Synopses & Reviews
Paul Beatty, on the basis of two slim collections of poetry, Big Bank Take Little Bank and Joker, Joker, Deuce, has been called the premier bard of hip hop, a West Coast word wizard, andthe poet laureate of Generation X. He has performed his poetry on college campuses throughout the United States and Europe; he's been lauded by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; and at thirty-three years old, he has been deemed heir to Allen Ginsberg's oral tradition. His cultural landscape summons up music, sound bites, cartoons, films, and video games. He uses the terms of pop culture to reveal its nonsense, and in his astonishing first novel he brings his extraordinary talent for image, cadence, and rhythm to fiction. Beatty's partly autobiographical novel is a moving, deft satire on issues of race as well as a coming-of-age of a contemporary African American, Gunnar Kaufman, who is in no way typical. Unequivocally and without apology, Gunnar states that he is not the seventh son of a seventh son of a se
Review
"Hip-hop poet Beatty delivers a first novel that almost lives up to its hype. His manic energy and nothing-sacred sensibility add up to some inspired irreverence in a book mocking every sacred cow of Afro-American history....A wildly inventive debut that veers between spirited brilliance and Def Comedy Jam vulgarity." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Possessing a growing reputation as his generation's poetic spokesman, Beatty proves in his first novel that his talent is not limited to verse....Beatty undeniably proves his prowess at whatever literary game he chooses to play." Booklist
About the Author
Paul Beatty is also the author of the novel
Tuff and two books of poetry,
Big Bank Take Little Bank and
Joker, Joker, Deuce. He lives in New York City.