Erasure, by Percival Everett: The Jones Library Community Read for 2025
Percival Everett. Photo: Josh Davis
The Jones Library’s 13th annual “On the Same Page” community reading program will feature the book Erasure, by Percival Everett. The program’s highlight event is an in-depth community discussion of the book, led by UMass-Amherst Assistant Professor of English Jimmy Worthy and library staff member Linda Wentworth on Tuesday, February 25 at 7 p.m. in the Amherst Room of the Jones Library. On Friday, February 28 Everett will come to the Johnson Chapel at Amherst College to speak about “The Making of American Fiction” at 5 p.m. The Amherst College talk is free, but tickets are required. This event is already full, but interested readers are invited to register here to be added to the waitlist.
Another associated event is a presentation on Understanding Alzheimer’s and Dementia by Meghan Lemay, Regional Manager for the Western Massachusetts office of the Massachusetts/New Hampshire chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association. The presentation will take place on Tuesday, February 18 at 6:30 p.m. in the Woodbury Room and will deal with the difference between Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, the early warning signs of dementia, risk factors, the importance of early detection, new treatment options, and local resources. (Dementia plays a central role in Percival’s novel).
About the Novel and the Author
Erasure centers on a distinguished literary writer named Thelonious “Monk” Ellison. His latest manuscript has been rejected by seventeen publishers, which stings all the more because his previous novels have been “critically acclaimed.” He seethes on the sidelines of the literary establishment as he watches the meteoric success of We’s Lives in Da Ghetto, a first novel by a woman who once visited “some relatives in Harlem for a couple of days.” In his rage, Monk dashes off a novel meant to be an indictment of that bestselling book. He doesn’t intend for My Pafology, written under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh to be published, let alone taken seriously, but it is. How Monk deals with the personal and professional fallout galvanizes this audacious, hysterical, and quietly devastating book.
The 2023 feature film American Fiction was based on Erasure. It received five Academy Award nominations and was awarded the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay. The novel was the winner of the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award for Fiction in 2002, this novel was also an ALA Notable Book – Fiction in 2002.
The library has tentative plans to screen American Fiction on Saturday, February 22 at 2:30. Check the webpage for more details in coming weeks.
Percival Everett is a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of Southern California. He is the author, most recently, of James, winner of the National Book Award in 2024. Other books include Dr. No (finalist for the NBCC Award for Fiction and winner of the PEN/ Jean Stein Book Award), The Trees (finalist for the Booker Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction), Telephone (finalist for the Pulitzer Prize), So Much Blue, and I Am Not Sidney Poitier. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife, the writer Danzy Senna, and their children.
Where to Get a Copy of Erasure
Paperback copies of the book are available to borrow at the Jones Library Reference Desk and at both branches. Borrow an e-book or e-audio through Overdrive / Libby. Purchase your own copy at Amherst Books in downtown Amherst.