A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality―the black Chinese restaurant.
Born in the "agrarian ghetto" of Dickens―on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles―the narrator of The Sellout resigns himself to the fate of lower-middle-class Californians: "I'd die in the same bedroom I'd grown up in, looking up at the cracks in the stucco ceiling that've been there since '68 quake." Raised by a single father, a controversial sociologist, he spent his childhood as the subject in racially charged psychological studies. He is led to believe that his father's pioneering work will result in a memoir that will …
A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty's The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality―the black Chinese restaurant.
Born in the "agrarian ghetto" of Dickens―on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles―the narrator of The Sellout resigns himself to the fate of lower-middle-class Californians: "I'd die in the same bedroom I'd grown up in, looking up at the cracks in the stucco ceiling that've been there since '68 quake." Raised by a single father, a controversial sociologist, he spent his childhood as the subject in racially charged psychological studies. He is led to believe that his father's pioneering work will result in a memoir that will solve his family's financial woes. But when his father is killed in a police shoot-out, he realizes there never was a memoir. All that's left is the bill for a drive-thru funeral.
Fuelled by this deceit and the general disrepair of his hometown, the narrator sets out to right another wrong: Dickens has literally been removed from the map to save California from further embarrassment. Enlisting the help of the town's most famous resident―the last surviving Little Rascal, Hominy Jenkins―he initiates the most outrageous action conceivable: reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school, which lands him in the Supreme Court.
I enjoyed the first 65% of this book and found the writing lyrical, outrageous and funny. My challenge was that I couldn't tell where it was going, and I couldn't tell where we were once it arrived. Maybe Beatty's too clever for me; maybe I didn't pay close enough attention; or maybe I'm a clueless white person and the point went zipping over my oblivious head. Probably some mix of all of them. I'm rounding up one star to account for the "reader error" factor. Beatty clearly has the skills and a wicked sense of humor. I'm curious to learn more about him and see what else he's written.
It's a piece of satire, but not overly sarcastic. But not naive. Reading it, I felt the way I feel when reading Chuck Palahniuk without the trope of dark undertone -- because racism has its own dark undertones that don't need any help being fucked up. It was cathartic and educating to hear this voice talk about race and America in a serious study, delivered in an absurd manner that managed to be funny and page-turning. From what I understand, the audiobook is even better.
Paul Beatty not only has the unmitigated blackness to write essay disguised as fiction, he even has the unmitigated blackness to indicate he did so in a section entitled Unmitigated Blackness. I had already read other reviews complaining about its not being a real novel, and it certainly isn't when judged by the standards which the literary establishment (which, like all establishments, is unacknowledged invisible White by default) but to level this charge would be like saying Rap isn't music, Ebonics isn't a language, gay marriage isn't marriage, and of course there are those who say all those things.
It is a post-racial novel, not in the sense that racism is over, but in the sense that post-modernism lives alongside of modernism lowering the property values. Halfway through reading it, I thought that the author would appreciate it if I rated it with an extra star for Affirmative Action, but …
Paul Beatty not only has the unmitigated blackness to write essay disguised as fiction, he even has the unmitigated blackness to indicate he did so in a section entitled Unmitigated Blackness. I had already read other reviews complaining about its not being a real novel, and it certainly isn't when judged by the standards which the literary establishment (which, like all establishments, is unacknowledged invisible White by default) but to level this charge would be like saying Rap isn't music, Ebonics isn't a language, gay marriage isn't marriage, and of course there are those who say all those things.
It is a post-racial novel, not in the sense that racism is over, but in the sense that post-modernism lives alongside of modernism lowering the property values. Halfway through reading it, I thought that the author would appreciate it if I rated it with an extra star for Affirmative Action, but then at the end, when the White couple is thrown out of the Black comedy performance, I took it personally even as I understood the point-- that segregation can be a positive value when it creates a more comfortable atmosphere allowing for the non-default group to excel.
I did NOT take it personally when Bonbon's father was shot by the LA police because unarmed Black people being shot is a cliche. Was I supposed to feel something? Is it a failure of the writing to involve me emotionally? Or is what I was supposed to feel exactly what I did feel--that being the lack while noticing it? It explains why we have to be reminded that Black lives matter, not because we've forgotten that it's so but because we've forgotten to feel anything in its everydayness.
I like to think of this as a work of social-science-fiction, with the attendant characterization weaknesses of the sci-fi genre which we overlook because the ideas captivate us.
If sometimes the sadomasochism jokes were too much for me, I suspect this is a matter of taste--I tend to prefer not to use hot sauce as is my cultural proclivity.
The question this book asks is tossed off as a one liner "What is our thing?" "Cosa Nostra" in Italian, so "Gangsta" in Blackitude? Does "post-racialism" mean our thing has been appropriated?
If racism is difficult to talk about this book must have been difficult to write, but it's so easy to read.
Have you ever read a book and thought the whole time, "I am way too white to be able to review this book" while laughing out loud at the story?In a forgotten agriculturally zoned area of Los Angeles, Mr. Me as gotten himself a slave. He doesn't want one but Hominy Jenkins grew up as a child actor playing the most racist roles imaginable and thinks that being a slave won't that much of a change. Me isn't sure about this since Hominy is only willing to work a few hours a day and is fairly useless at best. He's also wracking up bills at the local S M dungeon because Hominy insists on being beaten and Me won't do it himself. The beatings have to happen though because anytime Hominy decides he isn't being treated badly enough he stands on a box in the front yard and tries to …
Have you ever read a book and thought the whole time, "I am way too white to be able to review this book" while laughing out loud at the story?In a forgotten agriculturally zoned area of Los Angeles, Mr. Me as gotten himself a slave. He doesn't want one but Hominy Jenkins grew up as a child actor playing the most racist roles imaginable and thinks that being a slave won't that much of a change. Me isn't sure about this since Hominy is only willing to work a few hours a day and is fairly useless at best. He's also wracking up bills at the local S M dungeon because Hominy insists on being beaten and Me won't do it himself. The beatings have to happen though because anytime Hominy decides he isn't being treated badly enough he stands on a box in the front yard and tries to sell himself to passersby.Me was homeschooled by his sociologist father, who had a lot of very bizarre theories on child rearing. He was also known locally as the "n----- whisperer" for his ability to talk black people out of suicide or acts of violence. His other claim to fame is starting a philosophical society at the donut shop that continues after his death.This book is proudly not politically correct. It discusses "weren-----" - black people who visit poor black neighborhoods occasionally to bump up their credibility and then flee back to their suburban homes. It maintains that every Californian since the first Native Americans who heard missionaries ringing bells early on Sunday morning, agrees that there are too many Mexicans. If you are the type of reader to be offended by things like this, avoid this book. Otherwise, read it and let it sink in. This is one that you read more for the insights you gain as you read instead of reading for the overall plot.This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story
