The Sellout

Racial commentary made masterfully, satirically, and never loosening the tongue from the proverbial cheek.

A blast.

???This is exactly my thing!???

I admired the craft & verve of “The Sellout,” but this kind of high satire just isn't my cup of tea. (It might be yours, though!)

Sometimes funny, sometimes offensive (are Black writers trying to normalize the N-word?), the book isn't sure what point it's trying to make, which is why everybody seems to think it's satire. (If everyone is being satirized, it's not satire anymore.)

I hated this book. So much so that I wasn't able to bring myself to read anything else for a month after I finally powered through this (in retrospect, I shouldn't have been so stubborn about finishing it). Absolutely nothing about this book was funny to me - it made me sick to my stomach. I only realized while reading other reviews after I finished that all the horrible, mean, and offensive bits were supposed to be “satire” (maybe I missed this in part because of all of the pop culture references that I didn't get? Or maybe I just don't find horrific child abuse, mental illness, and sexism funny?). Clearly there's something here that's resonating with others but the humor just didn't connect for me.

I really, really wanted to like this but it just didn't pan out for me.

I enjoyed the humor but I often felt that this story was disjointed. It felt like nothing would happen for several pages, then one page of action, and so on. I also felt that the story could have essentially taken place in half of these pages with all of the unnecessary lists of names... why were there so many of those?

Overall, this is a very ‘meh' book.

Abandoned at 25%

Started off very promising but the narrative eventually turned my brain to jelly. Life's too short so giving up on this.

Very funny satire about a black man, Bonbon, whose hometown Dickens, CA gets taken off the map because it is an embarrassment to the city of Los Angeles. Bonbon embarks on a project to put Dickens back on the map and in the process becomes a slaveowner and a segregationist. The book begins with Bonbon waiting to have his case heard by the Supreme Court, so the story of how all this came to be is told in a long, hilarious flashback.

Much of the humor in this book feels taboo, at least for white people, at least to share in public. So, part of the book's charm is having permission to laugh at things that it wouldn't be right to laugh at if your white colleague said them in the break room at work. These are touchy subjects, and rightly so. One of the things that makes it feel good to laugh is that the characters in this book are fully human. No one is a caricature. While the town of Dickens and some of its inhabitants may be something of an embarrassment, they are treated with love even while they are being laughed at.

There's a genius description of riding public transportation in LA that I would like to copy down and enjoy long after I return this book to the library.

I thought the story was longer than necessary, but it was a lot of fun to read. I think Paul Beatty is a genius.

This book was somewhat of a disappointing read for me. While Beatty writes intuitively and intellectually, many of the references littered throughout this novel were simple inaccessible for me. The satire was heavily bitter as well in this novel. As a reader I also finished the novel completely confused and unsure about what the main point of it's inception really was. The novel is hugely topical and as a intellectual human being I am aware of the current state of America and how race is presented and dealt with within that country. However I only felt a vulnerability and a clarity from the author in the very last pages of the novel which I found such a shame . The novel overall was unfortunately a struggle and chore to get through as every sentence and chapter is time consuming to fathom through and make narrative sense of. This author makes you work for his plot.This novel had some real promise but I felt it tried to hard to shock and be funny and as a consequence the real raw storytelling and soul searching elements of the narrative which I would have loved were lost. I really wanted to dissect the character of bonbon and homity and marpessa but their character development and inner motivations were stifled for elements of the story to thrive that for me were either dry or ostentatious. An unfortunate 2.5, at a push a 3 out of 5 stars. I couldn't connect with the content that made this novel an award winning piece unfortunately. However it's a very current and topical novel that is very interesting and unique.

Biting, absurd, and funny, though sometimes discomforting.

