The Sellout

Very funny satire about a black man, Bonbon, whose hometown Dickens, CA gets taken off the map because it is an embarrassment to the city of Los Angeles. Bonbon embarks on a project to put Dickens back on the map and in the process becomes a slaveowner and a segregationist. The book begins with Bonbon waiting to have his case heard by the Supreme Court, so the story of how all this came to be is told in a long, hilarious flashback.

Much of the humor in this book feels taboo, at least for white people, at least to share in public. So, part of the book's charm is having permission to laugh at things that it wouldn't be right to laugh at if your white colleague said them in the break room at work. These are touchy subjects, and rightly so. One of the things that makes it feel good to laugh is that the characters in this book are fully human. No one is a caricature. While the town of Dickens and some of its inhabitants may be something of an embarrassment, they are treated with love even while they are being laughed at.

There's a genius description of riding public transportation in LA that I would like to copy down and enjoy long after I return this book to the library.

I thought the story was longer than necessary, but it was a lot of fun to read. I think Paul Beatty is a genius.