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The White Boy Shuffle
Paul Beatty’s hilarious and scathing debut novel is about Gunnar Kaufman, an awkward Black surfer bum who 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.”
240 pages, Paperback
First published June 12, 1996
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14463 people want to read
About the author
Paul Beatty
21 books1,609 followersPaul Beatty (born 1962 in Los Angeles) is a contemporary African-American author. Beatty received an MFA in creative writing from Brooklyn College and an MA in psychology from Boston University. He is a 1980 graduate of El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, California.
In 1990, Paul Beatty was crowned the first ever Grand Poetry Slam Champion of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. One of the prizes for winning that championship title was the book deal which resulted in his first volume of poetry, Big Bank Takes Little Bank. This would be followed by another book of poetry Joker, Joker, Deuce as well as appearances performing his poetry on MTV and PBS (in the series The United States of Poetry). In 1993, he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.
His first novel, The White Boy Shuffle received a positive review in The New York Times, the reviewer, Richard Bernstein, called the book "a blast of satirical heat from the talented heart of black American life." His second book, Tuff received a positive notice in Time Magazine. Most recently, Beatty edited an anthology of African-American humor called Hokum and wrote an article in The New York Times on the same subject.
In 1990, Paul Beatty was crowned the first ever Grand Poetry Slam Champion of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe. One of the prizes for winning that championship title was the book deal which resulted in his first volume of poetry, Big Bank Takes Little Bank. This would be followed by another book of poetry Joker, Joker, Deuce as well as appearances performing his poetry on MTV and PBS (in the series The United States of Poetry). In 1993, he was awarded a grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artists Award.
His first novel, The White Boy Shuffle received a positive review in The New York Times, the reviewer, Richard Bernstein, called the book "a blast of satirical heat from the talented heart of black American life." His second book, Tuff received a positive notice in Time Magazine. Most recently, Beatty edited an anthology of African-American humor called Hokum and wrote an article in The New York Times on the same subject.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 646 reviews
March 21, 2025
paul beatty you're too clever. your books hit too hard. your worldview is too fascinating
unsurprisingly, this book is too smart and too funny and too cool for me to feel remotely qualified to review it. after a slow start, i became obsessed.
plus what more do you really need to know.
bottom line: i recommend it! that's all.
unsurprisingly, this book is too smart and too funny and too cool for me to feel remotely qualified to review it. after a slow start, i became obsessed.
plus what more do you really need to know.
bottom line: i recommend it! that's all.
March 31, 2008
this book is crazy. i just put it down so his voice is still strong in my head, i can hear exactly what he would say about my review, in fact he basically already said it in his book... whiteys praying for their black poet-god to absolve them of their sins, crying "i understand! i finally understand!" paul beatty is hilarious. and smart. and deep and loving even if he only wants you to catch glimpses of his whole heart when he's just about to sprint away and leave you in the dust. but it's there, big and real pumping through this book. this book hits the ground running, it took me a while to get my head in the space to take it all in, it's like a history lesson on acid, a memoir not bound to the literary laws of reality. farsical and sarcastic, looking at the realities of race and culture and class and police brutality and assimilation and leadership and alliance... all through some crazy kaleidescopic fly-like eyes, capturing all the surfaces, revealing all the angles. his main character's reluctant leadership is based in the idea that in order to resist white supremacy, black people should all kill themselves. it's painful but clever still.
from the epilogue:
"It's been a lovely five hundred years, but it's time to go. We're abandoning this sinking ship America, lightening its load by tossing our histories overboard, jettisoning the present, and drydocking our future. Black America has relinquished its needs in a world where expectations are illusion, has refused to develop ideals and mores in a society that applies principles without principle."
the names in this book are particularly great, from the main character's name of Gunnar Kaufman (the most recent of a long line of black men with names like Euripides, Swen, Franz and Rolf); his best friend Psycho Loco; the badass bullies Betty and Veronica (whose hairdos include flying-saucer discs and phonogram horns complete with crank handles); Mestizo Mulatto Mongrel Elementary (Santa Monica's all-white multicultural school); and a white cornrowed poet named Negritude. Oh yes, and his baby girl, Naomi. A very good name.
from the epilogue:
"It's been a lovely five hundred years, but it's time to go. We're abandoning this sinking ship America, lightening its load by tossing our histories overboard, jettisoning the present, and drydocking our future. Black America has relinquished its needs in a world where expectations are illusion, has refused to develop ideals and mores in a society that applies principles without principle."
the names in this book are particularly great, from the main character's name of Gunnar Kaufman (the most recent of a long line of black men with names like Euripides, Swen, Franz and Rolf); his best friend Psycho Loco; the badass bullies Betty and Veronica (whose hairdos include flying-saucer discs and phonogram horns complete with crank handles); Mestizo Mulatto Mongrel Elementary (Santa Monica's all-white multicultural school); and a white cornrowed poet named Negritude. Oh yes, and his baby girl, Naomi. A very good name.