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 presentation was so powerful as to be mesmerising and I was hooked. But in conversation “all and sundry” began to tell me about this book by Paul Beatty called The Sellout. “All and sundry” finally became the final push to read The Sellout in the shape of a new dad at a suburban one year old's birthday party, you know the type of event, the mums all go gah gah at the kids and the dads talk about other things while their kids gorge themselves on cake. The “all and sundry” new dad, I am not a new dad by the way, just kept shaking his head about this book The Sellout. He had various ways of saying read it:- “you have to read it” “by the sound of it if you liked that Marley book you have to read this” “if you like satire you have to read this” “sounds like a little bit of humour in that Marley book but this is entirely satirical humour so you have to read it” “I did not understand a lot of the references but I got the gist to the point that you have to read it” and so on and so forth. And so I did.

About 70 pages in, I discovered a few things. As mentioned above I knew little of US race relations and a fair few of the references towards that thorny subject were beyond me. So with that I started afresh and while reading marked each not or little understood reference and referred back to them with an internet search after each chapter. With that all I can say is “what a journey”. The journey has been a slow read as the enormity of my lack of knowledge loomed large. I read each wiki (or other) link as I went on a weird and wonderful journey into both a political, cultural, and most of all, satirical look at the subject at hand. My copy says that one review said the “......longer I stared at the pages...” the smarter I would get. Nice! And with that new intelligence all I can say is what a book, what a hilarious learning curve it all was for this little white boy.

What more can I add? I mean there are more meaningful dissertations on The Sellout than the drivel I am writing but just maybe anyone from a non US background, who is white and sheltered from US race issues can use the links I used to assist them along in this riveting read. And my apologies for missing any. I put in what I did not know, know little about or just did not recall.

Enjoy.

Prologue
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scopes_Trial
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammurabi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scottsboro_Boys
Supreme court “Courtroom friezes: The South Wall Frieze includes figures of lawgivers from the ancient world and includes Menes, Hammurabi, Moses, Solomon, Lycurgus, Solon, Draco, Confucius, and Augustus.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laozi

The Shit You Shovel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piaget's_theory_of_cognitive_development
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dred_Scott
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plessy_v.Fergusonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luther_Campbellhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MEChAhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Bloomhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Fifths_Compromisehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Albert_experimenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bystander_effecthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Kitty_Genovesehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bandwagon_effecthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enter_the_Wu-Tang(36Chambers)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_and_Mamie_Clarkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harriet_Tubmanhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Horse_Whisperer(novel)
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1107024.The_Planning_Of_Change
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Still_of_the_Night_(The_Five_Satins_song)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_flash
http://blog.press.princeton.edu/2016/10/28/daniel-hack-the-sellout-and-a-tradition-of-black-anglophilia/
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=willie%20lump%20lump
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oedipus_complex
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salton_Sea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Student's_t-test
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Russell
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Gabriel_Mountains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Washington_Carver
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phaseolus_vulgaris
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregor_Mendel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chia_Pet
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Kangaroo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Brannum
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RjKtPau8HTk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ataxia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosopagnosia
Page 66. My best effort at translation of the following:-

yo soy el gran pinche mayate! julio cesar chavez es un puto

I think it means

“I am the great dung beetle servant. Julio Cesar Chavez is a fucker” See comment 20 below.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Our_Gang
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Switzer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billie_Thomas
ol' Remus http://www.woodpilereport.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darla_Hood
http://ourgang.wikia.com/wiki/He-Man_Woman-Haters_Club
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Ross_flag
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nancy_Chodorow
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermeneutics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFnJa9Tlk0k
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B%C3%A9b%C3%A9's_Kids
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shonen_Knife
https://teikokublog.com/2014/05/14/traditional-handicraft-of-kyoto-kyo-ningyo/
Hambone? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juba_dance
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amos_‘n'Andyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Chappellehttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-dunn/dave-chappelle-hartford_b_3844742.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_Slave_Revolt_of_1712https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Amistadhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Strasberghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5150(involuntary_psychiatric_hold)
http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0032774/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Best
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beulah_(series)
http://connection.ebscohost.com/c/reference-entries/21225862/dissociative-reaction
libidinal dyslexia. https://www.appi.org/products/dsm-manual-of-mental-disorders
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Bernardino_Mountains
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pharcyde
Postbellum https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reconstruction_Era
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=doobage
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotty_Beckett
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mulatto
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernie_Morrison
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vin_Scully
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Guide
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sacagawea
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sure%C3%B1os

