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.