Starting Points: The Quest to Explore Contemporary African-American Fiction

I thought about my post on African-American literature/fiction over the entire weekend. I mostly contemplated the type of books I would end up reading...I'm not opposed to novels exploring sexuality, but I really don't want to read a whole bunch of smut. I also thought about re-reading books or reading more works by familiar or traditional authors associated with the genre. But I don't want to do that, so I won't. I want to read contemporary, as in no earlier than...what is it now? 2012? Wow.  Let's say no earlier than the year 2000. And so I thought I'd start with these two books:

 

Why am I starting with this book?

Easy. It was named in the article I discussed last week --Does African-American Literature Exist?-- and it seems like it will address two of my favorite themes: (de)composition of the American family and failure to realize the American Dream...I don't know why I like to read these things, but I do. 

And why this book?

Honestly, I'm a little hesitant about this one because it's supposed to be satirical. It's not that I don't 'get' satire because I do...I just think satire is very hard to execute successfully. Anyways, it seems like Everett uses satire to address some of my grievances with 'African-American' fiction of today. I also like the word 'erasure' and what it could mean in the context of this book. Cultural erasure? Intellectual erasure? Erasure of identity?