The Dum Dum Donut Intellectuals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_8(2008)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_187https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crash(1996film)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Eggers Exact Change, or Zen and the Art of Bus Riding and Relationship Repair.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Larochehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drakkar_Noir https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_Oil_Fieldhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masterpiece(TV_series)
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wake%20n%20bake
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In-N-Out_Burger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laugh_Factory
http://florentinehollywood.com/
I Threes. Marleys back up singers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kristy_McNichol
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coconut_Teaszer
I never knew Prince was called His Royal Badness before.
https://www.dennys.com/food/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Richter
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hammons
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Murray_(artist)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Michel_Basquiat
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amoeba_Music
I need to read Kafka as I never have.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphaloskepsis
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gwendolyn_Brooks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Eisenstein
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bikram_Yoga
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tchotchke
and how to pronounce Tchotchke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xd5iji93too
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodney_King
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_on_Reginald_Denny
I admit to never having heard of this book.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38462.Giovanni_s_Room?ac=1&from_search=true
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni's_Room
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cigar_store_Indian
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_in_the_Schoolhouse_Door
George Wallace was a sanga short of a picnic
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=get%20like%20me&defid=2627522
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_in_the_Box
In 1981, horse meat labelled as beef was discovered at a Foodmaker plant that supplied hamburger and taco meat to Jack in the Box. The meat was originally from Profreeze of Australia, and during their checks on location, the food inspectors discovered other shipments destined for the United States which included kangaroo meat.[23][24]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3w8-lXBtJlk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leo_Carrillo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chakra
http://asia.christianlouboutin.com/au_en/
The Color Of Burnt Toast. page 142. ?????
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ten_Commandments_(1956film)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guadalupe-Nipomo_Duneshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D%C3%B6llersheimhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Varosha,_Famagustahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bokor_Hill_Stationhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oradour-sur-Glane_massacrehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouham-Pend%C3%A9https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roberto_Bola%C3%B1oToo Many Mexicans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Camino_Real(California)
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Califas
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/765172.Cane?ac=1&from_search=true
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fast_and_the_Furious
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charro!
http://www.themijachronicles.com/2010/12/how-to-make-ponche-the-traditional-mexican-christmas-punch/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iqvrNM58vg
101 muertes del jaripeo (The 101 deaths of jaripeo)
1,000 litros de sangre (a thousand litres of blood.)
si chingas el toro, te llevas los cuernos ( If you fuck the bull, you get the horns)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_Duds
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sing_Sing
http://www.dict.cc/german-english/Fliegenschutz.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_of_Tears
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1994Northridge_earthquakehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kick_the_canhttp://www.gameskidsplay.net/games/sensing_games/rl_gl.htmHorchata complexion. http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=White%20Mexican&defid=4228583Page 165. Spanish translates to:- “Every day of my professional career I think the same thing. Of these two hundred and fifty children, how many will finish high school? Forty percent? Orale, and of that lucky hundred, how many will go to college? Online, junior, clown college, or whatever? About five, more or less. And how many will graduate? Two, maybe. What a pity. We're nuts.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%93raleMy thanks to Antonomasia from https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/18191001-2016-winner-the-sellout for that translation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Care_Bear_characters#Funshine_Bearhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Henry(folklore)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheezer ???
I see Paris I see France. ????
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10331.Ishmael_Reed
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Americans_in_the_United_States_Congress#Reconstruction_and_Redemption
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dale_Earnhardt
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Whitney
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uno_(card_game)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitlin%27CircuitApples and Oranges https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Howard_Latimerhttp://www.sunnylevine.com/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_bird_dinnerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuskegee_Universityhttps://www.google.com.au/#q=arschloch+in+english&*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wannsee_Conferencehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V8(beverage)
http://www.lowrider.com/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patek_Philippe_%26Co.http://www.ticker.com/МОИ ТРУСИКИ МОКЫЕ (Translates as My panties are wet)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crip_Walkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baptiste_Point_du_Sablehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Overton(Portland_founder)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Brothers
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Coles
http://www.streetswing.com/histmai2/d2bucbu1.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_W.Bubblesun millar de muchachos mexicanos (translates as a 1000 mexican boys) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_N%C3%A1jerahttp://www.nevadawolfpack.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/tahnee_robinson_974686.htmlhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Watsonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoni_Schimmelhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orlando_M%C3%A9ndez-Valdezhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marco_Polo(game)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Passage
https://www.holtsauto.com/simoniz/support/carnauba-wax/
Polynesian gardens https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Gardens,Californiahttps://unitedgangs.com/2014/12/22/varrio-hawaiian-gardens/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Smhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kara_Walkerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathleen_Battlehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrick_Ewinghttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_of_Sheephttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Morganhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fran_Rosshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Otishttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuart_Theatrenu iota gamma ???https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stepin_Fetchithttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Boophttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Fleischerhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinsonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Groundlingshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Second_CityTambo and bones. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christy%27s_Minstrelshttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercedes-Benz_300_SLhttps://newrepublic.com/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lost_Treasure_of_the_Grand_Canyonhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurel_Canyon(film)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orval_Faubus
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasunari_Kawabata
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yukio_Mishima
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Mayakovsky
DFW ??? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Foster_Wallace ???
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sag_Harbor,New_Yorkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeopardy!_Teen_Tournamenthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theresienstadt_concentration_camphttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibe(magazine)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act covers the lot.

