Tuff (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "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..." (more)
Key Phrases: campaign flyer, white bitch, Winston Foshay, New York, German Jordan (more...)

Editorial Reviews

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

From Publishers Weekly

A zany, riotous concoction of nonstop hip-hop chatter and brilliant mainstream social satire, Beatty's second novel depicts the unusual coming-of-age of 19-year-old, obese African-American Winston "Tuffy" Foshay, who tries to rise above his rough-and-tumble life on the vicious streets of Spanish Harlem. He wakes up to reality when he survives a shooting in a Brooklyn drug den, and his commitment to becoming a new man is clinched after a crack binge leaves him deranged and hiding in his bedroom closet. Both drug dealer and abuser, he understands the addict's need for illegal substances to escape the despair that pervades his impoverished, violent community. The novel's manic comedy is balanced by the telling portrayal of Winston's topsy-turvy marriage to Yolanda, the mother of their year-old son, Jordy. Following a harrowing visit to prison to see his father, Winston reaches out for another type of mentor in Spenser Throckmorton, freelance rabbi, lecturer and journalist, who, along with Yolanda and his political activist-surrogate mom, Inez, encourages Winston to run for City Council. In a series of howlingly funny scenes, Beatty uses the youth's inept campaign to get in some wicked shots at the American electoral process, voter apathy, conservative politics, liberals and political fat cats. While the book's freewheeling conclusion sounds a note of triumph, Beatty acknowledges the overall lack of promise and opportunity in the lives of young blacks in communities neglected by society at large. His supporting cast of rogue characters is expertly drawn, providing the perfect complement for Winston's many comic miscues. Beatty's book is full of deep belly laughs, wonderfully knowing observations on society and pop culture, all delivered with the same imaginative originality and skill that informed his acclaimed debut work, The White Boy Shuffle. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1st edition (May 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375401229
• ISBN-13: 978-0375401220
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 5.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,378,604 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you ask me, Beatty is batting 1.000, March 24, 2001

By	mateo52 "invisible man" (State College, Pa.) - See all my reviews

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.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Go buy it now, so he can keep publishing his books, May 29, 2000

By	Charles H. Jones (Chicago, Illinois) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

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

By	Booklover "LitforChics" (United States) - See all my reviews

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.