April 27, 2017
Honestly can't recommend this enough. For my shame, after Paul Beatty's The Sellout won the Man Booker in 2016, I let it pass me by. For some misguided reason, I didn't believe it was my kind of book, nor did I feel like Beatty would be the kind of writer I would enjoy. On a hunch, I tried this book, and if The White Boy Shuffle is anything to go by, I was wrong about this author.
This book is, well, frankly hilarious. Beatty has an enormous amount of fun playing with characters and history - letting his vivid imagination loose in the process - but at the same time hitting on important themes. This is razor-sharp satire, make no mistake about it - and Beatty will give you more than a few laughs per page - but with a well-placed one-liner, or a seemingly casually thrown out phrase, he'll have you reflecting suddenly on all those things that are wrong with society. In today's modern political climate, it's hard not to make the parallels.
Beatty is a class act, and The White Boy Shuffle is enormous fun; the first chapter in particular was one in which I had more fun than I have had with most entire novels over the years. In the end, it just falls short of perfection, with the last quarter of the book drifting into unusual territory, and although the book frequently requests the reader to suspend disbelief in order for the pastiche to work, it drifts to a bit of a bizarre, 'out-there' conclusion.
But it's safe to say I won't be ignoring Beatty's work again - and The Sellout has rocketed back up to somewhere near the top of my to-be-read pile. I suggest you don't ignore him either.
This book is, well, frankly hilarious. Beatty has an enormous amount of fun playing with characters and history - letting his vivid imagination loose in the process - but at the same time hitting on important themes. This is razor-sharp satire, make no mistake about it - and Beatty will give you more than a few laughs per page - but with a well-placed one-liner, or a seemingly casually thrown out phrase, he'll have you reflecting suddenly on all those things that are wrong with society. In today's modern political climate, it's hard not to make the parallels.
Beatty is a class act, and The White Boy Shuffle is enormous fun; the first chapter in particular was one in which I had more fun than I have had with most entire novels over the years. In the end, it just falls short of perfection, with the last quarter of the book drifting into unusual territory, and although the book frequently requests the reader to suspend disbelief in order for the pastiche to work, it drifts to a bit of a bizarre, 'out-there' conclusion.
But it's safe to say I won't be ignoring Beatty's work again - and The Sellout has rocketed back up to somewhere near the top of my to-be-read pile. I suggest you don't ignore him either.
September 29, 2018
Paul Beatty is a genius. People say that so often and so easily that I tend to ignore it when it’s said. And in truth, I’ve no idea if Paul Beatty’s IQ approaches Einstein’s, but his mix of prose, poetry, and satire reads like genius to me.
Beatty is a poet that writes narrative prose that is funny, poignant, and touches on issues of race and class. I’ve listened to and read both The Sellout and The Whiteboy Shuffle. While the Sellout is a Five Stars read for me, and a book you must read if you have any affinity for satire, Whiteboy Shuffle was quite good as well, though it’s premise which is a kind of coming of age story is less distinct than Sellout’s premise where the protagonist attempts to resegregate his local school.
Read Sellout first. If you love it, move on to Beatty's other work.
Beatty is a poet that writes narrative prose that is funny, poignant, and touches on issues of race and class. I’ve listened to and read both The Sellout and The Whiteboy Shuffle. While the Sellout is a Five Stars read for me, and a book you must read if you have any affinity for satire, Whiteboy Shuffle was quite good as well, though it’s premise which is a kind of coming of age story is less distinct than Sellout’s premise where the protagonist attempts to resegregate his local school.
Read Sellout first. If you love it, move on to Beatty's other work.
December 7, 2014
Like the good Reverend King
I too "have a dream,"
but when I wake up
I forget it and
remember I'm running late for work.
I too "have a dream,"
but when I wake up
I forget it and
remember I'm running late for work.
June 8, 2012
I wanted to love this book. Thinking back on the elements of it that worked and the playful language that resonated with its themes and content, I still want to love this book. But, ugh. . . I just don't. I don't even really like it. I don't hate it. I guess I am mostly just severely disappointed with it.
There were moments, strong moments that I hoped would blossom into something more than a sketchy, jokey run through Gunnar's life, but they never developed. The prologue and introduction were so promising, a movement of African-American suicide poets? The potential is there for a really absurdist and yet moving commentary on the daily degradation of life in a racist country, but like everything else in this novel it is under-developed and wrapped in over-exagerated jokiness.
A word about that jokiness: I do get the humor. Humor is a way to deal with the absurdity of this life and the contradictions and conundrums and frustration of race relations. There were moments that made me laugh out loud and I appreciated those - but more often than not, the humor came off as trying too hard, as overly exagerated to the point of senseless caricature that in some cases felt like it was based on and reinforcing stereotypes (esp. when it involved any of the women characters who were even more superficially sketched out than anyone else - I mean, Gunnar's two sisters that do nothing but get beat up in one scene and then re-appear in a letter home referring to news of their teenaged pregnancy? the mail-order Japanese bride? C'mon).
