American Fiction is a American comedy-drama film written and directed by Cord Jefferson in his feature directorial debut. Based on the novel Erasure by Percival Everett , it follows a frustrated African-American novelist-professor who writes an outlandish satire of stereotypical "Black" books , only for it to be mistaken for serious literature and published to high sales and critical praise.
It was named one of the top 10 films of by the American Film Institute. While his novels receive academic praise, they sell poorly, and publishers reject his latest manuscript for not being "Black enough". His university places him on temporary leave due to his brashness with students over racial issues, and suggests he attend a literary seminar and spend time with family in his hometown of Boston.
At the seminar, his panel is poorly attended, in contrast to a packed room for an interview with Sintara Golden, whose bestselling novel We's Lives in Da Ghetto panders to Black stereotypes.
In Boston, Monk has dinner with his mother Agnes, who has Alzheimer's disease , and sister Lisa, a physician. Later, while having drinks with Monk, Lisa suffers a fatal heart attack. Their estranged brother, Cliff, a plastic surgeon, attends Lisa's funeral. Cliff is divorced after his wife caught him having sex with a man; he now engages in frequent drug use and casual sex.
Monk meets and starts dating Coraline, a lawyer living across the street from his mother's beach house. Frustrated by Sintara's success and the costs of care for his mother, Monk writes My Pafology , a satirical novel mocking the literary stereotypes expected from Black writers: melodramatic plots, deadbeat dads, gang violence, and drugs.
