The Sellout

Posted on by Paul Beatty Prentice Onayemi
The Sellout The Sellout is the first book by an American author to win the UK s prestigious Man Booker Prize A biting satire about a young man s isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Suprem

The Sellout is the first book by an American author to win the UK s prestigious Man Booker Prize.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 riThe Sellout is the first book by an American author to win the UK s prestigious Man Booker Prize.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

  • Free Read The Sellout - by Paul Beatty Prentice Onayemi
    268 Paul Beatty Prentice Onayemi
The Sellout

  1. Paul Beatty born 1962 in Los Angeles is a contemporary African American author Beatty received an MFA in creative writing from Brooklyn College and an MA in psychology from Boston University He is a 1980 graduate of El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California.In 1990, Paul Beatty was crowned the first ever Grand Poetry Slam Champion of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe One of the prizes for winning that championship title was the book deal which resulted in his first volume of poetry, Big Bank Takes Little Bank This would be followed by another book of poetry Joker, Joker, Deuce as well as appearances performing his poetry on MTV and PBS in the series The United States of Poetry In 1993, he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.His first novel, The White Boy Shuffle received a positive review in The New York Times, the reviewer, Richard Bernstein, called the book a blast of satirical heat from the talented heart of black American life His second book, Tuff received a positive notice in Time Magazine Most recently, Beatty edited an anthology of African American humor called Hokum and wrote an article in The New York Times on the same subject.

221 Reply to “The Sellout”

  1. If Kurt Vonnegut and Dave Chappelle had a baby and really messed with its head, it would write this novel I hope Paul Beatty takes that as a compliment because it s meant that way.This is some seriously biting satire You know it right away, since it begins with the main character, a black man, before the Supreme Court because he s charged with keeping a slave Most of the novel is a flashback, showing us how the protagonist not only kept a slave but attempted to re segregate his formerly all blac [...]

    Reply

  2. Paul Beatty s novel is a savage satire about a post racial America, and it points out how absurd that notion really is.The black narrator, Bonbon, grew up in a disappeared L.A suburb once an agrarian ghetto, called Dickens where he was subjected to his father s sociological experiments about race.After his father is accidentally killed by the LAPD see This is some serious shit , he wants to reintroduce slavery and, gradually, segregation, first in buses and then in a school ditto.He elicits help [...]

    Reply

  3. As an urban commuter I felt that pulling a book out with lawn jockeys on the cover should come with a disclaimer Hey everybody, it s meant to be you know ironic It s written by a black guy it s satire And just so you know, my iPhone doesn t have one word of Breitbart News on it.Satires, to me, are like hoppy craft beers The natural skew to the bitter side should be balanced out for optimal flavor Paul Beatty s deft touch with a joke made the astringency you d expect from charges of racism someth [...]

    Reply

  4. Satire is a difficult genre to assess and review, particularly when it is so tightly bound to a culture one does not share On the positive side, this book is often very funny, and is full of ideas and snipes at deserving targets Over the length of a novel, though, the tone is somewhat relentless, and the story does not seem to have enough weight to sustain the interest it seems like a series of set pieces Not a book to read if you are easily offended either, but the issues Beatty addresses abou [...]

    Reply

  5. The Sellout is a fun novel full of humour and many moments of bitter irony The tone is angry, full of frustration and seething with sarcasm, but it is also repetitive to a fault After around thirty pages I felt like I d read everything this novel had to offer It was abundantly clear that the remainder would be pretty much the same thing, an author satirising the realities of Black American life through using several clever and creative narrative devices After a while it began to grow so very tir [...]

    Reply

  6. when I did what I did, I wasn t thinking about inalienable rights, the proud history of our people I did what worked, and since when did a little slavery and segregation ever hurt anybody, and if so, so fucking be it My copy of this novel is spiked with tabs marking something deeply insightful, stabbingly funny, or needing revisiting There is simply too much to point to Beatty must have been saving up observations about race relations in America to get so much into this relatively short novel He [...]

    Reply

  7. Imagine Nina Simone singing Mississippi Goddam reincarnated as an atomic bomb thatexplodes high enough for all of America to see, while Mark Twain chuckles and says I told ya so, from the relative safety of a bunker deep in the canon of American literature That s nowhere near how incendiary, biting, acerbic, witty, smart, funny, explosive, hard hitting and revelatory Beatty s satire is The first 50 pages had me wondering if he could sustain this voice, this force for another pagee next 250 pages [...]

