Review: American Fiction Is Radical

Moving closer to the self... and the acceptance (ugh)... of the loves of others

There comes a time in everyone's life when you have a pure unadulterated hatred of everything. Someone shows you something they love and you shit on it. You just immediately jump to the darkest part of yourself and you and hate hate hate. Your brother shows you a song they like, you say it would be better with different lyrics. Your best friend tells you to check out a movie and you take a steaming dump on it after you watch. Your lover makes you watch RuPaul's Drag Race and you start making sardonic comments and not paying attention to the characters on the show to the point they refuse to watch while you’re at home. 

That is the life of Thelonius "Monk" Ellison, and that's what happens every time he sees a person doing well in writing, the field he's picked for himself. Monk is a combination of things. He's black, he's a writer, and both of his siblings are doctors just like their father was. They're all doing well enough for themselves, but only Monk's sister Lisa stays home to take care of their mother who is dealing with failing health. Unfortunately, the older woman seems to slip further and further down the path of dementia as she ages. 

Monk kind of hates everything. He went out west with his brother Cliff and slowly grew into a jaded writer who’s written three amazing books people who read love but may find because they’re in the Black History section of every bookstore where they don’t belong. Now, Monk cannot even sell his most recent book, and it makes him even more cantankerous. Monk likes to argue with people. He argues with his co-workers, he argues with his agent, he argues with his sister and brother, and almost every other person that he meets. He thinks everything they like sucks.