Doug Lewars's Blog - Posts Tagged "satire"

The Sellout by Paul Beatty

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


*** Possible Spoilers ***

This book is the winner of the Man Booker Prize, one of the most prestigious prizes in literature. I'm currently reading my way through a wide selection of literary prize winners over the past two years to test a hypothesis. I came across a blog article that stated that literary prizes are given out only to books that enshrine the principles of social-justice thought, as defined by critical theory. While I haven't read enough works to either accept or refute the hypothesis, I can say that this particular book certainly meets the criteria. It is strongly anti-status-quo, anti-North-American-Society and anti white. That said, it is absolutely hilarious. The author has an acerbic wit and is a master at satire. However I find myself questioning the validity of this entry for the award. According to the Man Booker website, the prize is awarded "to the author of the best (in the opinion of the judges) eligible novel". This isn't a novel. Novels have plots. This doesn't. It's almost like a series of themed blog entries. Each chapter seems like a separate post. True the author focuses on the experiences of black people in North America but that's as far as it goes. Perhaps the book might be described as a series of vignettes, pointed observations regarding how blacks are treated. But it isn't a novel.

That said, I enjoyed it thoroughly. Perhaps I wasn't supposed to. Perhaps I was supposed to hang my head in white liberal angst. Instead I found myself laughing freely as the protagonist seeks to improve the lot of black people living in his neighborhood by reinstating segregation and slavery. It's a wild ride as the author pokes fun at whites, liberals of all shades, and black people. I'd have some doubts about recommending it to those who are properly politically correct but for anyone with a sense of humor this is a terrific book.



View all my reviews