Questions About The Sellout

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Answered Questions (10)

I'm on page 80 and not enjoying the way this book is written, at all. It seems to be a mission to get as much gibberish in one sentence, which sentence cannot be less than 300 hundred words. Does it "get better"? Should I keep going?

Xander Kennedy Try the audiobook version. The reader is incredible and it feels a bit easier to get into the narration this way.

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What is the meaning of Hominy Jenkins asking to become a slave? Turn back in hisyory as the only way to save Dickens? A statement about his already being enslaved by his past as a a (black) child actor? I have the feeling I am missing something.

Kamran Rahman The novel is more concerned with illustrating the perceived advantages of slavery for Hominy - it gives him focus, value and status in a society where…moreThe novel is more concerned with illustrating the perceived advantages of slavery for Hominy - it gives him focus, value and status in a society where he otherwise has none. The central question of the book appears to be "How do we make progress on issues of race, given the current disadvantages suffered by black americans". To explore this, two absurdist positions are set up - Hominy wants to return to the certainty of the past. Foy wants to re-write history. For Hominy there can be no progress in issues of social justice and that is why he wants to be a slave. Hominy considers Foy's battle to be futile. He has lived through extreme racism in the past, and he liked it.(less)

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someone please explain this book to me for the love of god??????????????

MajorTom

This answer contains spoilers… (view spoiler)

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Who or what does the title of the book refer to? Is it the narrator or someone/something else?

Rick Patterson While this is true, Me is not as much as a sell-out as just about everyone else in the book. The black Supreme Court justice who harangues him--even i…moreWhile this is true, Me is not as much as a sell-out as just about everyone else in the book. The black Supreme Court justice who harangues him--even if he isn't based on Clarence Thomas--is obviously a co-opted black man whose outrage is based on law and theory and has nothing to do with lived experience. Foy is obviously retailing and re-telling a divergent view of black experience, hilariously selling new versions of old stories but, by doing so, also quite literally denigrating everyone. F.K. Me is, at the very least, a sold-out psychologist who uses and abuses his own son for specious academic purposes. But when Me sells fruit and marijuana, he is returning to the soil--probably a satirical shot at sharecropping--but he is at least directly purveying goods that are the produce of his honest labor. Who else can say as much?(less)

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Really trying to get into this thing after reading some rave reviews, and being a student of social satire, but I am seeing an immediate turnoff, so I gotta question: Beatty really seems like he's trying to show off both his vocabulary and his familiarity with World and American history. Like one of those black men who thinks all Whites think blacks are less intelligent, so by god I'll show em! Does this get better?