Erasure

Monk has always been an Ellison: he had Ellison tastes, “an Ellison way of speaking.” His grandfather had been a physician. He liked being an Ellison when he was young but came to resent it as a teenager. Monk’s mother’s maiden name was Parker, and she came from a family of farmers who lived on the Chesapeake Bay. Monk has a bunch of cousins on that side, “with names like Janelle and Tyrell,” whom he barely knows. He saw that side of the family only once, on a visit to their farm house. “They frightened me,” Monk recalls. Had he had more life experience, he “would have liked them, found them thriving and interesting,” he thinks now. He remembers that Mother always seemed ashamed of her family.

Back in the present, Monk is in the garage looking at the table (which is now more of a stool) he’s been working on. He considers how his mother must have felt when she read the love letters. Though Monk’s father had ordered Monk’s mother to burn the contents of the boxes upon his passing, he must have known she’d read them. Monk wonders whether it would be worse for his mother to go on believing that she was wrong to feel inadequate in her marriage or to now know that those feelings were not all in her head.   

Later, Yul struggles to hold back his excitement over Monk’s new book deal, though he’s not quite on board with Monk’s idea to play the character of “Stagg R. Leigh,” ex-con, on his phone call with Paula Baderman. On the phone call later, Monk (as Mr. Leigh) addresses the editor coolly and curtly. He derides the “white people on the beach [who] will get a big kick out of” his forthcoming novel, a comment he knows will excite Paula.

Later, after the first half of the advance arrives, Monk tells Mother to pack a small bag—he’s going to be taking her on a little trip. She suggests they all go to the beach house, and Monk agrees. He tells Mother they’ll leave tomorrow. Later, he calls Bill and tells him about his plans to take Mother to the beach house for a few weeks and asks Bill to join them. When Bill protests, Monk says he can bring his new lover, Adam. Bill says he’ll see what he can do. After they hang up, Monk considers how Bill is “finally finding himself, […] but seemingly losing everything else in the process.”

The next day, Monk drives himself, Mother, and Lorraine to the beach house. When they arrive, the guard at the gate to the beach recognizes Monk, addressing him by name. He introduces himself as Maynard Boatwright. The name is familiar to Monk, though he doesn’t recognize this old man as the buff ex-marine he’d been when Monk was a boy. Later, Mother and Lorraine set to work tidying up the beach house. Monk walks toward the beach and considers how far he should take his Stagg R. Leigh character. He decides he’ll talk to the editor a couple more times but not take it any further than that.

On his walk, Monk approaches the house where Professor Tilman once lived. When a woman walks outside, Monk mentions having once known the professor. The woman says the professor was her uncle and that he died three years ago—she inherited the house. Monk introduces himself to the woman, who introduces herself as Marilyn Tilman. When Monk says he’s going in the town to do some shopping later, Marilyn suggests she ride along with him. Sitting in the car with Marilyn later, Monk realizes how rare it is for him to be sitting so near a woman he feels attracted to. He feels suddenly self-conscious.