Unmitigated Blackness
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/12Angry_Men(1957film)https://www.google.com.au/#q=to+kill+a+mockingbird+movie&*https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Few_Good_Men the overacting of Cruise made this a difficult watchhttps://www.google.com.au/#q=co%C3%B1o+spanish+meaning&*chupa mi verga, carbon (suck my dick) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plymouth_Rockhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaculahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boba_Fetthttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hikikomorihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Rubinhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Atlantichttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_Universityhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Genethttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Black_Teenagershttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_World:_Back_to_New_Yorkhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coral_Smithhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_TurtlesThe Skreeches. ???? (“It's the Turtles, the Skreetches, the David Schwimmers and the George Costanzas of the Group” refers to the meek / lovable losers / good guy characters from the following TV shows:1. “Entourage”, in the case of Turtle https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turtle... ;

2. “Saved by the Bell”, in the case of Screech (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...) ;

3. “Friends”, in the case of Ross (David Schwimmer); and

4. “Seinfeld”, in the case of George Costanza. ) as per comment posted Chivdog 20/6/17
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Schwimmer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Landsberger
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sojourner_Truth
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moms_Mabley
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Goines
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chester_Himes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbey_Lincoln
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Garvey
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfre_Woodard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiparillo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chitterlings
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarence_Cooper the judge or the author?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Parker
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pryor
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_Deren
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Ra
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenji_Mizoguchi
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Godard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gong_Li
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation
Hip Hop Cop. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/12/08/the-rap ????
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roslag
Vara Modig (Be Brave in Swedish) When I translate this later and reread the context it adds to my consideration that this is one very witty book.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amandla_(power)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Winters

Acknowledgements
The negro to black conversion experience

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E.Cross,_Jr.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_E._Cross,_Jr.#The_Negro-to-Black_Conversion_Experience.281971.29_.5B10.5D

My awareness of African-American history is presumably far beneath that of the target audience for this book - I know enough to recognise a good few of the historical events it's satirising, but I'm sure there were references I simply don't have the background knowledge for. Still, from my position of ignorance, I really enjoyed it.

