|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||
|
Book Reviews Title Tuff Fiction-Net
Rating Buy It
From Amazon.co.uk - BUY
NOW! Cover
Story Nineteen-year-old
Winston `Tuffy’ Foshay - 320 pounds, new
father to a baby boy he greets cheerfully with
`What up, little nigger?’, player - king of a
motley crew in Spanish Harlem - is looking for a
purpose in life, for the answer to his exasperated
wife Yolanda’s question, `Winston, what you
gonna do?’ After narrowly
escaping death - by fainting - in a drug deal gone
bad, Tuff knows he needs to make some decisions,
and soon, with or without the help of his tight
Harlem circle - his scheming, disabled best friend
Fariq, aka Smush; his Beat - Poet Black Panther
father, Clifford; Inez, the Marxist revolutionary
who raised him, and his bewildered mentor from the
Big Brother programme, the hapless African-American
rabbi Spencer Throckmorton. So when Inez offers him
$20,000 to run for city council, he gamely embarks
on one of the most outrageous campaigns in
political history, on that changes both his vision
of the world and his place in it. Fuelled by the
ferocious wit and outrage that drove Beatty’s
extraordinary debut, The White Boy Shuffle, Tuff
sees his manic energy taken to new heights of
verbal dazzle. We
Say Paul
Beatty’s novel Tuff, is a fascinating novel
written with amazing wit and honesty. I found the
main character Winston “Tuffy” Foshay
both endearing and frightening, but not for
'traditional' reasons. Tuffy is not described as a
stereotypical thug or gang member. While Tuffy is
involved in drugs and crime, he is not as cold
hearted as one would think. Instead, Tuffy is an
intelligent young man who is not interested in the
traditionally accepted methods of making a living.
Due in part to his upbringing and environmental
influences, Winston does not always feel that what
society deems wrong can be considered a crime.
Supported by his strong willed wife and infant son,
Tuffy becomes increasingly concerned about his
fate. Thus begins his search for a way to make a
good living. The United States
is both blessed and plagued by democracy. The
attributes that make the United States so wonderful
are the same characteristics that often cause so
many problems. Tuffy’s exploration of the
democratic process is frightening at times. Through
Tuffy’s search for a place in the world,
Beatty takes the reader on a journey through life
in Harlem. What is so frightening, is that any
individual, given the right motivation can rise to
a position of power in the government. In contrast
that is the exact reason many feel that the United
States is so wonderful. Beatty tells Tuffy’s
story, he avoids pulling at the reader’s
heartstrings. Instead, as we follow the campaign,
Tuffy’s story is told in a matter of fact
manner. Tuffy enlightens the reader by providing
insight into the reasons he and his friends break
the law and choose to live their lives the way that
they do. Spencer
Throckmorton is an African American nightmare of
sorts. Spencer becomes Tuffy’s Big Brother and
it is this relationship between the two that helps
the reader better see the world through
Tuffy’s eyes. Spencer and Tuffy’s friends
are constantly at odds because Spencer is seen as a
man who has sold out. While many African American
males are being scrutinized by their inability to
provide good role models for their children, and
their failure to be productive citizens, Tuffy
challenges the belief that he needs saving.
Initially Spencer, a rabbi, believes that Tuffy
needs to be saved. What Spencer comes to realize is
that Tuffy does not need to be saved. In many ways,
it is the conformist Spencer that needs to be
saved. When Tuffy decides to run for city council,
he ends up surprising everyone. What is perhaps
most frightening about Tuffy is not his drug use or
his lack of remorse when he commits a crime, but
his uncanny ability to see things the way that they
really are. Tuffy lacks the disillusionment of his
peers and rather than bemoan his fate, he accepts
it and forges ahead in the only way he knows, one
day at a time. Sometimes the rationalizations he
provides for his actions make sense in a
frightening way. Tuff is filled with wonderful
characters and a dialogue that leaps from the
pages. At times I found myself laughing out loud.
Beatty’s ability to present realistic
characters and an unpredictable story make this a
novel worth reading. Review by: Yumi
Nagasaki-Taylor |
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
