Erasure

by Percival Everett

This has to be the strangest book I've reviewed thus far. It is also the only novel I know of that has a novel inside it. That's right, the narrator/main character writes a novel, which the reader gets to read in its entirety. Does this mean I really have to do two reviews? One of Erasure and another on My Pafology (the novel inside, which later becomes Fuck)? I'm not sure the proper approach, but no, I'm not going to do two.

This novel, simply put, is about a man, Thelonius "Monk" Ellison who is a novelist and struggling with the concept that people don't think he's black enough. He's also trying to deal with the demise of his family as his mother slowly succumbs to the horrors of Alzheimer's, his sister is murdered, and his brother accepts his homosexuality. Basically, Monk has a life that is being thrown around like crazy, not to mention a the book Wes Lives in da Ghetto by Juanita Mae Jenkins is taking America by storm.

I loved this novel because Percival Everett attacked something not many people have the guts to do: Race and identity. Monk is black, but he hates that people see him as black, he lashes out society. Everett is also very experimental is narrative structure, throwing us for a loop with flashbacks, novels, short stories, lectures, and a curriculum vitae. When you get to the end (which just stops, mind you, no closure whatsoever), you are stunned and shocked at what you just read.

It is also not until the very end of the book that you realize what this novel means. You think back over how Monk got to the ending and the only word you can think of is "clever." When I set this book down, I paused for a second with it in my lap. A light bulb went off in my head and I realized there is not a better title Everett could have thought of. What's being erased in this book will shock you, and so will the attacks on the society you've lived in. You must read this book.

6 stars (and yes, the scale only goes to 5).

Next: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

"The Curious Case of Benjamin Button"

by F. Scott Fitzgerald

I'm going to start by saying that I have not seen the movie. With that said, I would like to say the movie is better. A paradox, you might think, but this short story (and thank God it was only a short story) was just plain awful. Fitzgerald, I'm sure, is an excellent writer, but I have nothing of his to compare this to.

Basically, Ben Button is born at age 70 and slowly gets younger. That is the entire story. There is no plot, no conflict, nothing to get over except that he is older so when he is 18 he can't go to college but when he's 50 he can (because 18 made him look 52, so 50 made him look 20). It's a clever idea, based on a conversation Fitzgerald had with Mark Twain, but he didn't turn it into a story, but rather a quick shot at a person's life, and for that the story failed. I have nothing more to say, because there is nothing to say for a story that had nothing in it.

A single star

The Feast of Love

by Charles Baxter

This novel, if you can call it a novel, was odd. It starts with the author himself (Charles Baxter) awaking from a nightmare and going on a walk. He runs into Bradley, his friend, and Bradly, Bradley's dog. From here on out the book is a series of narratives about many different people who all know each other in some way.

The part I loved best about the book is the same thing I hated: the voices. I loved most of the voices, and you will too if you read this book. Baxter has an amazing ability to give every narrator a distinct voice. You forget that the novel has no plot, none at all, because you're captivated by the way some of these people talk. My favorite was Chloé (pronounced Clo-AY not CLO-ee), followed closely by the other women in the book.

I didn't like, however, Bradley (the man, not the dog) or Harry. They were dull, too metaphorical, and clearly Baxter trying not to give in to the sense of commercial fiction that the other voices gave. If he had altered them to be more like the way people talk, and less like the way a literary narrator speaks, then I would have loved this book even more. Anything and everything wrong lies in those two voices. Their story-lines were not dull, no that's not the problem, the problem lies in Bradley's incessant whining, and Harry's overzealous love of Kierkekaard. Remove those, Charlie Baxter (as he refers to himself) and you've got yourself a perfect book.

Now I want to watch the movie, which stars Morgan Freeman doubling up as Harry and Charlie. It came out a couple years ago, but read the book first, because I've been told the movie makes everyone "pretty," and well, Chloé and her boyfriend Oscar are far from "pretty."

4.5 stars!

Up Next: Erasure by Percival Everett