But when the humor works it does work, and I think with some more editing a few more drafts this could have made this one of the best novels I ever read (though basically it reads to me like not only a first novel (which it is), but a first draft). The oral history of Gunnar's Uncle Tomming self-hating ancestors was hilarious, his characterization of basketball camp had me rolling. But I kept thinking, so what?
For a book called White Boy Shuffle was looking for there to be more reflection on that double-consciousness of the double not-belonging-ness - or at least the struggle to belong - but like everything else in this book it was hardly explored. I was looking for some reflection on Gunnar's family history of self-effacing negroes that at least sought to understand the internalized self-hatred that his father, the LAPD sketch artist who uses his own features as guidelines for drawing the criminals being described, exemplifies. I was looking for something more about Gunnar's arrested sexual development that might touch on the interplay of race and models of masculinity. I was looking for something about how his best friend Nick's love of jazz might make him an outsider in a youth culture seemingly predicated on historical erasure while simultaneosly repurposing, reappropriating, remixing. . . Instead, I struggled to understand his suicide, not because suicide seems to extreme a reaction, but rather because there was no sense of what he (in particular) was reacting to.
I wanted tension. The kind of tension that leads to that self-conscious shuffle the novel's title suggest, but got none of it.
For me the most potentially interesting part (after the family history) was when Gunnar was back at a mostly white school (a experience I can relate with), but Beatty does very little with this. He writes, "If you want to raise the consciousness of an inner-city colored child, send him to an all-white high school." That re-entry alone, after his surfer/skater dude young life interupted by Hillside ghetto politics could have been the whole novel, but of course it is diluted with over-the-top jokey bullshit. Gunnar's experience with college recruitment and different extra-curricular ethnic student organizations at BU could have been the heart of the novel, but instead we are to believe his suicidal poetic consciousness movement spring extemporaneously while he is giving a speech.
What a waste.
The thing I will say about this book is that it does make me want to try out other books by Paul Beatty to see if he developed as a writer who can spend some time with ideas, develop some of his intriguing and weird characters, and put that exceptionally strong voice and penchant for humor to work opening up a field of questions even if it gives no answers.
There were moments, strong moments that I hoped would blossom into something more than a sketchy, jokey run through Gunnar's life, but they never developed. The prologue and introduction were so promising, a movement of African-American suicide poets? The potential is there for a really absurdist and yet moving commentary on the daily degradation of life in a racist country, but like everything else in this novel it is under-developed and wrapped in over-exagerated jokiness.
A word about that jokiness: I do get the humor. Humor is a way to deal with the absurdity of this life and the contradictions and conundrums and frustration of race relations. There were moments that made me laugh out loud and I appreciated those - but more often than not, the humor came off as trying too hard, as overly exagerated to the point of senseless caricature that in some cases felt like it was based on and reinforcing stereotypes (esp. when it involved any of the women characters who were even more superficially sketched out than anyone else - I mean, Gunnar's two sisters that do nothing but get beat up in one scene and then re-appear in a letter home referring to news of their teenaged pregnancy? the mail-order Japanese bride? C'mon).
But when the humor works it does work, and I think with some more editing a few more drafts this could have made this one of the best novels I ever read (though basically it reads to me like not only a first novel (which it is), but a first draft). The oral history of Gunnar's Uncle Tomming self-hating ancestors was hilarious, his characterization of basketball camp had me rolling. But I kept thinking, so what?
For a book called White Boy Shuffle was looking for there to be more reflection on that double-consciousness of the double not-belonging-ness - or at least the struggle to belong - but like everything else in this book it was hardly explored. I was looking for some reflection on Gunnar's family history of self-effacing negroes that at least sought to understand the internalized self-hatred that his father, the LAPD sketch artist who uses his own features as guidelines for drawing the criminals being described, exemplifies. I was looking for something more about Gunnar's arrested sexual development that might touch on the interplay of race and models of masculinity. I was looking for something about how his best friend Nick's love of jazz might make him an outsider in a youth culture seemingly predicated on historical erasure while simultaneosly repurposing, reappropriating, remixing. . . Instead, I struggled to understand his suicide, not because suicide seems to extreme a reaction, but rather because there was no sense of what he (in particular) was reacting to.
I wanted tension. The kind of tension that leads to that self-conscious shuffle the novel's title suggest, but got none of it.
For me the most potentially interesting part (after the family history) was when Gunnar was back at a mostly white school (a experience I can relate with), but Beatty does very little with this. He writes, "If you want to raise the consciousness of an inner-city colored child, send him to an all-white high school." That re-entry alone, after his surfer/skater dude young life interupted by Hillside ghetto politics could have been the whole novel, but of course it is diluted with over-the-top jokey bullshit. Gunnar's experience with college recruitment and different extra-curricular ethnic student organizations at BU could have been the heart of the novel, but instead we are to believe his suicidal poetic consciousness movement spring extemporaneously while he is giving a speech.
What a waste.
