Paul Beatty on the sobriety of African-American literature

Novelist and poet Paul Beatty'snew book,The Sellout,was described by the New York Times as "This year's most cheerfully outrageous satire... Sharp-minded and fabulously profane." A Los Angeles native, Beatty has been honing his comedy skills for a long time 20years ago, his first novel,The White Boy Shuffle, won raves for its satire and became a cult classic. Ten years ago, he editedHokum, an anthology of African-American humour that spans more than 150 years.The Selloutis his fourth novel.

Paul Beatty spoke to Eleanor Wachtel from New York City, where he has livedfor more than 25 years.

On Oct. 25, 2016, Paul Beatty won the 2016 Man Booker Prize. He was the first American author to receive the award.

ON THE STRUGGLE TO FIND WRITING THAT REFLECTED HIS OWN EXPERIENCE

The sobrietyof African-American literaturegoes against certain stereotypesthat there may be about what black writing's supposed to be andhow we want to present ourselves. I'm notdenigratingit or saying that I think something sober isn't good literature. For me, it just felt like everything was on the same note. Not that I was thinking about this in 7th or 8th grade, but it was something I noticed. As I started thinking about writing, and reading more,I noticed that a lot of African-American literature that I was readingdidn't feel like howIexperienced black life. A lot of that was through humour, and through a certain kind of cynicism and brilliance that I just didn't see in those books.

ONTHE MOMENT HE DECIDED TO BECOME A WRITER

Getting into college was a big thing for me.I was fortunate I had some really good teachers. Two professorsin particularsaw something in me and really looked out for me. They convincedme togo to grad school.And then I was in a class wherewe got these two early assignments one was to write about your room, and the other was to go to a block that you weren't familiar with and write about the experience. They were just two simple assignments, but in doing them I realized how much I had always loved writing, and how important it had always been to me. Then in class,the professor asked me to read my little thing that I'd written, and everyone in the class was like, "whoa." It was a kind of reaction I hadn't had in a long time, and it just sparked something in me. I told a friend that I wanted to be a writer. And when I said it, it really hit me. And then I had to go about finding out how one becomes a writer, because I had no idea.

ON HAVING A CHARACTER KILLED BY THE LOS ANGELES POLICE

My friends have been abused at the hands of the cops. Mostly the LAPD. And it's something that has been going on as long as I can remember. ButI was doing some research at the library, going through newspapers from the thirties, and there were the same kinds of accounts in therethe cops shooting three Negrokids in the back for stealing hubcaps or whatever they were (or weren't) doing. There were just these little lines, and they were in there almost every week, and you couldsee how endemic thisabuse was. So it wasn't about addressing all the stuff that's going on right now the book could have come out next year or it could have come out 20 years ago and these things would seem just as prescient.

Paul Beatty's comments have been edited and condensed.

Music to close the interview: "Watermelon Man," composed by Herbie Hancock, performed by Mongo Santamaria.