Paul Beatty – författare

Berättaren i Svikaren står åtalad i USAs högsta domstol. Hans brott? Att i Los Angeles-stadsdelen Dickens försökt återinföra rassegregationen på det lokala gymnasiet och slaveriet på sin lilla odling av vattenmeloner och marijuana. Detta för att återuppbygga en stad som raserats av knarkhandel, föroreningar och våld så till den grad att inte ens Tjernobyl eller Kinshasa vill bli Dickens vänort. När han räddar livet på stadens enda celebritet, den förbisedda 30-talsbarnstjärnan Hominy, och deras relation utvecklas till slav och Massa blomstrar åter Dickens.

När Svikaren av Paul Beatty utkom i USA var det en lika chockerande som revolutionerande roman som nådde läsarna och kom att älskas av såväl dem som en enad kritikerkår. Med en oändlig mängd humor och ett pisksnärtande rastlöst språk, som refererar lika ledigt till Kardashians som Martin Luther King och Tennyson, skriver Paul Beatty en ursinnig och vanvettig satir över dagens USA. Som läsare skrattar du högt åt Beattys humor och vändningar, men det är ett skratt som fastnar i halsen.

Svikaren är sylvass och obehaglig när Beatty blottlägger den amerikanska rasismens historia och hur den helt och fullt även idag genomsyrar det amerikanska samhällsbygget. Sällan har någon med sådan skärpa skärskådat det samtida USA och skrivit en samhällsskildring med sådan humor och obehag.

Winner of the Man Booker PrizeWinner of the National Book Critics Circle Award in FictionNamed one of the best books of by The New York Times Book Review and the Wall Street JournalA biting satire about a young man''s isolated upbringing and the race trial that sends him to the Supreme Court, Paul Beatty''s The Sellout showcases a comic genius at the top of his game. It challenges the sacred tenets of the United States Constitution, urban life, the civil rights movement, the father-son relationship, and the holy grail of racial equality—the black Chinese restaurant.Born in the "agrarian ghetto" of Dickens—on the southern outskirts of Los Angeles—the narrator of The Sellout resigns himself to the fate of lower-middle-class Californians: "I''d die in the same bedroom I''d grown up in, looking up at the cracks in the stucco ceiling that''ve been there since ''68 quake." Raised by a single father, a controversial sociologist, he spent his childhood as the subject in racially charged psychological studies. He is led to believe that his father''s pioneering work will result in a memoir that will solve his family''s financial woes. But when his father is killed in a police shoot-out, he realizes there never was a memoir. All that''s left is the bill for a drive-thru funeral.Fuelled by this deceit and the general disrepair of his hometown, the narrator sets out to right another wrong: Dickens has literally been removed from the map to save California from further embarrassment. Enlisting the help of the town''s most famous resident—the last surviving Little Rascal, Hominy Jenkins—he initiates the most outrageous action conceivable: reinstating slavery and segregating the local high school, which lands him in the Supreme Court.

From Paul Beatty, the author of the Man Booker Prize winner The Sellout, comes Tuff, a novel as fast-paced and hard-edged as the Harlem streets it portrays.Age nineteen and weighing in at 320 pounds, Winston “Tuffy” Foshay is an East Harlem denizen who breaks jaws and shoots dogs and dreams of earning millions from his idea for Cap’n Crunch: The Movie, starring Danny DeVito. His best friend is a disabled Muslim who wants to rob banks, his guiding light is an ex-hippie Asian woman who worked for Malcolm X, and he married his wife, Yolanda, over the phone from jail.He’s funny and fierce, frustrated and feared. And when Tuff decides to run for City Council, this dazzling novel goes from astoundingly funny to acerbically sublime. By turns profound and irreverent, and populated with a hilarious supporting cast, Paul Beatty''s Tuff is satire at its razor-sharp best.“An extravagant, satirical cri de couer...Beatty’s blunt, impious, streetwise eloquence has a kind of transfixing power.” —The New York Times Book Review“Masterfully conceived and highly entertaining...Richly textured and unforgettable.”—The Boston Globe

A hilarious and scathing debut novel from the National Book Critics Circle Award and Man Booker Prize-winning author of The Sellout.In Paul Beatty''s satirical coming-of-age novel, The White Boy Shuffle, Gunnar Kaufman, an awkward black surfer bum, is moved by his mother from Santa Monica to urban West Los Angeles. There, he begins to undergo a startling transformation from neighborhood outcast to basketball superstar, and eventually to reluctant messiah of a "divided, downtrodden people.""The White Boy Shuffle has the uncanny ability to make readers want to laugh and cry at the same time." —Los Angeles TimesA bombastic and funny novel that deftly explores race, identity, and the complexities of growing up African American in Los Angeles, The White Boy Shuffle marks the impressive debut of one of America''s most acclaimed and bestselling authors.

Născut în „ghetoul agrar“ Dickens –la periferia oraşului Los Angeles –, naratorul de culoare al romanului Io contra Statele Unite ale Americii se resemnează să ducă o viaţă prin nimic ieşită din comun. Crescut de tatăl său, un sociolog controversat, şi-a petrecut copilăria ca subiectîn studiile psihologice cu teme rasiale ale acestuia, convins că tatăl va publica până la urmă un jurnal ce le va rezolva problemele financiare.Dar, când sociologul este ucis într-o altercaţie cu poliţia, fiul îşi dă seama că jurnalul nu a existat niciodată. Tot ce i-a rămas este factura pentru înmormântare. Împins de această descoperire şi de disperarea generală din urbea sa, naratorul îşi propune să readucă pe hartă numele oraşului Dickens, şters oficial pentru a salva onoarea Californiei, şi să reinstaureze sclavia şi segregarea liceului local, fapt care îl aduce în fața Curții Supreme a Statelor Unite. Beatty scrie cea mai bună carte a sa, o parodie despre rasă, cultura pop şi politică în America de azi, o satiră întunecată, amuzantă, la obiectşi deosebit de elegantă...

Un roman extrem de amuzant şi, ca toate marile romane, profund şi provocator.Booklist

Unul dintre cele mai importante şi mai dificile romane americane din secolul XXI... Un romanincisiv pe care cititorii nu-l vor uita niciodată.Los Angeles Times