Popcorn in the Pages - Episode 10: Erasure by Percival Everett
Currently Reading
Meredith Schwartz
4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 22 February 2025
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Welcome, readers. We are thrilled to continue this new content from the creators of Currently Reading Podcast! This spin-off podcast series will tackle book to screen adaptations in a spoiler-FILLED format. Be sure you’ve read the book and watched the film version before listening to the episode, because we don’t shy away from strong opinions OR from all the spoilers, unlike our regular episodes.
Show notes for this series will not be time-stamped, but will still include links to Bookshop dot org or Amazon for any books or resources referenced in the episode. These are affiliate links, so they kick back a small percentage to us if you buy through them, and help support the work we do on Currently Reading.
Erasure by Percival Everett
1:44 - Setup
Erasure by Percival Everett
3:44 - Previews
Release date. Sales info and awards.
Movie name and release date. Box office and awards.
American Fiction released Dec 2023
Won an Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay in 2024
7:18 - The Cutting Room
Pivotal Book scenes and how they translated to the screen
The book within the book
Lisa’s death
Changes from Book to Movie
Name changes
Moving the setting from DC to Boston
Timeline issues
Van Go in the book within a book is arrested but in the movie adaptation he dies
Left out of the adaptation
Gretchen storyline
Woodworking and fishing scenes
Game show section
My Pafology being explored
Added to the movie
Sintara added to a book panel at the end
The ending
Publisher
Make Stagg a fugitive so he cannot go on tv
Casting and alternates
Monk: Jeffrey Wright → Geoffrey Owens, Andre Braugher
Lisa: Tracee Ellis Ross → Regina King, Niecy Nash
Agnes: Leslie Uggams → Audra McDonald, Phylicia Rashad, Cecily Tyson
Clifford: Sterling K. Brown → Idris Elba
Coraline: Erika Alexander → Kim Fields, Kim Coles
Sintara: Issa Rae → Octavia Spencer, Taraji P. Henson
Problematic elements
Because of all the satire, it may focus too much on the white experience and actually less on the Black
40:11 - Award Season
Worst and best parts of the adaptation.
Bill vs Cliff “airtime”
Less tension around mother going to the assisted living home
The moving of books from African American to Mythology
Was very funny - zippy dialogue, continuing to move story forward
Worst and best actors.
Leslie Uggams - Agnes (mother)
Erika Alexander - Coraline
Adam Brody - Wiley
Jeffrey Wright - Monk
Worst and best book characters.
Linda Mallory
Van Go Jenkins
Monk
Yul
48:35 - Book/Flick Energy
Book scored on a 5 star scale.
Series scored on a 10 point scale.
53:23 - A Leftover Popcorn Kernel
Do you have any irrational fears?
If you were on a Jerry Springer type show what is something weird that they may find out about you or your family?
59:30 - End Credits
59:55 - The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky
The Perks of Being A Wallflower is available to stream for free on some sites, but is available with an Amazon Prime membership
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey readers, welcome to Popcorn in the Pages. |
| 0:20.0 | This is a spin-off episode series from |
| 0:22.4 | Currently Reading Podcast, and we will be exploring book-to-screen adaptations, and what makes them |
| 0:26.9 | great or awful. In each episode, we'll tackle the book, the adaptation, and the ways they |
| 0:32.2 | complement each other, and as always, we love a strong opinion, and we definitely have them. |
| 0:36.4 | I'm Katie Cobb, co-host of the Currently Reading podcast, and I will read nearly anything, |
| 0:40.8 | but mostly keep my screen watching to sitcoms and book adaptations. |
| 0:44.9 | And I am Shad Casconi, and I read basically whatever I'm told. |
| 0:48.8 | Although I do feel like I've had some input lately in some of our choices here and there. |
| 0:53.2 | So not exactly everything Katie |
| 0:55.2 | tells me to, or at least not unsolicited. So getting better. Right. He's not being completely |
| 1:01.6 | forced at gun points. That is true. Unlike our regular episodes, these ones are full of spoilers. |
| 1:08.5 | If you want spoiler-free conversation, go over to the big show. Here, |
| 1:12.0 | we will spill all the tea. So be warned if you have not read this book yet. This is episode |
| 1:16.8 | number 10 of this series, but you can listen in any order. Today, we are tackling erasure by |
| 1:22.1 | Percival Everett. Oh, Shad. Oh, shad. I had big opinions about this book before we even chose it. |
| 1:29.1 | Yeah, well, this was a reread for you. |
| 1:31.4 | It was a reread, and I did not like it the first time. |
| 1:34.8 | Well, you didn't read, right? |
| 1:37.3 | I mean, you listened. |
| 1:38.1 | Yeah, that's going to play in here a little bit as we talk about this book. |
| 1:42.5 | But let me give a little bit of set up for |
... |
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