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Intro
Thelonious “Monk” Ellison is an author and professor of English literature. Though Black himself, he claims not to believe in race, citing a number of ways in which he doesn’t fit the mold of the stereotypical Black American: he didn’t grow up in the inner city or rural south, for instance, and he’s not great at basketball. Still, he realizes that there are some bigoted people who wish to harm him because of the color of his skin, and so he allows that, according to society’s standards, he is Black. He’s also annoyed that the publishing industry expects him to write books that engage with stereotypical depictions of “Black” suffering—he prefers to write complex reworkings of ancient Greek dramas, which don’t sell all that well, and he’s sick of constantly being told that his writing isn’t “black enough.” He becomes more irate as he follows the praise (and commercial success) of a new book, Juanita Mae Jenkins’s We’s Lives In Da Ghetto, which embodies everything Monk detests about the sort of “Black” writing that appeals to publishers and mainstream audiences.
Monk’s story begins in Washington, D.C.—his hometown—where he has traveled to speak at a literary conference. While in Washington, Monk visits with his older sister Lisa—a doctor who performs abortions for low-income women—and Mother, who still lives with the family’s longtime housekeeper, Lorraine, in the house Monk grew up in. During his short stay at home, Monk witnesses firsthand Mother’s declining health: she is displaying clear signs of early Alzheimer’s disease.
Not long after Monk returns to California, where he teaches as a university professor, he receives word that Lisa has unexpectedly died—an anti-abortion protestor shot her at work. Bereft, Monk returns to Washington for Lisa’s funeral and to take over her responsibility of managing Mother’s care and finances. Monk also reunites with his brother, Bill, whom he hasn’t spoken with in years. Bill lives in Arizona and is recently estranged from his wife and children after his wife found out he’s gay. He’s presently going through a messy, costly divorce and can’t afford to help Monk with Mother’s care.
Monk decides to put his life in California on hold to move back in with Mother and Lorraine. After Mother’s condition becomes too much for Monk to handle on his own, he takes her to a doctor who recommends moving mother to a care facility. However, while on leave from work and with no publishers agreeing to take on his latest novel, Monk struggles to afford care for his ailing mother.
In a moment of acute frustration, Monk pens My Pafology, a parody of the so-called “ghetto fiction” he so detests, writing under the pseudonym Stagg R. Leigh. He submits the novella to his bemused agent, Yul, who reluctantly passes along the manuscript to editors. To Monk’s shock—and horror—the manuscript receives laudatory praise, and he soon receives an offer of $600,000 in advance payments from a major publishing house that wishes to publish My Pafology.
Reluctant to pass on this much-needed cash but unwilling to further discredit his reputation by attaching his name to the work, Monk decides to pretend to be the fictitious Stagg Leigh in his interactions with the publishers, producers, and talk show hosts who are so captivated by My Pafology, playing the part of a gruff ex-con who grew up rough and now wishes to share the real, unfiltered story of Black life in America. In time, Monk’s double life takes a toll on his emotional state, and he suffers a crisis of identity as he considers the ramifications of compromising on his artistic integrity and perpetuating the stereotypes about Black artists and Black life that he finds so offensive. In anger, he antagonistically demands that the novella’s title be changed to Fuck. Implausibly, the publishing house agrees.
As Mother’s health continues to decline, Monk takes her and Lorraine to the family beach house in Annapolis, Maryland, for one last vacation before Monk decides it’s time to move Mother into a care facility. There, he strikes up a brief relationship with Marilyn, a local woman, which ends disastrously. Not long after the breakup, a chaotic incident with Mother convinces Monk that her health has finally gotten too difficult for him to manage, so he moves her into a care facility near the family home. He continues to live at the family home so he can visit Mother regularly, though her health continues to decline.
Meanwhile, Monk’s time home forces him to reevaluate certain aspects of his childhood and family history. When he goes through a box of his deceased father’s personal papers and discovers that his father had been having an affair with a white woman—and fathered a child with her—his idealized vision of his father shatters, and he’s forced to consider how the clear favoritism Monk’s father directed toward Monk skewed Monk’s impression of the man and influenced Monk’s own identity and way of looking at the world.
Fuck, meanwhile, continues to receive glowing praise from readers and critics alike. Monk is invited to serve on a panel of judges for a prestigious literary award, The Book Award. Much to his chagrin, Fuck is among the works submitted for consideration. He tries to convince the other judges of the book’s obvious flaws and offensive content, but his arguments fall on deaf ears, and the panel (minus Monk) selects Fuck as the winner of The Book Award.
Monk attends the National Book Association ceremony along with the other judges and the wealthy donors who fund The Book Award. When Fuck is announced as that year’s winner, Monk—to everyone’s great confusion—slowly makes his way to the stage to accept the prize as the novella’s elusive author, Stagg R. Leigh. He reaches the podium and looks straight into the cameras before him. “Egads, I’m on television,” he proclaims.
