The White Boy Shuffle
By Paul Beatty
(Picador, Paperback, 9780312280192, 240pp.)
Publication Date: May 2001
Categories: General
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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."
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.
"A bombastic coming-of-age novel . . . The White Boy Shuffle has the uncanny ability to make readers want to laugh and cry at the same time. Beatty mingles horrific reality with wild fancy without ever losing a grip on his story."—Los Angeles Times
"The White Boy Shuffle is one of those novels of enormous energy and verbal dazzle . . . Mr. Beatty is a fertile and original writer, one to watch."—The New York Times
"Laugh-out-loud funny and weep-in-silence sad . . . The language is always vibrant and alluring."—The Nation
"Ferious and funny and also streetwise."—The Boston Globe
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