Tuff: A Novel

Beatty's language and humor cut like a knife. At once tender and funny as hell.

Winston "Tuffy" Foshay is running for city council because, well, because he needs to. He may not know it, but running for public office is standing between him and all sorts of trouble in his Spanish Harlem neighborhood. A big man, he's also much more than just his "tuff" persona. He's as memorable a character as I've come across in American fiction, and he's a bit like a Huck Finn for Harlem."Tuff," by Paul Beatty, is, like all of Beatty's other novels, playful and serious at the same time. It's not concerned with being the "typical urban ghetto slice-of-life novel" (and indeed, it upsets the conventions of said genre, in ways that are often humorous but always truthful). Beatty is an author who upsets the conventions of whatever he's working in (the coming-of-age story, the mystery, the racial satire), and here is no different. Just when you think you have Winston pegged, he and Beatty surprise you. For such a short novel (only 259 pages), Beatty manages to play on so many tropes that your head will spin.I first came to know Paul Beatty's work through "The White Boy Shuffle," and his Booker Prize for "The Sellout" is richly deserved. "Tuff" isn't perfect, but it's entertaining and enlightening enough to be worth your time. Give Tuffy your vote, and you won't be disappointed.

Quickly turning into my favorite author. Witty erudite, perfectly made sentences - a joy to read.

I love Beatty's writing style. Tuff, while not a masterpiece, was thoroughly enjoyable.

Winston Foshay - Tuffy - is one of the most memorable characters I have encountered in fiction in the last few years. His language, his relationships, his reasoning, and his taste in film worked for me separately and together. The surrounding characters in Tuff fall into the 'interesting, but not quite deep enough' camp for me, certainly enough description for their supporting roles, but none of them strong enough to be the Tuffy's foil or an authentic sounding board for his reflections. The settings seemed a bit confusing. While entertaining a sumo exhibition lends very little to the plot and only a little to Winston. Overall though, an enjoyable book that I would recommend.

the protagonist, winston 'tuff' forshay, comes to consciousness in a room with a couple of bodies on the floor, a great opening for a mystery/detective story; unfortunately, beatty doesn't follow through, nor does the event and the situations visit him at any point of the story. street life, hard street life, gang life, tuff's near death experience has him contemplating a change of life, but in a hapless way, so life happens to him and he goes along. the mean streets of spanish harlem define who he is and contains him within designated neighborhoods. his confinement becomes transcendental as endless boasting and lying and complaining with the fellows on the stoop and his japanese mother figure along with posters and an election year nudges him into running for his district city council. there's no enthusiasm in his campaigning, street life is based on lack of hope. were it not for japanese culture and his wife, yolanda, and their baby, the pull of a foreign value system and his family values, a commitment and love which goes beyond immediate family to embrace the people of the streets in his district, an inner pulsation, this plotless story and tuff's lack of desire, this novel would stay as unconscious as the bodies on the floor in the opening sentences.tuff could hang with some of george saunders' early stories and colson whitehead's novels. for language, the novel is as metaphorically out of control, way up in the stratosphere with darconville's cat by alexander theroux, and there's lots of cussing.

"Tuff" is a hilarious ride through Harlem with a rough and oddly relatable youth who's actually fairly wise for his years. Winston Foshay is no nonsense. He can't play the Yo Mamma dozens because in his honesty, he probably did what he's about to rag about. With a host of interesting characters and humorous yet humbling backstories, this is a feel good novel about a young man trying to find himself.

alles bestens

Un roman de qualité qui déjoue beaucoup d'idées reçues. Je pense qu'il est indispensable de se laisser aller pour le découvrir. Bonne lecture.

Just brilliant

good

I really enjoyed Slumberland and The Sellout, but this was very disappointing - obviously a much earlier work