by Paul Beatty
A biting satire about a young man’s isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game.
Description
Born in the “agrarian ghetto” of Dickens―on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles―the narrator of The Sellout resigns himself to the fate of lower-middle-class Californians: “I’d die in the same bedroom I’d grown up in, looking up at the cracks in the stucco ceiling that’ve been there since ’68 quake.” Raised by a single father, a controversial sociologist, he spent his childhood as the subject in racially charged psychological studies. He is led to believe that his father’s pioneering work will result in a memoir that will solve his family’s financial woes. But when his father is killed in a police shoot-out, he realizes there never was a memoir. All that’s left is the bill for a drive-thru funeral.
Fueled by this deceit and the general disrepair of his hometown, the narrator sets out to right another wrong: Dickens has literally been removed from the map to save California from further embarrassment. Enlisting the help of the town’s most famous resident―the last surviving Little Rascal, Hominy Jenkins―he initiates the most outrageous action conceivable: reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school, which lands him in the Supreme Court.
A Book of the Decade, 2010-2020 (Independent)
‘Outrageous, hilarious and profound.’ Simon Schama, Financial Times
‘The longer you stare at Beatty’s pages, the smarter you’ll get.’ Guardian
‘The most badass first 100 pages of an American novel I’ve read.’ New York Times
Related products
-
-70% Off
Original price was: 5,00 €.1,50 €Current price is: 1,50 €.by Giles Kristian
The first book in a thrilling Viking trilogy that launched the career of acclaimed historical novelist Giles Kristian – who’s now confronting the tumult and devastation of the English Civil War in The Bleeding Land…
-
-70% Off
Original price was: 4,00 €.1,20 €Current price is: 1,20 €.by Arthur Miller
Powerful, passionate and frighteningly relevant, the drama of Arthur Miller deals in the hard currency of ‘social’ realism and tragedy.
-
-70% Off
Original price was: 3,00 €.0,90 €Current price is: 0,90 €.by John Steinbeck
First published in 1945, Cannery Row focuses on the acceptance of life as it is—both the exuberance of community and the loneliness of the individual. John Steinbeck draws on his memories of the real inhabitants of Monterey, California, and interweaves their stories in this world where only the fittest survive—creating what is at once one of his most humorous and poignant works.
-
-30% Off
Original price was: 6,00 €.4,20 €Current price is: 4,20 €.The Leatherstocking Tales #2
by James Fenimore Cooper‘Death and honour are thought to be the same, but today I have learned that sometimes they are not.’
