From the hilarious first scene of American Fiction, Cord Jefferson fiercely announces his colors by flaying, through the mouth of his main character, Thelonious “Monk” Ellison, a bourgeois African-American writer and literature professor, played brilliantly by the always excellent Jeffrey Wright, the excesses of wokism and political correctness. If some will be offended, others will applaud warmly.
During a class on 19th-century literature from the American South, Monk was challenged by a white student who said she was offended by the word beginning with N written on the board. A conversation of strong humor follows between the man, tired of white people claiming to be allies of black people, and the young woman, who slams the door crying. Suspended by his white colleagues, Monk goes to a literature festival in Boston, where his mother (Leslie Uggams), his sister (Tracee Ellis Ross) and his brother (Sterling K. Brown) live, with whom he has a strained relationship. .
With annoyance, Monk notices that the star of the festival is Sintara Golden (Issa Rae), author of the novel We’s Lives in Da Ghetto, which he judges to be steeped in all the clichés that white people attribute to black people. His publisher of South American origin (John Ortiz) criticizing him for not corresponding to the image that white people have of a black writer, Monk begins writing a novel in the tradition of We’s Lives in Da Ghetto. At the same time, he meets Coraline (Erika Alexander), a brilliant lawyer and avid reader, from whom he will have to hide his dual identity.
Although he is not kind to the world of publishing or the film industry, Jefferson does not commit a full-blown attack on white society which prides itself on its openness to diversity.
Skillfully weaving a family intrigue, where he sensitively addresses homosexuality, illness and mourning, to which is quite naturally grafted a sentimental intrigue devoid of rose water, Cord Jefferson portrays a character who sometimes looks at the world of top of his ivory tower. Thus, in addition to shaking the cage of the white public, he holds up a not always flattering mirror to members of his community struggling with their own biases.
