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The Idle Book Club 21: The Sellout

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Nice! I read this back in the spring and thought it was really hilarious. Glad that it is currently winning awards and excited to discuss it on the podcast.

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Just read this randomly, cool to see it's being picked up.

 

What a weird, wonderful book. I think not being from the US and not having much personal experience with race relations really takes the edge off this book for me in a lot of ways, but still, living in an ex-colonial power a lot of the themes of racism and exploitation and "legally but not socially equal" resonate. This seems to me to be satire at its best, saying the unsayable and making one laugh but also consider. It noodled about a bit too much for me to give it top marks, but still, wow. It reminded me a lot of Catch 22.

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I haven't read this yet, but I'm curious to know if this being the first book by an American author to win the Booker Prize has got it (and the prize) any more attention for that reason. Was the Booker ever afforded much attention in the USA before now?

 

It's interesting because until a few years ago, the Booker was only open to works of fiction written in English, published in the UK, written by citizens of UK or (ex-)commonwealth countries. As I understand it, this was mainly because the British and American markets for literary fiction were considered to be very different beasts. I wonder about the extent to which that's still the case today. It feels to me like there's a lot of big American writers who find it easier to get media attention in Britain, often through widely-shared writing in prestigious online outlets like the New Yorker and the Atlantic - though I'm not sure the reverse is always true. 

 

Some authors, like Julian Barnes, have been quite vocal in expressing their discontent about the change in the rules. I don't have strong feelings about it, but The Sellout certainly seems like an interesting choice for a first American winner.

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I've always payed as much attention to the Booker Prize as I have to American awards, and I think the Booker winner usually receives a degree of attention in the US. Hilary Mantel, The Luminaries, The Brief History of Seven Killings - all Man Booker Prize winners - were as widely discussed in the US as any American novel.

 

It's interesting that this book was the first American novel to win the Booker, since it is such an American look at race and satire. Before The Sellout won the Booker, I probably would have said that there's no great difference between UK or US novels, but now that The Sellout has won, my opinion is slowly changing.

 

Did anyone read the other short-listed books for the Man Booker Prize in 2016? I'm interested to know how they compare to The Sellout.  

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I haven't read anything from the 2016 Booker shortlist yet, although I did read pretty much everything on the 2015 and 2014 shortlists - mainly because I have relatives who seem to have decided that those books would make for really nice xmas/bday presents. My favourite winner of recent years was The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton, but I think that one is too long (and perhaps too devotedly formal?) to recommend without reservation. I did love it, though.

 

There's a weird protectionist logic creeping in to some of those arguments in that article - one might as well declare 'British prizes for British writers!' and be done with it. I think the book industry has bigger problems with getting people to read literary fiction in general, and to me it seems a little churlish to be worrying about whether a select few British writers might lose out in this way when writers on both sides of the Atlantic are having such a hard time of it.

 

A while ago I had a look at some of the figures once for Booker winners, before and after the prize; there's often a significant bump in sales, of course, but literary fiction sells so poorly as it stands that those writers are still miles away from competing with the most popular writers of YA, crime thrillers, etc. 

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I loved the humour in this book; I was laughing from the very first page. The initial section (I think it was called a prologue?) was probably my favourite part of the book, most likely because I'm way into absurd comedy, and the rest of the book was more reserved. Which is fine, and probably good actually, because it seems impossible to write an entire novel with that pace of humour without it becoming obnoxious. The whole book kind of reminded me of Thomas King or Sherman Alexie, I suppose in the way that they are using humour to present widespread intergenerational tragedy. And that's a big compliment because those are two of my favourite humour writers! (Although it might be a bit reductive to call them "humour writers", perhaps "fiction authors who use humour well" might be better, if not a bit awkward.)

 

I think my favourite part of the satire in this book is that it doesn't feel like each character is simply representing a single concept. Each character is complex, and showcase the various contradictions inherent to our understanding of racial issues both within their internal struggles and through their interactions with each other. It's incredibly well done! It can be easy for satire to feel a bit too on-the-nose and this book avoids that well. I don't have much to say outside of that. Absolutely deserves whatever prizes people want to give it. 

 

I'm excited for Wuthering Heights! It's been on my list for a while!!

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Wow, I loved this, and totally relate to Sarah's take on the comedian section, where I feel incredibly engaged, but it's not for me to say much about it.

 

Two such things, I think if you liked this, and the DFW qualities, I would really recommend William Vollman's You Bright and Risen Angels, which is intellectually just as heavyweight, but also funny and totally absurd. Chris would hate it.

 

I also think the Coates article "My President was Black" is a necessary (unrelated) postscript. It tackles how Obama's background is so unique to the black experience that he sidesteps much of what The Sellout is about. I think it casts an amazing light on ending the book around his election.

 

 

 

 

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I love that Coates gets indirectly called out in this book. Another really humorous observation that made me - a white person who enjoys Coates writing - feel uncomfortable at how spot on the observation was.

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I need to review those! I remember when they showed up at the end of the DDI meetings, but funny recall what he said regarding TNC at the moment. Except the  more obvious 'community organizer' B-A one I couldn't parse out the codes. A life of gaming failed me.

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