The thing I will say about this book is that it does make me want to try out other books by Paul Beatty to see if he developed as a writer who can spend some time with ideas, develop some of his intriguing and weird characters, and put that exceptionally strong voice and penchant for humor to work opening up a field of questions even if it gives no answers.
August 6, 2024
This is very much the product of the ‘slam poetry’ scene that arose in the late-80s and reached its apogee in the 1990s. There is nothing wrong with this, other than that I had to go through it the first time. It was…precious, and so is The White Boy Shuffle the longer it goes on. Graffiti poets; homeboy philosophers; and jungle ball savants abound. All I can say is that, of the three, I always appreciated the masters of the court the most. Still do.
EDIT: Having had a few days to meditate on it, I'm adjusting my rating. It doesn't sit in good conscience with me to give this any higher than a 3. It sours milkily (and faster).
(2.8965386F#/Gb23 gets rounded up to 3)
EDIT: Having had a few days to meditate on it, I'm adjusting my rating. It doesn't sit in good conscience with me to give this any higher than a 3. It sours milkily (and faster).
(2.8965386F#/Gb23 gets rounded up to 3)
January 4, 2014
Poignant. Roller-coaster of lyrical language, words that kept me going to the dictionary and references from Greek mythology to modern civil rights history amid the hyperbolic tale of the protagonist's disjointed upbringing and clashes with societal norms and pervasive cultural legacies. Still comprehending how this book affected me, to say the least I could hardly put it down.
Highly recommended. I could pick it up and read it again already.
Highly recommended. I could pick it up and read it again already.
October 26, 2018
I knew this much after reading just a page of the Sellout, but having finished my second Beatty novel, I can affirm that he is one of the greatest living authors I have ever read. He is a genius. Like one of his characters in White Boy Shuffle, he never ever misses a shot. He makes shots that you don't even know he's going to attempt. I don't know which book was better--who cares--they are both just a wonder to read.
March 25, 2021
To jeszcze nie jest poziom "Sprzedawczyka", jeszcze mu trochę brakuje, ale geniusz już błyszczy. Paul Beatty to jest rewelacja, pod każdym literackim względem. Dlaczego jest stosunkowo tak mało popularny?? Mój egzemplarz tej książki (z wielkiej biblioteki wojewódzkiej) przeczytały przez dwa lata tylko dwie osoby :( Ludzie, czytajcie Beatty'ego!
April 13, 2011
Phil Jackson gave this book to Kobe Bryant. I stumbled upon it in Engl472. It does not need praise. Infinite Jest squeezed into 200 odd pages with a message that makes Aaron McGruder look like Wayne Brady. Everything you ever need in a book is here: a Gang of Four reference, suicide, a Japanese Mail Order bride, slavery/basketball. If you're tempted to say that Beatty is better than Ellison and Baldwin fused with some Morrison on top, the book will still eat you alive and leave you painting a target in white paint on your suddenly black forehead.
The spotlight never shined on Beatty the way it did Kaufman. I don't think the Administration was ready to commit the resources so direly needed.
The spotlight never shined on Beatty the way it did Kaufman. I don't think the Administration was ready to commit the resources so direly needed.
August 29, 2007
I started out hating this book, but by the time I was done I loved it. It's why I think of Christopher Walken when I see the moon.
November 10, 2017
3.5★s
“The school’s library rivalled most college libraries and I turned it into my personal athenaeum… In the library I could avoid white boys asking me if I thought blacks were closer to gorillas while tufts of unruly chest hair crept past their collars like weeds starving for sunlight. I could hide from smarmy college basketball recruiters who’d never think to look for a black athlete in the library.”
The White Boy Shuffle is the first novel by American Man Booker prize-winning author and poet, Paul Beatty. When he is thirteen years old, Gunnar Kaufman’s single mother moves her family from Malibu Beach to Hillside, a black ghetto suburb of Los Angeles, citing concern for his racial attitude. Leaving behind his white friends, he soon finds himself absorbed into L.A.’s black culture: he writes rap poetry, joins a gang, and excels at basketball. But becoming a public figure is the last thing he expects to happen.
Beatty’s narrative includes letters and poetry, and traces Gunnar’s journey through high schools into college and his almost meteoric rise to celebrity status in the black community. The plot goes from semi-believable to utterly outlandish, even bizarre; the characters are quirky and original; the tone is often tongue-in-cheek. Beatty holds nothing sacred and his take on American society is intelligent and perceptive. A clever, funny and highly irreverent read.
“The school’s library rivalled most college libraries and I turned it into my personal athenaeum… In the library I could avoid white boys asking me if I thought blacks were closer to gorillas while tufts of unruly chest hair crept past their collars like weeds starving for sunlight. I could hide from smarmy college basketball recruiters who’d never think to look for a black athlete in the library.”
The White Boy Shuffle is the first novel by American Man Booker prize-winning author and poet, Paul Beatty. When he is thirteen years old, Gunnar Kaufman’s single mother moves her family from Malibu Beach to Hillside, a black ghetto suburb of Los Angeles, citing concern for his racial attitude. Leaving behind his white friends, he soon finds himself absorbed into L.A.’s black culture: he writes rap poetry, joins a gang, and excels at basketball. But becoming a public figure is the last thing he expects to happen.
