Tuff: A Novel |
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| Title: | Tuff: A Novel |
| Author: | Paul Beatty |
| Publisher: | Anchor |
| Type: | Book / Paperback |
| Publication Date: | 21 August, 2001 |
| ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0385721110 / 9780385721110 |
| List Price: | $13.00 |
| You Save: | $2.86 |
| Amazon Price: | $10.14 |
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This book is also available, brand-new, from 3rd-party marketplace sellers at Amazon.com, from $6.99.
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Editorial Review / Publisher's Information:
Product Description
As fast-paced and hard-edged as the Harlem streets it portrays, Tuff shows off all of the amazing skill that Paul Beatty showed off in his first novel, The White Boy Shuffle.
Weighing in at 320 pounds, Winston “Tuffy” Foshay, is an East Harlem denizen who breaks jaws and shoots dogs and dreams of millions from his idea Cap’n Crunch: The Movie, starring Danny DeVito. His best friend is a disabled Muslim who wants to rob banks, his guiding light is an ex-hippie Asian woman who worked for Malcolm X, and his wife, Yolanda, he married from jail over the phone. Shrewdly comical as this dazzling novel is, it turns acerbically sublime when the frustrated Tuffy agrees to run for City Council. Smartly irreverent and edgily fierce, Tuff is a bona fide original.
Amazon.com Review
Paul Beatty's eponymous protagonist, Tuffy, wouldn't seem the type to sidle up too close to the word adorable. At 300 pounds, this thug is a true heavyweight in his East Harlem neighborhood. He robs, he kills, he gets high. But by the end of Beatty's follow-up to The White Boy Shuffle, he is as complexly drawn, as funny, and as lovable as any character in recent memory. The author torques his man into an uncomfortable position: this mighty rose in Spanish Harlem decides to run for City Council. Tuffy--a.k.a. Winston Foshay--is having a tough time of it. Sick of selling drugs and "regulating" neighborhood scams, he wants a better way to support his wife and baby son. His first solution is to get himself a Big Brother (even though he's 22 years old). With the help of his new Brother--who turns out to be the rabbi Spencer Throckmorton, a Jewish black man who receives no end of torment from the Muslim contingent of Tuffy's crew--Tuffy runs. Beatty nails the social nuances of East Harlem right down to the ground. When Tuffy acquires a gun, he considers telling his best friend Fariq about it, but "decided against it. Once people knew you had a gun, it was like having a car--everyone begging to borrow it, wanting you to use it to make their lives easier." Beatty locates irony constantly and quietly: Tuffy and his wife, Yolanda, go to the local school to vote, and the "flag over the entrance was flying at half-mast because the pulleys had rusted shut." Beatty also has a great eye for the way people move; this is a writer who has been paying attention. Spencer takes a late-night walk with Tuffy, through East Harlem. A group of teens approaches, frightening Spencer. The boisterous youths were only two steps away from him--so close he could feel the chill emanating off their ice-cold scowls. Winston walked toward the group, reached out, and, without breaking stride, shook the hand of the lead gargoyle. And throughout, Beatty writes--records, it sometimes seems, so dead-on is his tone--incredibly funny dialogue. As is only right, he saves all the best lines for Tuffy. In order to better understand Spencer's Jewishness, Tuffy, a film buff, rents Schindler's List. He complains to Spencer: "I mean, the movie was terrible. I couldn't get past that there were no Jews as tall as Schindler. In all of Germany the tallest Jew went up to Schindler's belly button?" And this is the final, trumping pleasure of Beatty's book: it always returns to Tuffy. With its broad portrait of a fish out of water and its wicked, satirical tone, the novel sometimes threatens to careen into Tom Wolfe territory. Beatty wisely reins in and concentrates on his hero. The author seems a little in love with Tuffy, and by the end, we are too. --Claire Dederer
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Customer Reviews:
• Tuff Is Tough
27 May, 2004
Tuff is the story of a young man's transformation from a hopeless youth to a man who is willing to try a new way of life. We read the book in a book club and our feelings about the book varied greatly. One member liked how ambitious the characters were in their quest to make money. Another member liked how Beatty forced his readers to question their stereotypes, by constantly placing the characters in unexpected roles. Another member liked how Beatty gives a vivid account of what the less fortunate, when faced with obstacles, are willing to do to improve their living situations and the living situations of people around them. Overall, our book club would reccommend the book.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Get Over It
10 June, 2005
This is a really complex book I wouldn't recommend to someone who isn't used to dealing with issues related to race, as clearly some of the reviewers here are more focused on whether or not they were offended than what Paul Beatty is trying to say about life, literature and identity. Those reviewers who are stuck on the race issue would be wise to note that when asked to address the differences between black people and white people, Rabbi Spencer Throckmorton can only come up with two trivial differences: white people eat ice cream in the winter, and black people wait till you get inside your house before they drive off. The point of this statement is not to make two absolute declarations, but highlight what really makes us different most of the time: culture and class. If you don't understand this book or think its racist, you're just not paying attention.
- Amazon Customer Review
• Great Read!
12 November, 2009
I've been in a bad slump lately when it comes to books. Nothing has really captured my attention. Until Tuff.
Great writing: funny, raucous, surprising, sweet. Tuffy is the new superhero of Spanish Harlem.
- Amazon Customer Review
• A Great Character In Somewhat Disjointed Settings
03 December, 2007
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.
- Amazon Customer Review
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