On the HahaFiction shelf
The Sellout
When Dickens disappears from California’s map, a Black farmer tries to force his hometown back into view. His methods include segregating a school and accepting a neighbor’s offer to become his slave, a campaign that reaches the Supreme Court.
From the publisher’s blurb
“A biting satire about a young man's isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court”Read the full description at Publisher description, Picador
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What makes it funny?
In the opening excerpt, the narrator’s psychologist father treats dinner as a behavioral stimulus. His son frustrates a lesson in racial consciousness by preferring the dolls with a speedboat and dune buggy.
The comedy at work
The narrator translates childhood abuse into the language of experimental psychology. His educated, profane voice keeps puncturing the explanations people use for racial inequality.
Try this if…
The jokes suit an appetite for confrontational American satire, dense verbal riffs and taboo premises.
Good to know
Frequent racial slurs and stereotypes are part of the satire. The book also contains child abuse, violence, profanity and sexual language.
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Sources & further reading
- Authorized excerpt
Reading sample
- Publisher and excerpt
Publisher
- Kirkus review
Review
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