American Fiction

Thelonious Ellison is an unsuccessful African-American writer. In the current political climate, he feels the only way to gain accolades is to write an "authentic" novel that presents black life as a life of poverty and crime. As a joke, he writes such a novel under a pseudonym and immediately becomes a sensation. American Fiction explores the political and social culture in the USA, the racial and class tensions, and how prejudices are fixed under the guise of progress and enlightenment. It is a sharp and clever contemporary comedy that also possesses a "genuine heart" (Hollywood Reporter).