    Reply

  8. Subtitle A mini dictionary of the oddities and eccentricities of Black America mixed in with a bevy of pop culture obscurities interspersed with some brilliant flashes of satire by Paul Beatty.For the sake modesty, let me say that I m in two minds whether the special outweighs the ordinary and vice versa But there s no doubt that the book is designed as a commercial product for timely consumption given the rise in racial tensions in the US in the last few years But this alone has never been a go [...]

    Reply

  9. I don t recall reading a book which I loved so much in the beginning and was soooo fed up with in the end It s too much of too much There are about zero normal sentences and that was very tiring It reminded me of Steve Toltz Quicksand I couldn t keep up with avalanches and avalanches of wit satire It s a damn shame, cuz I laughed out loud the first chapters.I also think the book is better for native speakers lots of linguistic humor and if you live in the States lots of inside jokes, historical [...]

    Reply

  10. One star for creativity, another for brilliant, innovative, hysterical prose, and a third for waking America up with a slap upside our post racial national head Every sentence in this novel is a combination of Um, YES, that is so true and I can t believe I ve never thought of it that way before Minus a star for lack of compelling plot Beatty gets so lost in his ridiculous subplots that I stopped caring what happened next Will Dickens be saved from obsolescence Will the Dum Dum Intellectuals be v [...]

    Reply

  11. How does a white, late 50 s, Australian come to read a satire on race relations in the USA, an area he has little knowledge about in said subject I had recently read the brilliant A Brief History of Seven Killings by Marlon James and was telling all and sundry what a superb read it was I could recall a fair bit of the heady days of Marley and the powerful political fallout in Jamaica back in the late 70 s I had got Exodus on release so was not in new territory subject wise The writing and presen [...]

    Reply

  12. This may be hard to believe, coming from a black man, but I ve never stolen anything So begins the first page in this scathing satire of race in America Our narrator is up before the Supreme Court, charged with attempting to reinstate slavery and segregation in his hometown of Dickens, a rundown neighborhood of Los Angeles His accomplices are Hominy Jenkins, a former child star of the Little Rascals, and Marpessa Dawson, a foul mouthed bus driver and the object of our hero s affections But what [...]

    Reply

  13. 3.5 This is such an outrageous racial satire that I kept asking myself how Beatty got away with it Not only did he get away with it, he won a National Book Critics Circle Award, and now the Booker Prize The novel opens at the U.S Supreme Court, where the narrator has been summoned to defend himself against a grievous but entirely true accusation he has reinstituted slavery and segregation in his hometown of Dickens, California All the old stereotypes of African Americans are here, many of them r [...]

    Reply

  14. I read The Sellout for a book club I m new to the book club, so it felt important to read The Sellout from cover to cover so that I could prove myself a worthy member of my new book club I almost made it, but I just couldn t get past the 85% mark on my kindle By then I had caught wind that I wasn t the only one in the book club struggling with The Sellout So I showed up, had a lovely time, talked very little about the book, decided I would stick to the club, and also decided that I would give up [...]

    Reply

  15. This isn t literary fiction so much as extended stand up comedy The sort that happens when Stewart Lee spins one of his crazed, spiralling stories that lasts half the set yes it s political, but also surreal and vicious and somehow sympathetic, and just too fucking funny to dismiss as worthy or heavy handed The Sellout is not your negative stereotype dreary litfic Booker winner Those people who normally see a Winner of the Man Booker Prize sticker as a radioactivity hazard label Plenty of them w [...]

    Reply

  16. Onvan The Sellout Nevisande Paul Beatty ISBN 374260508 ISBN13 9780374260507 Dar 304 Safhe Saal e Chap 2015

    Reply

  17. Rhapsodical Reflections and Uproarious Ramblings on Racism in Post Racial America3.4 5Re Man Booker Prize, 2016Consuetus Lector Blimey In a manner of speaking, unbloodybelievable This busts belief s bollocks, lampoons logic, cold cocks common sense Need I go on This novel mostly reads like the rhapsodical ramblings and reflections of a racially righteous rebel challenging the status quo With mordant wit, incisive satirical spins and terrific comic timing, Paul Beatty ingeniously unmasks racism, [...]

    Reply

  18. As I finish this book, I sit in an airport, with CNN muted on the television above me Balti Riots Race It somehow seems like a fitting pair It is worth noting, the Balti riots are substantially less humorous than Beatty s book In a time where race in America is at an absolute boiling point, Paul Beatty comes along with a book so bold and brave, people will see it as either absolutely repugnant, or undeniably brilliant I m in the latter group.First thing first This book is hilarious Outrageously [...]

