The Sellout: WINNER OF THE MAN BOOKER PRIZE 2016

Our June read as part of Gloucester Book Club! We had shadowed the Man Booker Prize 2016 and really wanted to read the winner! What a Marmite experience for our large reading group! In a lengthy Barnes & Noble review, Stefan Beck says that The Sellout will 'shock all of us into reexamining what we think we know about race in America'. It challenges the sacred tenets of the US Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality - the black Chinese restaurant.

Not an easy read, in terms of the linguistics. If you have lived in the States, you will probably have a better grasp of the references in the book. Our group thought 'polemic' was a better description than novel. Several members thought it was a brilliant satire, very funny, a great book. Others thought the exact opposite, more like an unhumorous rant!

Personally I thought it was bonkers, at times brilliantly humorous. I felt like an outsider, perhaps people want to see themselves in a book and I don't think you can really do that here. I'm glad I read it for a book club read, otherwise I might have been tempted to give up and that would have been a shame as perseverance showed me that there is a lot of thought provoking commentary.

So, if you're looking for a book that will provide diverse discussion for your book group, then this one will most certainly fit the bill!

This book couldn't be more perfect for the 2016 political climate. The cutting satire is something that few writers can achieve, let alone this well. It was both thought provoking and challenging and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Pageturners group review of The Sellout.
I read the book but wouldn't read it again. It was OK but not hugely entertaining. I got a bit bored three quarters of the way through but finished it and am glad I did. I liked the main character Bonbon. Poses questions and makes you think. Not sure it's a winner though.

THE SELLOUT BY PAUL BEATTY - JAMIE SEMPLE'S- PAGETURNERS REVIEW

The first thing to say about “The Sellout” --It is a challenging novel.
It’s frame of reference particularly in it’s first 80 pages, is densely compacted and a significant obstacle for non American readers to overcome.
But if you stick with it, the novel develops into an enormously entertaining satire, filled with wonderfully funny lyrical explosions of righteous fire and brimstone, aimed with even handed precision at a series of both right wing and liberal targets.
The Central characters first name is never revealed but in the novels opening the reader learns that he has been arrested and is facing a trial at the American Supreme Court and that his Surname “Me” is illustrated by the title of the case Me v. the United States of America.
His crime is that of re-introducing Slavery and segregation into the city of Dickens.
The catalyst for this is the removal of the city of Dickens from all records and maps- in effect officialdom semi denying that the city even exists.
This heightened reality plot allows the author to create numerous exotic comic examples for satirical effect and it is difficult to do justice to the comic invention on display without quoting wholesale from the novel
“Later that day, like any good social pyromaniac worth their accelerant, I returned to the scene of the crime.”

The only crime with which the novel could be charged is that the characterisation of it’s secondary characters lies on the surface. But I am aware that this could be in danger of criticising a novel for something it was never intended to be. Satire needs to be powerful, relevant, courageous and by it’s nature outrageous . This novel is all four and the concerns and emotions of it’s central protagonist and his relationships are brilliantly conveyed in particular his friendship with Hominy the former cinematic "little rascal" who insists on being his slave.
This novel fires off wit and idea’s like sparks from a Catherine wheel and I can see why this novel was short-listed- if I am honest I think it unlikely it will win the Booker prize- not that I think it doesn’t deserve to but that I think that the Booker prize traditionally prefers formal character studies rather than idea’s. I have not read Paul Beatty’s work before but I intend to search out his work now and that’s the best recommendation that any reader can make.

Denise.
Pageturners Book Group shadowing The Man Booker Prize.
The Sellout.

I struggled at first to get in to this book. I was however full of cold and my powers of concentration were not at my best. I am sp pleased that I persevered as I enjoyed the book. I have not read anything like it before. I liked the character of Sellout himself. His relationship with Hominy was particularly touching. I was fascinated by his childhood. His Dad's unorthodox upbringing of him although at times horrific managed to be humorous as well.
I thought I would struggle with the segregation as in any other context it is abhorrent but in this book I was not offended. The humour of the story telling and the character of Sellout carried it through.I understood why Sellout wanted to reclaim Dickens. It was a run down ghetto but it was their run down ghetto and it shaped their identity. Take it away and you take away their identity.