The plot is outrageous. A lot of reviews of this book use that word, and it's totally apt. The plot is ridiculous, but it carries, it works. There's also a lot of gold in there that's not social commentary. The end of the first chapter genuinely gave me shivers. There's a sentence at the start of chapter three that I smirked at the start of, laughed at the middle of, and then I felt my face fall in horror before the end.

But goodness me, it sure is cutting and funny, too. Christ, that opening line: “This may be hard to believe, coming from a black man, but I've never stolen anything.” Woah! OK so we're addressing those stereotypes full on, then!

All in all: hilarious, and shocking, and humbling.

The book consists of a torrent of wise cracks and jokes about post racial US society. As a novel, it doesn't have a strong structure or plot. The whole book gives you a feeling of watching a very long stand-up act about racism. Several of the jokes and observations are ingenious. The author deliberately avoids any meaningful characterisation and keeps them all two dimensional caricatures. Instead of weakening the novel, it makes you not to care for them and concentrate on the rants of the protagonist, which is actually the strong point of the book.

I feel the intention of the book is to criticise the attitude of modern society to avoid discussing of racial difference altogether. The author tries to put forward a view that it is better to go back to the old ways of segregation if there is no atmosphere to openly discuss and agree on racial differences. It is more difficult for the minor ethnicities to live in a society that obliterate it's identity and makes it conform, rather than giving it space to develop its culture. In the novel we can see that segregation leads to better performance of students and general uplifting of the quality of living. 

Read the full story here :

http://diaryofaragingbull.blogspot.com/2017/01/the-sellout-by-paul-beatty-loose.html

Regrettably, I'm running way behind on my Man Booker reads for this year. Only twelve days remain until the prize is awarded and I still have four books to go. I doubt I'll be able to get through them all, but I'm still making an attempt to do so.

Of the six contenders, The Sellout was the title I least looked forward to reading. It was billed as the comedic, absurdist addition to the list, and absurdism and I don't always get along. Five pages in, I was rolling my eyes, dreading the remaining 285 pages. Once the story started to develop and I recognized Beatty's intelligence and wit, however, I was pulled in.

The Sellout is the story of a black man in California who takes a slave and makes many efforts to segregate his community. It's a poignant satire that addresses racial identity and its place in film, law, education, and society in general. While many of the observations Beatty makes are difficult to swallow, they are nonetheless insightful. All this is wrapped in a tragicomedic story dripping with sarcasm. Again, not my thing, but I was actually kind of liking this. Although I'm not well-versed in the genre, I think it bears considerable similarity to the work of David Foster Wallace or Adam Levin.

By the end, however, I was exhausted. The irony does wear thin in the final chapters and I believe it wouldn't have hurt this novel to have been more tightly trimmed in the last seventy pages.

I think it's unlikely Beatty will take the Man Booker Prize this year. As I stated in my review of [b:Eileen|23453099|Eileen|Ottessa Moshfegh|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1423783612s/23453099.jpg|43014905], the Prize will be heavily scrutinized when it finally selects an American author, so I think the year that it finally does will be a year when the American selection is by far the best. Though I have yet to read any of the non-American contenders, I'm confident that one or two will be better candidates. With its relevance to current events and its more tightly woven story, I think The Sellout stands a better chance than Eileen, but I wouldn't put my money on either. Then again, Bob Dylan just won the Novel Prize for Literature, so all bets are off.

When the book opens we're introduced to “The Sellout” getting incredibly high, awaiting trial at the Supreme Court for the crime of owning a slave and trying to re-segregate his tiny town of Dickens. And in the first chapter we're given a clear view about what to expect. Beatty is an author and a poet with a background in slam poetry and it shows in the prose. It's breakneck beats and syncopated syntax and hella fun.

Beatty doesn't skewer stereotypes but rather plays with all their permutations. When he gets on a roll his riffs are razor sharp. As with comedy, individual results may vary but he's got a bigger idea at play here than just making you laugh. So good.

So, so, so clever. Very impressive