Monkey Boy is a novel published in 2022 by a writer named Francisco Goldman featuring a narrator and protagonist named Francisco Goldberg who is also a writer. Though categorized strictly as a novel, it quickly becomes apparent that readers must carefully navigate the murky waters where fiction mixes with autobiography. Also like Francisco Goldman the author, Francisco Goldberg is an American writer who is living in Mexico. Both Goldman and Goldberg experience a heartbreaking end to a longstanding relationship. And, finally, both the real Francisco and the fictional Francisco ultimately meet and fall for a younger Mexican woman who offers hope for the future.
The novel's perch between fiction and autobiography allows the book to also fit comfortably within the genre of autofiction. As one might suspect, this is a term which basically just defines a book as being, paradoxically, autobiographical fiction.
The novel was greeted with widespread critical acclaim, though as a serious genre-bending literary work it failed to find its way onto many bestseller lists. A finalist for America's most prestigious literary award, Monkey Boy ultimate lost the 2022 Pulitzer Prize to another novel which blurs the lines between historical fact and invented fiction, The Netanyahus. In addition, Goldman's story about a fictional version of himself shared the American Book Award for "outstanding literary achievement" with a dozen other volumes published in 2022. Goldman's autofiction shared the award with books running the gamut from memoir to 21st century history to a compendium of Navajo literature. National Public Radio, Kirkus Reviews and several other institutions recognized the novel as one of their Books of the Year.
The provocatively racist title of Goldman's novel refers to the nickname that his semi-fictional alter ego, Francisco—referred to more often simply as Frankie—earns. He is teased as "Monkey Boy" as a result of committing the unpardonable sin of having ancestry which traces back to "banana land."
