The sellout : a novel / Paul Beatty.
Publication details: New York : Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015.Edition: First editionDescription: 288 pages ; 22 cmISBN:- 9780374260507 (hardcover)
- FICTION / African American / General
- FICTION / Literary
- FICTION -- Literary
- FICTION -- African American -- General
- Fathers and sons
- Race relations
- Roman
- Satire
- Amerikanisches Englisch
- Fathers and sons -- Fiction
- Race relations -- Fiction
- American fiction -- 21st century
- United States -- Race relations -- Fiction
- Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Fiction
- 813/.54 23
- PS3552.E19 S45 2015
- FIC019000 | FIC049000
- Winner 2016 Man Booker Prize for Fiction
Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item reserves | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Book | Melbourne Athenaeum Library | Fiction | BEA | Pending reserve | 065162 |
"Raised in the "agrarian ghetto" of Dickens--improbably smack in the middle of downtown L.A.--the narrator of The Sellout resigned himself to the fate of all other middle-class Californians: "to die in the same bedroom you'd grown up in, looking up at the crack in the stucco ceiling that had been there since '68 quake." Raised by a single father, a controversial sociologist at Riverside Community College, he spent his childhood as the subject in psychological studies, classic experiments revised to include a racially-charged twist. He also grew up believing this pioneering work might result in a memoir that would solve their financial woes. But when his father is killed in a shoot out with the police, he realizes there never was a memoir. All that's left is the bill for a drive-thru funeral and some maudlin what-ifs. Fuelled by this injustice and the general disrepair of his down-trodden hometown, he sets out to right another wrong: Dickens has literally been removed from the map to save California further embarrassment. Enlisting the help of the town's most famous resident--the last surviving Little Rascal, Hominy Jenkins, our narrator initiates a course of action--one that includes reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school--destined to bring national attention. These outrageous events land him with a law suit heard by the Supreme Court, the latest in a series of cases revolving around the thorny issue of race in America. The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the most sacred tenets of the U.S. Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality--the black Chinese restaurant"--
"A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court"--
Winner 2016 Man Booker Prize for Fiction