Percival Everett is an experimental novelist and an English professor at the University of Southern California. Erasure is his thirteenth book of fiction. He has bounced from a major New York publisher in 1983, when he was a promising young African American writer, to small houses and university presses, his face glowering from his book covers more unhappily every time.
First, if Dr. MLK was a journalist, he would be Ralph Ellison. Second, after trying to read a little of Mr Everett novel, I found his style, very self-referential, resulting in a splitting of character between the protagonist and the narrator (who is supposedly the same).
First, if Dr. MLK was a journalist, he would be Ralph Ellison. Second, after trying to read a little of Mr Everett novel, I found his style, very self-referential, resulting in a splitting of character between the protagonist and the narrator (who is supposedly the same).
Thank you for this. I didn’t know about him--and now I do. Trees and James on the reading list.
Surprised you didn’t include a comment about the fine film, American Fiction, made from the book. Thank you.
It’s in this month’s Real Life Rock, posted yesterday.
Silly me, I realize your column was written years before the film was made.