The Sellout by Paul Beatty
Hallelujah! I have read my first book of 2018 and it was good.
A fellow book club member recommended this one a while ago and this month it is our book club choice so I got stuck in. It’s the story of an African American who following the death of his father, a sociology professor who homed schooled the narrator and used him as a social experiment, and the extinction of his hometown after it is rezoned, brings back slavery and segregation as a method for improving his community. If that description makes you uncomfortable, it should. Paul Beatty uses satire to say the unsayable and highlight the hypocrisy and problems of even discussing race in America.
Its message is completely serious but it is funny. It’s dry, sarcastic and surreal. It is not a weighty tome, but like the best stand up comedy makes you howl laughing while making you thoroughly uncomfortable.
I have two words of advice. First, the blurb on the back of my addition appears to be written by someone who didn’t read the book (not unusual) or even the notes on the book. Ignore it. Secondly, the prologue drops you into the story at the end and, due to our narrator’s mental state at this point, a little strange. I found it off-putting. Keep going as it’s completely worth it.