Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.78 AVERAGE
3.78 AVERAGE
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
It’s a stand-up comedy special that goes on for too long. It’s so dry that you’re fascinated by it and it’s definitely more interesting than your average Booker Prize winner.
The Sellout is biting, philosophical, and hilarious.
This 2016 Man Booker prize winner is an abstract, satirical take on race relations in America as well as big R Racism, and racial identity. The characters start as blended stereotypes, the narrator most of all, and yet they all climb out of the story as fully realized, brooding humanity.
"Who am I, and how may I become myself?"
We read this as a book club feature, and a few readers struggled through it. The prose can be dense in places, especially in the prologue, but it is always poetic. Also, some of the readers felt like outsiders to the content, such that they weren't able to connect very well with the story and characters. I had the opposite experience. When I got to the final sentence, I shivered, turned back to page one, and read the entire book again.
This is the story of BonBon -- a surfing, organic farming man living in a fictional agrarian ghetto (Dickens, California) who specializes in mind-bending strains of watermelon, satsuma, and marijuana, but who also intervenes in his community as an amateur counselor. His hijinks bring about sweeping, positive changes in Dickens, though he eventually draws the ire of the establishment, which sends him to the Supreme Court to defend his contextually productive reinstatement of slavery and segregation.
Amanda Foreman, chair of the Man Booker judges, said:
"The Sellout is one of those very rare books that is able to take satire, which is in itself a very difficult subject and not always done well, and it plunges into the heart of contemporary American society and, with absolutely savage wit, of the kind I haven't seen since Swift or Twain, both manages to eviscerate every social taboo and politically correct nuance, every sacred cow, and while both making us laugh, making us wince. It is both funny and painful at the same time and it is really a novel of our times."
**
Book reviews and shorter stuff--follow me on Twitter: @SeptimusBrown
This 2016 Man Booker prize winner is an abstract, satirical take on race relations in America as well as big R Racism, and racial identity. The characters start as blended stereotypes, the narrator most of all, and yet they all climb out of the story as fully realized, brooding humanity.
"Who am I, and how may I become myself?"
We read this as a book club feature, and a few readers struggled through it. The prose can be dense in places, especially in the prologue, but it is always poetic. Also, some of the readers felt like outsiders to the content, such that they weren't able to connect very well with the story and characters. I had the opposite experience. When I got to the final sentence, I shivered, turned back to page one, and read the entire book again.
This is the story of BonBon -- a surfing, organic farming man living in a fictional agrarian ghetto (Dickens, California) who specializes in mind-bending strains of watermelon, satsuma, and marijuana, but who also intervenes in his community as an amateur counselor. His hijinks bring about sweeping, positive changes in Dickens, though he eventually draws the ire of the establishment, which sends him to the Supreme Court to defend his contextually productive reinstatement of slavery and segregation.
Amanda Foreman, chair of the Man Booker judges, said:
"The Sellout is one of those very rare books that is able to take satire, which is in itself a very difficult subject and not always done well, and it plunges into the heart of contemporary American society and, with absolutely savage wit, of the kind I haven't seen since Swift or Twain, both manages to eviscerate every social taboo and politically correct nuance, every sacred cow, and while both making us laugh, making us wince. It is both funny and painful at the same time and it is really a novel of our times."
**
Book reviews and shorter stuff--follow me on Twitter: @SeptimusBrown
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
challenging
funny
medium-paced
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was certainly a task to start. Within the first 10 pages I almost quit 10 times. But I came around.
It delivers on its biting critique. The satire is sharp, irreverent, sooo disturbing at times, and it's help together by equally sharp writing that will startle a laugh out of you at the same as curdling your stomach. Once you are inoculated by the first few pages of outrageousness, you get a sense of the rhythm. The subject matter is...huge. The commentary on race and its mechanisms in America often cut right to the core, leaving me with the listlessness I feel when confronting the irreconcilable differences and injustices of society.
I found myself liking the narrator and his agraian focuses. I think the most refreshing thing this book could have done was give him hobbies. However I think the wit and spectacle of the story became dimished by the end, so it was a bit of a flat landing.
This is a terribly good recommendation, in that is it both terrible and good, and I think I may revisit it some day, even just for some specific quotes.
It delivers on its biting critique. The satire is sharp, irreverent, sooo disturbing at times, and it's help together by equally sharp writing that will startle a laugh out of you at the same as curdling your stomach. Once you are inoculated by the first few pages of outrageousness, you get a sense of the rhythm. The subject matter is...huge. The commentary on race and its mechanisms in America often cut right to the core, leaving me with the listlessness I feel when confronting the irreconcilable differences and injustices of society.
I found myself liking the narrator and his agraian focuses. I think the most refreshing thing this book could have done was give him hobbies. However I think the wit and spectacle of the story became dimished by the end, so it was a bit of a flat landing.
This is a terribly good recommendation, in that is it both terrible and good, and I think I may revisit it some day, even just for some specific quotes.
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
really snappy, witty, fast-paced, and slightly surrealist writing. took a second to get used to the style but I really enjoyed reading this. so much uncomfortable, hilarious, and intelligent observations and portrayals of race in America
I loved parts of this book and I was completely disengaged with others. It was wickedly funny, as promised by the critics' reviews, but I struggled with the syntax throughout. The sentences are long and rambling; I assume reflective of the LA style of talk (I've been to LA, but when I was much younger), which I didn't care for.
The plot is highly original, which kept me reading and I can see why it appealed to the Man Booker prize judges. However, I wouldn't be rushing out to read another by this author based on my enjoyment of this one. A solid three stars.
The plot is highly original, which kept me reading and I can see why it appealed to the Man Booker prize judges. However, I wouldn't be rushing out to read another by this author based on my enjoyment of this one. A solid three stars.