As he takes his chair opposite me at Foyles Bookshop in central London, Paul Beatty, the first American winner of the Man Booker Prize, chuckles at his own exhaustion. Dressed in jeans and a grey sweatshirt, he is soon apologising for rambling: “It’s like I’m high or something.” In his novel The Sellout a young man decides to put his home town back on the map – by the maverick means of reintroducing slavery and segregation. It has been described as a profoundly caustic satire (more on that word later) on race relations – but it is also a disquisition on identity, gentrification, history, advertising and citrus farming. It’s true that the 54-year-old Beatty – born in LA, living and teaching creative writing in New York – is not one for soundbites, especially after three days of non-stop talking. But, during our hour-long onstage conversation, his mind wandered to some surprising and illuminating places.
New Statesman: The Sellout is set in a violent, neglected ghetto where your narrator is able to ride around town on a horse and grow insanely delicious satsumas. What’s the relationship between the real LA and the version in the book?
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