The novel was well received. Darryl Pinckney's review in The Guardian focused on the dark comedy that Erasure represents, describing it as moving towards "bleakest comedy" and "sly work."[3] Ready Steady Book focused on the novel being "full of anger" about the African-American literary establishment and said that the most redeeming elements of the plot come from a "moving portrait of a son coming to terms with his mother's life."[4]
Erasure won the inaugural Hurston/Wright Legacy Award in 2002.[5]