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Lorraine
Lisa is Monk’s sister. She’s a doctor at a clinic that provides reproductive healthcare—including abortions—to underprivileged women. As the only sibling still living in D.C., Lisa is forced to manage Mother’s care and finances by herself, a situation she finds unfair. Monk and Lisa don’t have an especially close relationship, but they each love and support the other, even if they don’t always understand where the other is coming from. Unlike Bill, who harbors some resentment over their father’s obvious favoritism toward Monk, Lisa doesn’t hold this against Monk. She even affirms that Father was right to hold Monk in high regard—Monk is special, and she loves him for that. Lisa dies unexpectedly after an anti-abortion protestor fires a shotgun into the clinic. After her death, Monk moves back into Mother’s house to take over her care and finances.
Lisa Quotes in Erasure
The Erasure quotes below are all either spoken by Lisa or refer to Lisa. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 3 Quotes
“Have you gone to college?” I asked.
The girl laughed.
“Don’t laugh,” I said. “I think you’re really smart. You should at least try.”
“I didn’t even finish high school.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I scratched my head and looked at the other faces in the room. I felt an inch tall because I had expected this young woman with the blue fingernails to be a certain way, to be slow and stupid, but she was neither. I was the stupid one.
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Chapter 5 Quotes
Poor me! A man without a religion, without a decent lie to call my own. Giving up life for life, loving as I knew I should, and, perhaps most importantly, attempting to live up to the measure of my sister. Time seemed anything but mine, as if I were sleeping, walking and eating with a stopwatch!
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Chapter 6 Quotes
I went to what had been my father’s study, and perhaps still was his study, but now it was where I worked. I sat and stared at Juanita Mae Jenkins’ face on Time magazine. [...] I remembered passages of Native Son and The Color Purple and Amos and Andy and my hands began to shake, the world opening around me, tree roots trembling on the ground outside, people in the street shouting dint, ax, fo, screet and fahvre! and I was screaming inside, complaining that I didn’t sound like that, that my mother didn’t sound like that, that my father didn’t sound like that and I imagined myself sitting on a park bench counting the knives in my switchblade collection and a man came up to me and he asked me what I was doing and my mouth opened and I couldn’t help what came out, ‘Why fo you be axin?”
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Chapter 11 Quotes
Enemies always understand each other better than friends.
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Lisa Character Timeline in Erasure
The timeline below shows where the character Lisa appears in Erasure. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
...not because he wants to but because it’s been a while since he visited home. Lisa, his older sister, didn’t offer to pick him up from the airport. Monk doesn’t think...
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...off Dupont Circle. After unpacking his things, he heads down to the lobby to call Lisa at her office. When she picks up, her voice is a mixture of disgruntled and...
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Lisa arrives an hour later in her luxury coupe. She tells Monk he’d better be ready...
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Monk and Lisa ask each other about their respective work. Lisa grumbles about the “anti-abortionist creeps” who protest...
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Monk and Lisa arrive at Mother’s house, where Mother greets Monk warmly. Then she turns to Lisa and...
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After a mostly uneventful dinner, Lisa drops Monk off at the B&B. In his room, he finds a message from Linda...
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Chapter 3
...visits his sister’s clinic in Southeast D.C. He introduces himself to the receptionist, Yvonne, as Lisa’s brother. “The writer brother,” exclaims Yvonne. Monk takes a seat next to a young woman...
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While Monk waits for Lisa to be finished with her work, he recalls being 15 and attending his first real...
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Back in the present, Lisa and Monk grab lunch. Monk mentions the woman with the blue fingernails from the waiting...
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After lunch, Monk and Lisa head to a bookstore to pick up a book for one of Lisa’s coworkers who...
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Chapter 4
Monk and Lisa drop by Mother’s house later that evening. Monk greets their servant Lorraine, who has worked...
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Chapter 5
...the phone, only for it to ring almost immediately after. It’s Lorraine, telling him that Lisa is dead. Monk calls Bill, and they both make plans to travel home. Inwardly, Monk...
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...the door and tells him that Mother is sleeping. Then he explains what happened to Lisa: an anti-abortion picketer shot her at the clinic. Later, Monk goes to Lisa’s apartment, noting...
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Later, after Lisa’s funeral, Bill asks Monk if he’s still doing woodwork. Monk asks about Bill’s wife Sandy...
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Chapter 6
...and take care of Monk. Later, Monk and Mother talk about how much they miss Lisa. But moments later, Mother asks if she said something to offend Lisa—she can’t think of...
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Chapter 7
...at the city dock in Annapolis with his family. In the memory, Monk is 12. Lisa is reading a book, and Monk comments that he wants to be a writer when...
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Chapter 12
...thoughts drift back to a memory of the day Father announced his own father’s death. Lisa and Bill break down in grief. Monk is 10 and too young to really understand...
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Chapter 13
...take a stroll along the beach. As they walk, Mother says how much she misses Lisa, and how she can’t believe she’s gone. She also says she wishes she were closer...
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Chapter 14
...Mother, but that perhaps tomorrow will be better. Monk suddenly imagines that the doctor is Lisa, who urges Monk to take comfort in the fact that at least Mother isn’t suffering....
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