Beatty’s narrative includes letters and poetry, and traces Gunnar’s journey through high schools into college and his almost meteoric rise to celebrity status in the black community. The plot goes from semi-believable to utterly outlandish, even bizarre; the characters are quirky and original; the tone is often tongue-in-cheek. Beatty holds nothing sacred and his take on American society is intelligent and perceptive. A clever, funny and highly irreverent read.
March 5, 2018
I’m always apprehensive about going back to a favorite author. What if I’m not impressed. What if the magic is lost? Will the author maintain his status or will he come tumbling down the high pedestal? He set an incredibly high bar with “The Sellout”, but I am relieved to report that Paul Beatty still maintains his throne in my book kingdom as a unique author who breaks the monotony of current black fiction.
The White Boy Shuffle is a coming of age story of Gunnar Kaufman. At 13 his single mom moves the family from Malibu Beach, a predominantly white community, to Hillside, a black ghetto suburb of L.A. Leaving behind his white friends he finds himself absorbed into L.A’s black culture: he writes slam poetry, joins a gang, excels in basketball.. and the last thing he expected - he becomes a ‘negro demagogue’ who leads a divided, downtrodden and alienated people to the Promised Land.
The plot is full of historical and cultural references and Beatty’s use of language is simply breathtaking. The narration has a poetic quality to it and he makes social satirical commentary on just about everything. You can tell that he had a ton of fun developing the characters, playing around with history and at the same time hitting on important themes. He had me laughing hysterically one moment and reflecting on what the hell is wrong with out society the next. The White Boy Shuffle is loud, fast and relevant. If I could give this 6 stars I would.
The White Boy Shuffle is a coming of age story of Gunnar Kaufman. At 13 his single mom moves the family from Malibu Beach, a predominantly white community, to Hillside, a black ghetto suburb of L.A. Leaving behind his white friends he finds himself absorbed into L.A’s black culture: he writes slam poetry, joins a gang, excels in basketball.. and the last thing he expected - he becomes a ‘negro demagogue’ who leads a divided, downtrodden and alienated people to the Promised Land.
The plot is full of historical and cultural references and Beatty’s use of language is simply breathtaking. The narration has a poetic quality to it and he makes social satirical commentary on just about everything. You can tell that he had a ton of fun developing the characters, playing around with history and at the same time hitting on important themes. He had me laughing hysterically one moment and reflecting on what the hell is wrong with out society the next. The White Boy Shuffle is loud, fast and relevant. If I could give this 6 stars I would.
May 18, 2011
*** Almost spoiler alert... maybe a foreshadowing alert?***
This book was dancing right at the 5 star range for me for the first 3/4. It is FUNNY. And then just when you're cracking up the hardest Beatty will hit you with a well placed one-liner that brings you back to your senses and makes you wonder what the hell is wrong with this world. I adore the way he talked to his mom. Hysterical.
But, obviously, you'll see that I'm rating it only 3 stars. Why the down grade? Because after that first 3/4 of brilliance, I got completely lost in the last 1/4. Right when Gunnar turns 18 it gets... strange. I didn't follow any of it, and even more where I used to follow Gunnar and understand his thoughts, now I felt like I was left behind. Maybe it's cultural, maybe it was depression, but I couldn't quite figure out what happened. The ending was strange all around.
I don't even know whether or not to recommend the book. If it sounds interesting, go for it, but be aware that it kind of takes a strange turn...
This book was dancing right at the 5 star range for me for the first 3/4. It is FUNNY. And then just when you're cracking up the hardest Beatty will hit you with a well placed one-liner that brings you back to your senses and makes you wonder what the hell is wrong with this world. I adore the way he talked to his mom. Hysterical.
But, obviously, you'll see that I'm rating it only 3 stars. Why the down grade? Because after that first 3/4 of brilliance, I got completely lost in the last 1/4. Right when Gunnar turns 18 it gets... strange. I didn't follow any of it, and even more where I used to follow Gunnar and understand his thoughts, now I felt like I was left behind. Maybe it's cultural, maybe it was depression, but I couldn't quite figure out what happened. The ending was strange all around.
I don't even know whether or not to recommend the book. If it sounds interesting, go for it, but be aware that it kind of takes a strange turn...
February 5, 2013
This lyrical, poetic, and otherworldly tale of being a Black male in America had me alternating between states of hysterical laughter and melancholy. Every line was funny but sad. Gunnar, the protagonist, had me on a roller coaster of emotions with his clever ghetto life metaphors and his painful realizations that the perennial struggle against white supremacy is an exercise in futility. That futility begs the question of how a person of color is to escape the hopelessness, sense of defeat and fatalism in the face of racism. Gunnar suggests death, suicide, and just putting oneself out of the misery. Despite his devastatingly bleak and cynical outlook on the fate of Black struggle, Gunnar himself struggles throughout the novel resisting being pigeonholed and tokenized and never succumbing to the role of minstrel. In this way his humanity and dignity, although it takes quite a battering, remains intact.
