The Sellout: A Novel
by Beatty, Paul
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- Collectible Near Fine/Near Fine
- ISBN 10
- 0374260508
- ISBN 13
- 9780374260507
- Seller
-
Olympia, Washington, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2015-03-03. First Edition, 2nd Printing. hardcover. Collectible Near Fine/Near Fine. 6x1x9. Stated first edition, 2015 with number line to 2. A used book with minimal flaws or imperfections. Photos upon request. Thank you for supporting Last Word Books and independent bookstores.
Reviews
On Jan 3 2018, a reader said:
The Sellout is the fourth novel by award-winning American author, Paul Beatty. It won the Man Booker Prize in 2016. Our narrator is the son of a psychologist by the name of Mee (who has dropped the second "e"). Until his untimely and unfortunate death at the hands of the Los Angeles Police, his father was known as the Nigger Whisper for his ability to talk down coloured folk attempting suicide, a role that has been thrust upon the narrator by default.
Since his father's death, he manages their farm in a suburban area of LA once known as the City of Dickens. A talented farmer, he grows, among other cash crops, square watermelons and pot, and his uniquely delicious produce is very popular locally. In the prologue, we find him summoned to appear before the Supreme Court of USA on charges of racial segregation and slavery.
Although our narrator's name is never mentioned, he is referred to by one character as The Sellout, and bears the nickname Bonbon from his performance in a school spelling bee. Beatty gives the reader a cast of quirky characters that includes a former child-actor, the Assistant Principal of the Chaff Middle School, a female bus driver and a has-been TV personality who rewrites classic texts into blackly correct books.
A former city is re-established via Freeway signs and a three-inch-wide white painted border. Meetings of the Dum Dum Donuts Intellectuals are the forum for black ideas and our protagonist employs a sort of reverse psychology that ends up in a resegregation push. He also provides novel take on blackface entertainment.
One World have produced editions of Beatty's four novel with themed covers and this one has a lawn jockey with a gas lamp on the cover, the significance of which becomes clear in the text. This satire has been described as brilliant, outrageous, demented, hilarious and profound, all succinct and accurate descriptors. Very entertaining.
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Details
- Bookseller
- Last Word Books (US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 210441991
- Title
- The Sellout: A Novel
- Author
- Beatty, Paul
- Format/Binding
- Hardcover
- Book Condition
- Used - Collectible Near Fine
- Jacket Condition
- Near Fine
- Quantity Available
- 1
- Edition
- First Edition, 2nd Printing
- ISBN 10
- 0374260508
- ISBN 13
- 9780374260507
- Publisher
- Farrar, Straus and Giroux
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2015-03-03
- Size
- 6x1x9
- Keywords
- fiction
- X weight
- 14 oz
Terms of Sale
Last Word Books
30 day return guarantee, with full refund including shipping costs for up to 30 days after delivery if an item arrives misdescribed or damaged.
About the Seller
Last Word Books
Biblio member since 2010
Olympia, Washington
About Last Word Books
Books are a gateway drug. It starts out innocently enough, reading C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, pretty soon you are reading harder stuff like Kerouac and Burroughs, the next thing you know you're strung out on Bukowski and DeSade, worrying about the Patriot Act and Free Speech, and joining the ACLU. If books are your drug of choice, Last Word has your fix!
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Number Line
- A series of numbers appearing on the copyright page of a book, where the lowest number generally indicates the printing of that...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...