Writer Thelonious Monk Ellison has never let his being a Black man in America define his identity or literature. But when a new book, We's Lives in Da Ghetto, by a young and middle-class Black woman, is hailed as an authentic representation of the African American experience and garners nationwide attention, Monk is beyond himself. In a fit of rage, Monk writes a parody encompassing the exploitative and ghetto wanna-be lit under a pseudonym. Except his new book is greeted as an authentic new voice and considered the next American great novel. What will Monk do as his satirical novel gains traction in mainstream American literature?

This is my second book by Everett, and it continues to blow my mind away, just like what he did in THE TREES. In (I believe even with an n of two) Everett's signature style of blending criticism of America's racial bias and satire of the hilariously unbelievable, ERASURE is an ingenious, profound, and tragic tale of writing as an act of not memorializing but rather erasure.

Stylistically, ERASURE is so experimental that it veers toward highbrow—at times to the point I anguish in my lack of cultural depth to grasp Everett's undoubtedly brilliant references. We follow the main narrative of Monk's life, where he struggles to write his next novel after finding mild success with his first publication while dealing with several family tragedies and emergencies. This first layer is interspersed with passages of historical figures & artists having conversations, musings about Monk's childhood, and academic papers of... tbh I have no idea what that part was about