January 25, 2008
This is my favorite book that no one else has read; I recommend it to people constantly.
It's lovingly, compellingly detailed despite being slightly larger-than-life. (The protagonist's best friend never, ever misses a shot.) It's intensely personal and soaringly metaphorical; scathing, incendiary, imaginative, observational and, oh yes, hilarious.
Every sentence crackles-- I found myself putting it down to catch my breath occasionally.
Oh, and it will probably change your position about at least one deep (and possibly unconscious) belief about race in America.
Of course, it hits all of my buttons: a young, alienated, writerly protagonist; a story (at least partly) about education and culture; deft and twisted humor; and imagination bordering on fantasy.
Read it.
It's lovingly, compellingly detailed despite being slightly larger-than-life. (The protagonist's best friend never, ever misses a shot.) It's intensely personal and soaringly metaphorical; scathing, incendiary, imaginative, observational and, oh yes, hilarious.
Every sentence crackles-- I found myself putting it down to catch my breath occasionally.
Oh, and it will probably change your position about at least one deep (and possibly unconscious) belief about race in America.
Of course, it hits all of my buttons: a young, alienated, writerly protagonist; a story (at least partly) about education and culture; deft and twisted humor; and imagination bordering on fantasy.
Read it.
May 13, 2024
Beatty is a master of sustained, rollicking zaniness and is incapable of turning out a bland sentence. The only issue is that the novel is simply that—sustained, rollicking zaniness.
May 21, 2019
The White Boy Shuffle ... was a read that took me by surprise. I had never heard of the author before, but I saw this on Amazon recommends and the book was incredible! The book is hilarious, it’s vividly imaginative but also focuses on very important issues such as race and class. It makes you reflect on all the things wrong in our society and today’s political climate. The poems throughout the book are utterly brilliant. I definitely now want to read his other book, The Sellout. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “They say the fruit never falls fall from the tree, but I’ve tried to roll down the hill at least a little bit.”
December 4, 2024
Weird, funny, crazy, at times horrifying and … I liked it. I laughed through out at completely inappropriate things that I’d never repeat to anyone!
“Like the good Reverend King
I too 'have a dream' but when I wake up I forget it and
remember I'm running late for work.”
“I’d stand still for a few seconds, vainly snapping my fingers with as much hop of catching the beat as a quadriplegic hobo latching on to a moving boxcar.”
“Like the good Reverend King
I too 'have a dream' but when I wake up I forget it and
remember I'm running late for work.”
“I’d stand still for a few seconds, vainly snapping my fingers with as much hop of catching the beat as a quadriplegic hobo latching on to a moving boxcar.”
January 18, 2009
I happened upon The White Boy Shuffle when in the presence of my African American women's book club mates I google searched "funny African American novel" (fyi there's a market there) to help my book club in our 2009 selection process. My book club mates balked at this one but I decided to read it anyway.
I loved this novel. It is so damn good.
The writing is unreal. It's like one long poem ...but not at all like that.
Oftentimes novels are called honest and I thought I knew what that meant. Dare I say Paul Beatty raised the bar in the honesty category with this one.
Like many have said before me, Beatty's writing is hella angry and mad comical at the same time.
How one can capture so much - and so much nuance - in 226 pages I have no clue?! The title of genius is grossly overused but I'm thinking it here.
One of many great passages...
"...'But are you ready to die and kill for your people?' said chief firefighter Dexter Waverly. Dexter wore a red dashiki trimmed with miniature elephant tusks and tightly gripped the sides of the lectern with both hands. ...Bored with the racial braggadocio, Dexter raised a hand for quiet, and the muttering stopped. ...'Brothers and sisters' - uh-oh - 'Comrade Essie Brooks's combination fashion show and literacy program is a wonderful idea. A stroke of genius ...The fashion show-literacy program will use the Afro-chic to uplift the Afro-weak. ...What we propose is an intellectual inheritance, an eternal trust fund for minds yet unborn. Young, black, not-yet-tainted-by-the-toxic-dyes-of-self-hatred minds. ...when you talk to teachers of our youth, they say, 'The young bastards and bastardettes can't learn. They have short attention spans.' Well, then you need to lengthen the attention span. ...When man invented the jet, did they say, 'No, man, you cannot fly these supersonic jets, the runway is too short - you can't take off...?' No, they lengthened the runway. And we gonna lengthen the fashion runway for our little black jets. Stretch their attention spans with fine black folks modeling black clothes. ...each model will carry a sign with a grammar lesson on it. ...Imagine with me, if you will, the fine and sexy premed major light-skinned Linda Rucker, in a little one-piece bathing suit carrying a sign that reads 'i before e except after c.' There'll be booty and learning for days." (p. 185)
Beatty let's NO ONE off the hook ...which is a mark of a genius author.
I loved this novel. It is so damn good.
The writing is unreal. It's like one long poem ...but not at all like that.
Oftentimes novels are called honest and I thought I knew what that meant. Dare I say Paul Beatty raised the bar in the honesty category with this one.
Like many have said before me, Beatty's writing is hella angry and mad comical at the same time.
How one can capture so much - and so much nuance - in 226 pages I have no clue?! The title of genius is grossly overused but I'm thinking it here.
One of many great passages...
"...'But are you ready to die and kill for your people?' said chief firefighter Dexter Waverly. Dexter wore a red dashiki trimmed with miniature elephant tusks and tightly gripped the sides of the lectern with both hands. ...Bored with the racial braggadocio, Dexter raised a hand for quiet, and the muttering stopped. ...'Brothers and sisters' - uh-oh - 'Comrade Essie Brooks's combination fashion show and literacy program is a wonderful idea. A stroke of genius ...The fashion show-literacy program will use the Afro-chic to uplift the Afro-weak. ...What we propose is an intellectual inheritance, an eternal trust fund for minds yet unborn. Young, black, not-yet-tainted-by-the-toxic-dyes-of-self-hatred minds. ...when you talk to teachers of our youth, they say, 'The young bastards and bastardettes can't learn. They have short attention spans.' Well, then you need to lengthen the attention span. ...When man invented the jet, did they say, 'No, man, you cannot fly these supersonic jets, the runway is too short - you can't take off...?' No, they lengthened the runway. And we gonna lengthen the fashion runway for our little black jets. Stretch their attention spans with fine black folks modeling black clothes. ...each model will carry a sign with a grammar lesson on it. ...Imagine with me, if you will, the fine and sexy premed major light-skinned Linda Rucker, in a little one-piece bathing suit carrying a sign that reads 'i before e except after c.' There'll be booty and learning for days." (p. 185)
Beatty let's NO ONE off the hook ...which is a mark of a genius author.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 12, 2020
“They say the fruit never falls far from the tree, but I’ve tried to roll down the hill at least a little bit.”
January 20, 2009
The Oscar Wao of the 90s. Brilliant.
There is no way that Junot Diaz wasn't influenced by this book.
I only take off a star because of the suicide theme at the end. I understand the concept of taking back power and autonomy, of suicide as the ultimate protest. I also understand that it is all meant as satire. Still, it took away from the energy and vibrancy of the rest of the book that I loved so, so much.
There is no way that Junot Diaz wasn't influenced by this book.
I only take off a star because of the suicide theme at the end. I understand the concept of taking back power and autonomy, of suicide as the ultimate protest. I also understand that it is all meant as satire. Still, it took away from the energy and vibrancy of the rest of the book that I loved so, so much.
February 24, 2022
3.5 rounded up.
March 13, 2025
This book is a masterclass in how to cleverly wield the English language to an author’s advantage. It’s witty, clever, and quick—blink and you’ll miss the joke or the reference. The tonal shifts surprised me, as though Beatty was asking if I could keep up. This book perfectly demonstrates how extremes can sometimes reflect reality better than an attempt at realism. I would love to read it again soon.
March 15, 2018
I had to savor this book. As funny as The Sellout, but honestly, just feels more like it was written for me. It sends up not just Los Angeles (including necks of the LA woods I'm surprisingly familiar with) and my own college town, Boston. It elevates a premise I was weakly, stupidly kicking around for a couple of NaNoWriMo cycles: the notion that suicide was the most productive thing I can do to sustain not just humankind but even the biosphere and, oh I don't know, full employment. I could never articulate or capture the iota of satirical truth behind it; I always crippled my own knack for the comedy there with a pasty-faced white saturation of self-pity. Thank the Lord Paul Beatty had already played with this concept and took it up to the stratosphere: by adding some breathtaking angles on race. I had no authority to toy with that matter. Paul Beatty did, and I'm so glad he did.
I think this book has elements of a satirical magical realism, for lack of a tighter phrase. Take Nicholas Scoby, someone who is caught in a web of white hegemony manufacturing black achievements for its own nefarious ends, but also has quite an improbable talent: he never EVER misses a basket. It reinvents the parameters of magical realism by making it not overtly fantastical, but it is a very improbable occurrence that is taken as premise in a frighteningly real way for the characters and their world. I was not ever really a fan of magical realism, but when it's employed in such stark relief against the environs, as well as allied with satire, it becomes a brilliant, inspiring tool.
Beatty's prose is wonderful, his jokes are excellent, his puns more refreshing than you'd think (Gunnar's corny-ass pro-colorblindness elementary school teacher is called Ms. Cegeny), it has some astounding set-pieces that don't just bring the comedy but bring something also subversive and postmodern. Take, for example, gang members who have developed a self-awareness of their masculinity posturing and decide to ambush rivals by going to the rival neighborhood in drag. Gunnar writes that no one was in a rush to remove the wigs and makeup after making the clean getaway. Look at all the brilliant, loaded gestures here: it makes a space to belie the notion that black people are, writ large, toxically invested in masculinity, it makes a space where drag is not just subversive across gender parameters but across racial/socioeconomic barriers, while being extremely supportive of the act and being a damn funny set-piece.