    Reply

  19. Holy cow I don t know Latin, research psychology, California, every episode of The Little Rascals, and I m white So I don t pretend to understand the tsunami of references that come so fast it takes your breath away in this satire about A brief and necessary digression My own writing is sometimes rabidly politically incorrect and has been known to poke people who take offense at that But I m a neophyte compared to Paul Beatty And although I love his kind of daring, freefalling, Macy s Thanksgivi [...]

    Reply

  20. As good a satire as satires get THE SELLOUT is simply one of the best books I ve read in years Hilarious, thoughtful, and necessary, it s a novel that gets better and sharper with each turn of the page Beatty s wit and wry acumen makes his prose a delight to read and his critical eye for our insular American condition highlights the many problems involving race in our society Make em laugh and make em think, then you got em Required reading for 2018 and beyond.

    Reply

  22. Unmitigated Blackness is coming to the realization that as fucked up and meaningless as it all is, sometimes it s the nihilism that makes life worth living Paul Beautty, The SelloutTHIS novel THIS one It snuck up on my white ass and turned everything inside out It is easily one of my favorite books I ve read the last couple years Funny Sad Touching Radical Poetic I will actually frame this all into a real review soon, but for now, just know this novel seems to combine the go for broke comedy of [...]

    Reply

  23. Audacity, execution, authority, oomph, heft, humor the most enjoyable, truly enlightened, contemporary novel originally written in the English language I ve read in a long, long time I read some of the author s first novel after it came out back when I lived in Brooklyn and a friend recommended it but I didn t make my way too far through it, thinking it too derivative of Ishmael Reed, whose Flight to Canada and Mumbo Jumbo I read in college and loved Now, the influence still seems there, the hyp [...]

    Reply

  24. I certainly credit Beatty for letting the world know how bad racism is in our post racism society, but 50 or so pages of this rant was all I could take I was looking forward to the comic novel this has been praised as being, but unfortunately I found it to be trite and tiresome Literary humor should sneak up and surprise you, even when you know it s coming, not continuously attempt to hit you over your head with itself I understand this is a minority opinion, but it s mine and I ll stick by it T [...]

    Reply

  26. DISCLAIMER THE FOLLOWING TEXT IS THE EMBARRASSING RESULT OF YET ANOTHER WHITE ASS FOOL CULTURALLY APPROPRIATING THE BLACK MAN S RAP GAME Dig this drop that beat Yo, yo Now, don t get me wrongThis brutha s prose is the damn near illest, speedin by like an antelope on pure ass crack hunted down by lions, that s nature s SEAL team of killersIt s cracklin and crackin , out of sight, like a symphonic orchestra of Thor hammerblows to a Cyclops cataract eye on a stormy winter nightThis nigga is spittin [...]

    Reply

  27. 4.5 While I was mulling this one over, and its satirical suggestion that a kind of apartheid might be the way to address American racism, I was reading J.M Coetzee s book which touches on a similar subject in Africa, Summertime Quite a pair of prize winning books Clever, witty, American but universal satire I started this, got annoyed because I was bored, so I read something else When I came back to it, I started over and enjoyed the ride I just immersed myself in Beatty s unbelievable story, an [...]

    Reply

  28. Over the top madcap humor with a satirical scalpel slicing into layers of racism in America It has the flavor of Swift s Modest Proposal , in the main character s latching onto a revival of segregation as a key to saving his community from being erased by gentrification The story actually starts out with a Supreme Court hearing where narrator last name Me will designate him as John is preparing to justify his efforts at resegregation as well as a charge of slavery The hook on the reader lies in [...]

    Reply

  29. Challenging and witty, the Sellout draws its readers into an extensive but unexpectedly entertaining stand up A satire of its own.A black man brings back slavery and racial segregation in a post racial country I found it difficult to finish the novel quicker even if it is just about three hundred pages thick It is not your finish in one night kind of book I had to read it in a span of four days to grasp every thought in every page.The narration pushes me in deep with its snarky and relatable pas [...]

    Reply

  30. OMG, I actually have finished this book Where s my prize cookie No, make it two Two boxes of cookies Brief outline 1 There is racism in America 2 White people don t know shit about racism.3 Black people make super cool racism jokes 4 About 400 pages of cool racism jokes 5 Which are actually kinda sad 6 Racism is sad 7 Stop judging people by their skin color 8 Stop comparing black skin color to food chocolate black , coffee black , mocha black , etc, if you don t want to be vanilla white , eggshe [...]

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *