by Paul Beatty
Okay, so I adored this book. This book is hilarious, and condemning, and vivid, and reflective. The language Paul Beatty uses is lyrical and I felt myself pulled head-first into his reality. Every single line, word, thought is so carefully crafted so as to be both uproariously funny and beautifully poignant. It's a satirical take on taking black power and autonomy into black hands - while constantly fighting the "whiteys praying for their black poet god."
I feel like getting to read this book made up for the misery of putting myself through Proof of Heaven. I wanted to take out a pen and mark up my book on every page - which would have been tough, since I read on my phone. The choice of words - like "shtetl" and "chutzpah" and "bombastic" and "prestidigitator" and "eleemosynary" gave me shivers, and to see them surrounded by casual slang was beautiful and haunting.
I genuinely loved this book, and completely geeked out over it - I highly recommend it!
I think, though, that this is the first time Mikie and I have been in disagreement over one of our booklist books...so take that as you will. Also, this is one of those books that I would have LOVED to have a discussion over, and I'm super looking forward to reading Mikie's take on the story. Definitely missed my roommate during this one!
-Cat
It's interesting, Cat and I both had very different experiences with this book. I did not enjoy this book. I think I would have enjoyed it more if Cat & I were co-located during its reading.
Ok, so was it a total loss? Absolutely not. The author's writing style was fresh, and I enjoyed both Beatty's word choices and phrasing. It was hard to read more than a couple of sentences before some interesting use of language demanded to be heard.
The story overall was interesting...to a point. This might be a book I'll have to revisit in a few years. It's something that just didn't resonate me, and it became a slog to get through. Beatty's exceptional use of language is reason enough to read it, even if I didn't enjoy the story.
--Mikie
-Cat
It's interesting, Cat and I both had very different experiences with this book. I did not enjoy this book. I think I would have enjoyed it more if Cat & I were co-located during its reading.
Ok, so was it a total loss? Absolutely not. The author's writing style was fresh, and I enjoyed both Beatty's word choices and phrasing. It was hard to read more than a couple of sentences before some interesting use of language demanded to be heard.
The story overall was interesting...to a point. This might be a book I'll have to revisit in a few years. It's something that just didn't resonate me, and it became a slog to get through. Beatty's exceptional use of language is reason enough to read it, even if I didn't enjoy the story.
--Mikie
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