This book tackles a lot of the things I'm passionate about: skewering America, the reason why America is the way it is (Baldwin was right), comedy, LA, Boston, the problems of white allies, and talkin' smack on academia. Ditto with Asian invisibility: it always has on its mind the legacy of Japanese internment in California, and brings it up numerous times. I'll never forget the line: "She doesn't trust you, Gunnar. She lookin' at you like you General MacArthur."
There's so much in this coming-of-age tale worth exploring, and I have, of course, quoted this book mercilessly to my poor, unsuspecting boyfriend. It's a gem, alright.
I think this book has elements of a satirical magical realism, for lack of a tighter phrase. Take Nicholas Scoby, someone who is caught in a web of white hegemony manufacturing black achievements for its own nefarious ends, but also has quite an improbable talent: he never EVER misses a basket. It reinvents the parameters of magical realism by making it not overtly fantastical, but it is a very improbable occurrence that is taken as premise in a frighteningly real way for the characters and their world. I was not ever really a fan of magical realism, but when it's employed in such stark relief against the environs, as well as allied with satire, it becomes a brilliant, inspiring tool.
Beatty's prose is wonderful, his jokes are excellent, his puns more refreshing than you'd think (Gunnar's corny-ass pro-colorblindness elementary school teacher is called Ms. Cegeny), it has some astounding set-pieces that don't just bring the comedy but bring something also subversive and postmodern. Take, for example, gang members who have developed a self-awareness of their masculinity posturing and decide to ambush rivals by going to the rival neighborhood in drag. Gunnar writes that no one was in a rush to remove the wigs and makeup after making the clean getaway. Look at all the brilliant, loaded gestures here: it makes a space to belie the notion that black people are, writ large, toxically invested in masculinity, it makes a space where drag is not just subversive across gender parameters but across racial/socioeconomic barriers, while being extremely supportive of the act and being a damn funny set-piece.
This book tackles a lot of the things I'm passionate about: skewering America, the reason why America is the way it is (Baldwin was right), comedy, LA, Boston, the problems of white allies, and talkin' smack on academia. Ditto with Asian invisibility: it always has on its mind the legacy of Japanese internment in California, and brings it up numerous times. I'll never forget the line: "She doesn't trust you, Gunnar. She lookin' at you like you General MacArthur."
There's so much in this coming-of-age tale worth exploring, and I have, of course, quoted this book mercilessly to my poor, unsuspecting boyfriend. It's a gem, alright.
April 20, 2014
Despite really wanting to appreciate this book, I strongly disliked it. The problem is that I never started caring about the narrator. The author asks us to believe that the main character is too cool for school, too smart for the neighborhood, too smug for bullshit and too righteous to ever admit defeat. How can readers appreciate a character or relate to a character like that? My answer is... they can't.
Along with the story being unbelievable, I also felt like it was a little insulting to the intelligence of readers. It seemed to be saying: "I dare you to try to understand the references and elitist diatribes this brilliant high school character is spewing." I mean, what sixteen year old kid is a world class poet, a basketball prodigy beyond all possibility, a stylized ghetto philosopher AND a hunk that all the girls swoon over? Give up? Me too... I actually gave up reading the book before the final chapter. I just didn't see the point. And it's a shame, too. I feel like the core message, the meat and potatoes of the book was admirable, but I just couldn't swallow it with all the hardened lumps floating around in the gravy.
Along with the story being unbelievable, I also felt like it was a little insulting to the intelligence of readers. It seemed to be saying: "I dare you to try to understand the references and elitist diatribes this brilliant high school character is spewing." I mean, what sixteen year old kid is a world class poet, a basketball prodigy beyond all possibility, a stylized ghetto philosopher AND a hunk that all the girls swoon over? Give up? Me too... I actually gave up reading the book before the final chapter. I just didn't see the point. And it's a shame, too. I feel like the core message, the meat and potatoes of the book was admirable, but I just couldn't swallow it with all the hardened lumps floating around in the gravy.
December 20, 2019
Paul Beatty it seems, can't write any wrong. His works usually have a black man who is usually a effant terrible, master/specialist of some art, and is a social commentary on racial dynamic. One feared you could pull this off only once. Apparently not. This book like the 3 others i know, is a gem. Early 10% might lag a little but when it gets going, you will easily miss your station when reading this on a train. I did. Its not a stretch or a tough read. Read if nothing for recommendations on what to listen watch and read peppered through the book. How many times can a cynical view on all parties involved in racial/social politics work? Hope forever.
November 14, 2016
Satire, reality, the surreal (or some version of "magical realism," if you must go there), subtlety, noise, serious humor. It's all here. It's all intelligent, and almost too poetic. Oh, and it should be read by every American as soon as possible.
January 28, 2015
so perfect that if read literally it becomes actually quite dangerous.
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