I appreciated the writing in this book the most when it came to characterization and character relationships. Monk's family feels fully fleshed out, even characters like his father, who have been deceased for years and only appear in flashbacks. Their relationships are complex and seem very real. Percival Everett manages to sketch these relationships and character personalities through even quick moments and interactions, which is a big breath of fresh air compared to some other trashy books I've been reading lately. In particular, Monk's interactions with his mother as she struggles with dementia are poignant and balance out the more absurd humor of the rest of the book.

I also liked Monk as a character. He's intellectually snobbish, socially awkward, and the exact opposite of the swaggering ex-con persona he adopts to write his satirical novel. As a narrator, he's snarky and also pretty profound. The main issue I had with Monk's narration is the little interludes of Latin and literary references. I am sure that it's in character, but as a normie and not an English professor, I struggled to understand what the interludes added to the story besides establishing that Monk is an academic and a bit of a pretentious oddball.

As a satire, I found it interesting but probably would have needed to know more about the specific areas being satirized (academic literary conventions, book awards, gritty "urban" novels about stereotypical Black characters) to get the full experience. I did appreciate the over the top metafiction and absurd posturing of the literary critics in the beginning of the book, as well as some of the antics that publishers get up to in pursuit of Monk's mysterious alter ego, Stagg R. Leigh.

I do wish I knew more about the books that are directly being critiqued by Erasure and Monk's in-universe novel. People have brought up Invisible Man and Push as examples of books about traumatized poor Black characters, which potentially promote problematic images of Black American life. Erasure's Fuck and We's Lives in Da Ghetto are both clearly inauthentic because they're written by middle class/ upper middle class Black authors, who do not have these lived experiences and are merely regurgitating existing stereotypes of Black characters. Meanwhile, Invisible Man and Push were both written by authors who did experience poverty. It is harder to call these books inauthentic and problematic if they do reflect the author's actual life experiences.

Additionally, I'm mixed on Everett's need to include Monk's novel Fuck / My Pafology in the book in its entirety. On the one hand, it's good to see the absurdity of the work that Monk publishes and makes readers extra shocked at the glowing reception it receives from white critics. (I appreciated some inclusion of the novel's actual text, which is one thing I wish other satires about publishing like Yellowface did.) On the other, it takes up a significant portion of an already short book and kind of messes with the pacing in my mind. 

For me personally, I would have liked the book a little more if the satire had gone harder in the second half of the book. I don't think it's a bad creative choice for Everett to dig into Monk's family for genuine pathos in this part, but the parts I found funniest were the kind of crazy and absurd moments in the beginning with the dirtbag academics. I was kind of missing that energy a little bit towards the end, even though the book's plot is supposedly thickening and escalating. 

Overall, a solidly written, satirical, and surprisingly emotional book. Not one of my standout favorites from the last year, but definitely a great choice if you want to read a smart takedown of the publishing industry and the stereotypical labels it places on Black authors.