LONDON — Paul Beatty’s “The Sellout,” a stinging satire of race and class in the United States, won the Man Booker Prize on Tuesday — the first time an American has taken the prestigious fiction award.
Judges said Beatty’s provocative book was a satire to rank with the classics, and as timely as the evening news.
Historian Amanda Foreman, who chaired the judging panel, said the book “plunges into the heart of contemporary American society, and with absolutely savage wit — the kind I haven’t seen since (Jonathan) Swift or (Mark) Twain.”
“The Sellout” is set in a rundown Los Angeles suburb called Dickens, where the residents include the last survivor of the Little Rascals and the book’s narrator, Bonbon, an African American man on trial at the U.S. Supreme Court for attempting to reinstate slavery and racial segregation.
The book has been likened to the comedy of Richard Pryor and Chris Rock, and Beatty goes where many authors fear to tread. Racial stereotypes, offensive speech and police violence are all subject to his scathing eye.
Foreman said “The Sellout,” which mixes pop culture, philosophy and politics with humor and anger, sets out to “eviscerate every social taboo.”
“This is a book that nails the reader to the cross with cheerful abandon,” she said. “That is why the book works — because while you’re being nailed, you’re being tickled.”
The five judges met for a marathon four hours Tuesday to choose the winner from among six finalists, whittled down from 155 submissions. Foreman said the decision for Beatty’s work was unanimous.
Frances Gertler, web editor at the Foyles bookstore chain, called “The Sellout” a “brave and funny” book.
“It takes a bit of getting into, but once there you don’t want to leave,” she said.
Beatty, 54, was awarded the 50,000 pound ($61,000) prize by Prince Charles’ wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, during a black-tie ceremony at London’s medieval Guildhall.
Founded in 1969 and previously open only to writers from Britain, Ireland and the Commonwealth, the Booker expanded in 2014 to include all English-language authors.
There were fears in Britain’s literary world that the change would bring U.S. dominance to a prize whose previous winners include Salman Rushdie, Ben Okri, Margaret Atwood and Hilary Mantel. But the 2014 and 2015 winners were Australia’s Richard Flanagan and Jamaica’s Marlon James.
One other American novel was among the finalists: Ottessa Moshfegh’s bleak character study “Eileen”
Bookies had considered Beatty a longshot. The favorite was Canada’s Madeleine Thien for “Do Not Say We Have Nothing,” the story of two families roiled by China’s tumultuous history during the 20th century.
The other contenders were Graeme Macrae Burnet’s Scottish murder story “His Bloody Project”; Deborah Levy’s tale of mother-child trauma “Hot Milk”; and “All That Man Is,” a portrait of masculinity in a fragmented Europe by Canadian-born British novelist David Szalay.
The prize, subject to intense speculation and a flurry of betting, usually brings the victor a huge boost in sales and profile.
Apart from Levy, a 2012 Booker finalist for “Swimming Home,” most of this year’s contenders are relatively unknown. But Foreman called them “the household names of the future.”
JILL LAWLESS