American Fiction is a film about a novelist named Monk played by Jeffery Wright who had a hard time selling books that were written as casual and thoughtful as Shakespeare wrote Macbeth.
The biggest difference between Shakespare and Monk, is unfortunately Monk has not been given the grace of selling a great deal of novels written from his own human perspective. Rather Monk is currently battling the lack of interest in books being written in his human perspective as a black man, well his “type” of black man. By “type” I mean a human who simply was born a black man but not interested in having to be the “type” of black man who is a walking stereotype. Which fortunately enough Shakespeare did not have to endure.
The film follows Monk through this transition of continuous failures. As the failures creep up Monk decides to mock the industry by writing a novel from a stereotypical perspective as a joke. What Monk wrote as a joke many believed was a masterpiece. Without giving too much away the masterpiece of stereotypes indeed changed Monk’s life.
Watching this film will leave you thinking a lot about identity. What does identity mean and is it okay to truly identify with all things if it were not boxed into your race or gender. As heavy as this may sound the film has a very humorous way of displaying what could easily be, and is a serious topic.
The film is now out in theaters and if you want a great conversation starter for the holidays, make sure you head over to the theaters for a good time, and a later stimulating conversion. Full interviews with the cast here.
