yeah, that's right. if i only knew about this before i Voted things woulda been different. i wouldn't have Voted. i would have stayed home and read this Damn Book. it's good, man. tell the people at the Voting place not to miss me next time, cuz i'll probably reading anudder one of these Books. because i like them. word to the factions of readers who dig the everett. word to them. word indeed.

This novel convinces me, were I in need of convincing, that Percival Everett is the most devious, unscrupulpous, and altogether brilliant writer of comedy in America. Hell, he'sprobably the best writer of anything.

This is an immensely enjoyable read. Once I cut it open, I could not put it down. Everett's main character, Rhino Tanner, is so detestable, you end up actually accepting him simply because he revels in his own distorted and destructive ideas. 'Comedy with fangs'? I totally agree.

In "Erasure",Percival Everett has written a book within a book and the reader can be excused for feeling he or she has purchased two books in one. Everett is clearly fed up with the current plague of "blaxploitation" novels, badly written by writers with no art and even less craft, whose only purpose is to jump on the "ghetto fab" bandwagon and make a quick buck. His protagonist, Thelonious Ellison (with the name Thelonius, what else could he be called but Monk?), writes literature deemed too obscure (read: too "white") for a black audience and finds his work relegated to dusty corners in the back of the bookstores. Fueling his outrage is a piece of trash literature called "We Lives In Da Ghetto", hailed as an "authentic" voice of the "black experience" by reviewers who lump all blacks as ghetto blacks, which rakes in $3 million. What's a struggling author with bills to pay and a terminally ailing mother to do? If you can't beat 'em, join 'em... better yet, out-do 'em. In no time at all, Monk has banged out the blaxploitation novel to end all blaxploitation novels, a mishmash called "My Pafology" (later renamed a four-letter word I can't print here), under the pseudonym Stagg R. Lee, which not only wins the National Book Award, but also has Hollywood beating his door down for the movie rights. Everett is clearly disgusted both at those whites whose contempt of blacks runs so deep that they take trash "blaxploitation" novels at face value and consider them as representative of "the black experience" (as if there is one single "black experience"), and at those blacks whose lack of self-respect is so deep that they buy into the hype. As a black reader, I share his feelings totally. Everett at times takes himself too seriously and this is the only thing that kept me from giving this book five stars; but he's an enormously talented and promising writer who has the gift of making you think even while he has you laughing out loud. I'm looking forward to his next book.

My last few reads have been easy reads, just a step above watching televison in terms of depth and plot. Hey, sometimes I enjoy a nice breezy read.

With Erasure, Mr. Everett isn't making things that simple. It's not a complicated, boring textbook read but you will have to *think* (and in some cases, bust out a foreign language dictionary) and the more you think, the more layers you'll uncover.

While the main plot centers around Monk, a writer with marginal success, and his sudden fame at writing a ghetto fabulous new-wave Mantan novel, the incidents that surround this rise to fame touch deeply on other themes - family ties, socio-economic status, and love (to name a few). Everett covers a lot of ground with this book and ties it all together masterfully (and with quite a bit of humor).

If you're at all interested how race intersects with the publishing industry (i.e. "Hey, I wrote a book about plumbing and I happen to be Black, why is my plumbing book in the African-American section of the bookstore?"), pick this book up. If you want a good read that will make you think without making you choke on your own yawns, pick this book up. Hey, even if you like stereotypical novels filled with difficult to read Ebonics, pick this book up - just skip to Monk's mini-novel in the middle.

I wanted to be the first to say it but someone beat me to it. Erasure is a Awesome, a multifaceted satire of the NEW Black Literature scene, dead on target and right on time, no doubt one of the best books I've read this year.

Thelonius "Monk" Ellison is a lit professor slash writer who has had marginal success with his previous novels and now can't get a publisher for his new book because he doesn't write "black enough". While visiting his mother and sister in his hometown, Washington DC, he steps into a Border's bookstore and is mortified by the fact that one of his previous works was found in the "African American Studies" section of the store when his book has nothing to do with African American studies but instead a Greek tragedy. He comes across a book called, We Lives In Da Ghetto, and his sister lets him know that it's the hottest selling book right now and will be made into a movie. He opens the book and reads the first few paragraphs and again, mortified, "this is the black experience that they want him to write about." So he does, under an pseudonymous alter ego. The novel catapults him to instant success and money, which he is in need of badly to care for his mother who has Alzheimers.

The psuedo novel is included in Erasure and is complete with have finished sentences, Ebonics to the tenth degree and lots of explicatives that describe sex, violence and finally, life in da ghetto. Alas, he's written a "true gritty black novel." The pressure mounts when his publisher wants him to make a public appearance as Stagg R. Leigh, his alter ego. Does he show his face to the literature community that he once mocked for it's incompetence and ingnorance? The cover of the book pretty much tells the rest of the story.

Equally impious and improbable, Percival Everett's story of Craig Suder's sacrificing his baseball career to (inadvertently?) end up pursing an unacknowledged life-long dream is likely to disturb respectable folk. Those with delicate sensibilities need not open this wonderfully instructive and sometimes comically funny work. Nevertheless, Everett's finely detailed chronicle of a slumping professional third baseman's journey to self-awareness is an affirmation in the best sense of the word. Bringing in a diverse cast of characters- -including a taxidermically-obsessed baseball manager, an abused run-away sub-teen, and a long-suffering elephant who finds happiness in the Oregon hill country- -Everett leads the slumping pro ball player to an epiphany of the soul which concludes with a satisfying Icarus-like journey that is also a moving tribute to the jazz of Charlie "Byrd" Parker.

Have fun!

This book has a main character, Craig, who's a professional baseball player who has hit a major slump in the major leagues and takes some time off. While soul searching and trying to maintain some semblance of sanity, Craig takes the reader through his abnormal childhood and reflects on the antics of his mother who was mentally insane. Although the ending leaves much to be desired, the content of the book will make you laugh, and say, "WHAT!" several times. Craig and his mother will stay with you long after you've finished this novel. The most memorable scene for me was the baseball game with the mother being an unofficial coach to Craig by showing him how to run the bases while wearing a full length mink coat. Happy reading.