Book Summary 13 — Tuff

Tuff by Paul Beatty is was recently the winner of the Man Booker Prize.

Usually, I don’t really go for books like this one — but someone, somewhere recommended this book at some point, so I had it on my list and got it out of the library.

Major spoilers ahead

Tuff is about the black neighbourhoods of NYC. It’s about a troubled early twenties kid, who grows up in the black ghetto and goes through the journey of finding himself.

Long story short he runs for City Council and the book ends with the ballots and him most likely winning the position.

I haven’t read a novel in forever and this book especially is a very different kind of novel. The story of the book is good, you feel like you start to understand Tuffy’s life and live through it with him, but the story really isn’t that great.

This book is all about the insane writing style (unlike mine :P). It shows a huge contrast of, the dialogues in the black community, which are grammatically incorrect and every other word is a swear word, compared to the beautifully described world the novel plays in. The author plays around with flowery words and expressions I have never heard and intertwines it so well with the rough conversations of the characters.

I can recommend the book to anyone, who is looking to improve their writing style and telling a compelling story.