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Tuff [Hardcover]

Paul Beatty (Author)
3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)


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Product Details

  • Hardcover
  • Publisher: Knopf; First Edition edition (2000)
  • ASIN: B001HUP7NM
  • Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,446,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

27 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:
 (9)
3 star:
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2 star:
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1 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.8 out of 5 stars (27 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Go buy it now, so he can keep publishing his books, May 28, 2000
By 
Charles H. Jones (Chicago, Illinois) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Tuff (Hardcover)
Paul Beatty's first collection of poetry (Big Bank take Little Bank)is out of print, and god forbid any other of his great books should suffer the same fate. I just finished Tuff this morning and it's just amazing. I haven't been able to get through much fiction by men lately; they are either stupid or apolgetic in this super loser way. Both Beatty and Tuffy, his latest pro/antagonist show such honest bravado, if there is such a thing, that it makes this a rare joy to read. Tuff is worth two times the hardcover price, just for the main character's vision on underground and commercial movie making. I loved it and White boy Shuffle. Go buy it now; don't be a stupid motherfucker.
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars If you ask me, Beatty is batting 1.000, March 24, 2001
This review is from: Tuff (Hardcover)
Evidence of a sophomore slump is nowhere to be found with TUFF. In my view, Paul Beatty has climbed a rung or two beyond THE WHITE BOY SHUFFLE.

The corpulent street-wise protagonist of TUFF, Winston "Tuffy" Foshay, is introduced as a young man without an obvious plan getting by with his wife and son through wits, brawn and an affinity for art house cinema. Immediately after a narrow escape from the hereafter while earning his keep as enforcer for drug dealers, Tuff surmises he needs an alternative future strategy. By default and convenience rather than commitment or geniune desire, he decides to run for City Council. Gradually, in spite of all of the numerable objections he is able to muster, you sense slowly but steadily Tuff is beginning to care about his environs.

As events unfold, you meet his eclectic assortment of friends, relatives and external influences, most prominently the multiply-challenged best friend Fariq, a hustler who under different circumstances would prosper downtown on Wall Street; Tuff's forever radical father; the opportunistic but incongruent "Big Brother" Rabbi Spencer Thockmorton; and surrogate mother/mentor Mrs. Nomuri.

At times farcical, primarily serious, and wholly relevant to any inner city - this time it happens to be NYC - TUFF is a "The Candidate" with a spin.

Beatty clearly understands sometimes less is indeed more, so the similes and metaphors so prominently dispensed in SHUFFLE are less evident, the erudite references are likewise diminished. However, from beginning to denouement the story has greater cohesion than his first novel with no loss of witticisms, sarcasm, cynicism or any shortage of astute observations.

Whereas SHUFFLE was a punch to the gut, TUFF is more of a tap on the chin.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Quick witted, Funny, Honest Look at Life in New York, June 30, 2000
This review is from: Tuff (Hardcover)
Of course truth is stranger than fiction and with Tuff it's hard to distinguish between the two. The story is outlandish enough to be true with Winston waking up from a shoot out thankful to still be alive with no wounds and a new gun to boot. Walking in Winston's shoes, traipsing the streets of Brooklyn, Harlem and everything in between--He's an overweight lover, husband and father looking to survive the dense hole called life. By the end of the book I was just glad I made it out alive.
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Inside This Book (learn more)
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First Sentence:
When Winston Foshay found himself on the hardwood floor of a Brooklyn drug den regaining consciousness, his reflex wasn't to open his eyes but to shut them tighter. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
campaign flyer, white bitch
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Winston Foshay, New York, German Jordan, Der Kommissar, City Council, East Harlem, Spanish Harlem, United States, Chilly Most, Central Park, Collette Cox, New Progressive Party, Puerto Rican, Wilfredo Cienfuegos, Margo Tellos, Eighth District, Empire State Building, Lexington Avenue, Second Avenue, Bendito Bonilla, Burger King, Cap'n Crunch, Fifth Avenue, King Bro, Whip Whop
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