A celebrated young black poet offers a partly autobiographical coming-of-age novel, a multicultural, multi-generational story filled with the cadences of the urban street and the media of pop culture. Reprint. 35,000 first printing.
Gunnar Kaufman goes from a smart-alecky beach bum in Santa Monica to a not-too-cool Black guy in West Los Angeles to a high school basketball star
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."
