Beatty is willing to take risks and to shock, and in the process, he confronts the stereotypes that African-Americans in the United States often face. The novel’s central theme is the absurdity of the notion of a post-racial United States of America, as Beatty successfully demonstrates that people of colour experience racism in every aspect of their lives on a daily basis. Since Bonbon’s last name is ‘Me,’ the novel begins with Bonbon facing the Supreme Court in the case of ‘Me v United States of America.’ This sets the tone of the novel, as Beatty systematically sets himself against every aspect of American culture and deconstructs it. When his father is murdered meaninglessly in an instance of police brutality, Bonbon attempts to revitalize his town and its people by reintroducing slavery and segregation. The novel’s protagonist is a black man nicknamed Bonbon, raised in Dickens, Los Angeles, by his sociologist father who studies race by running experiments on him. Bold and daring, The Sellout is witty and bitingly ironic, reminiscent of the styles of Kurt Vonnegut and Joseph Heller.
Paul Beatty’s The Sellout, which has deservedly won the Man Booker Prize this year, is filled with pure satiric genius. “If Disneyland was indeed the happiest place on earth, you’d either keep it a secret or the price of admission would be free and not the yearly equivalent of the GDP of a small sub-Saharan African country like Detroit.”
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