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The Sellout

A Novel

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The Sellout

Written by: Paul Beatty
Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
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About this listen

Audie Award Finalist, Fiction, 2016

A 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 the '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.

©2015 Paul Beatty (P)2015 Audible, Inc. Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Comedy Witty Equality African American Humor
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What the critics say

  • Winner, The Man Booker Prize, 2016

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  • 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award Winner, Fiction
"Narrator Prentice Onayemi embodies Bonbon, along with the novel's many unique characters: a former 'Our Gang' understudy, a former girlfriend who is now a city bus driver, the denizens of the neighborhood, and the white surfer dudes whom Bonbon regularly confuses at the beach. There's even a small part for Justice Clarence Thomas, which Onayemi does in style, and street Spanish, which, when required, flows perfectly." ( AudioFile magazine)

What listeners say about The Sellout

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Profile Image for don ferguson

Laugh out loud funny!

Beatty's keen allusory kept me in stitches from beginning to end as Prentice Onayemi skillfully brings this story to life. This is definitely one of the laughs that all of us need at this time. Warning: Don't bother reading this if you are not a keen observer of popular culture - you won't get it.

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Profile Image for Anonymous User

Top Notch Satire

It's rare to find a book that strikes such a perfect balance between meaningful social critique and utter hilarity. I keep thinking back on all the hilarious moments in the novel and I find that the more I reflect the more I realize just how much this book has going for it. Those moments aren't just funny, they're vivid, layered, and thought provoking as well. There's a lot of art that talks about being black in America but Beatty has found a truly singular angle with which to explore the topic. The writing is totally accessible but without sacrificing depth; it's unpretentious but still endlessly clever.

Prentice Onayemi's narration is pitch-perfect and wonderfully complements the prose. He really seems to inhabit the persona of the narrator as he's reading. Really he just nails the delivery on every line, a truly flawless performance.

Would highly recommend this book to pretty much anyone without hesitation; I think Swift and Twain would find a lot to like here.

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Profile Image for Mike Reiter

Preachy not very funny.

First the narrator does an excellent job. Second the sample was misleading. I was expecting humor in the same vein as Kurt Vonnegut. if you are into race politics you might find this interesting.

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2 people found this helpful