I would’ve love to be a fly on the wall of all the publishers author Paul Beatty approached with his manuscript, saying: “Picture this: in the city of Los Angeles, there’s a disappearing ghetto call Dickens (as in Charles). In said ghetto, a black man starts a farm, but in order to place his neighborhood back on the map, he plans to bring back segregation to the masses by first making the last surviving Little Rascal, (Hominy Jenkins) his own personal slave, actions which land him in the Supreme Court.” Looking at all those jaws hitting the floor would’ve been worth the price of admission. The novel was turned down by publishers eighteen times yet it went on to win the Man Booker Prize (whatever that is). After reading The Sellout; I’m glad someone took a chance on it.
The novel starts with narrator Bonbon on trial at the Supreme Court. His opening line: “This may be hard to believe, coming from a black man, but I’ve never stolen anything.”
WTF Right?
Like the bastard son of Richard Prior, Dick Gregory, and Dave Chappelle this book is witty, smart, and acerbic, in possession of a language that burns with deep insightful anger.
“The Supreme Court is where the country takes out its dick and tits and decides who’s going to get fucked and who’s getting a taste of mother’s milk. It’s constitutional pornography in there…and what…about obscenity? I know it when I see it…Me vs. the United States of America demands a more fundamental examination of what we mean by ‘separate,’ by ‘equal,’ by ‘black.’"
I read this book a while back, wrote this little “review” a while back too, but it’s such a great book I thought I might as well slap my take on it on here.
The Sellout by Paul Beatty is biting satire of the highest order.
Go read it.