Rating: 
Summary: too black for whites, too white for blacks: crazy mulattos
Review: as a semi-mulatto (no one would call me on it racially but culturally i feel it) i found solace in beatty's satire. no one is safe: latinos, blacks, whites, japanese, intellectuals, athletes, gang bangers. the characters are vivid, the idosyncracies of each group captured with amazing precision. even beatty's acronyms can't be beat: NAPPY, a group of high yellow negros who walk around fist pumping and diashiki wearing, calling out white people when they're at least 50% white...etc. beatty's hilarious, and he breaks down, with humor, what goes on with black folks everyday (witness protagonist gunnar's athletic scholarship to a prestigious college, where the coaches see him as points to be scored, but gunnar knows he's holding the cards); being too intellectual to run with the gang bangers, but running the risk of being gang banged if you show your book smarts to anyone. i thought this book was hiloarious, although i'm still rumminating on the ending, which i won't give away here! enjoy...you will definitely laugh out loud. i wonder what spike lee thinks of this book. i'm sure he's read it.
Rating:
Summary: a great novel worthy of attention
Review: For me this was one of those rare finds you sometimes make when you spare an hour in the bookstore to browse through some of those novels that never receive any fanfare. This one had me gripped throughout. I do not think a book has brought me to tears since Watership Down did when I was nine and certainly no novel has ever made me laugh out loud so fulsomely. If you are not a prude I urge you as strongly as possible to read this. Read it for its coruscating critique of white liberalism. Give it a look for the hilarious send-up of ghetto hypocrisies and pretensions. Do not miss out on the most up-to-date, cynical, life-affirming, fantastical touching odyssey literature currently has to offer. The pace is fast, yet the characters are wonderfully drawn in Beatty's brief yet believably deep sketches. It's one of those great books that are always so tricky to summarise or precis. But to attempt the impossible - Beatty got to me because he is an enthusiastic realist; he dabbles with fantasy (and a quirky fascination with all things Japanese) but never treats his subject matters with authorial disdain or hostility. I wish Paul Beatty the huge audience he deserves.
Rating:
Summary: wow...
Review: I picked this book up from my boyfriend's mini-library of novels assigned in the extravagance of higher education. This book was included in a class he took at NCState University called Hip Hop Literature. I read it in one night. Beatty has one of the most creative and effective writing styles i've ever come across, as well as original ideas and theories. I wish Beatty had a webpage including his personal favorite authors and influences. If Chuck Palahniuk's work and Toni Morrison's work came together to make a novel, this would be it.
Rating:
Summary: A helluva poetic novel
Review: I'll be honest, I don't like most poetry. So, when I saw that Paul Beatty is a poet, I was a little wary. But I very quickly realized that his poetry is what makes this novel move. Besides the array of interesting characters and odd situations this book offers, for me, it was Beatty's be-bop writing style that I was swept up in. His prose just bounces off the page at you, creating action just in the words alone.
I loved this book, I couldn't put it down and I immediately had to get "Tuff" after finishing "White Boy" (which I liked, but didn't love). I say balls to the "politically correct" that call this book racist. Here is a voice that's not heard in modern fiction and in many ways hearkens back to 50's and 60's literature (read Chester Himes, Ralph Ellison, the beats). This is a view of life, and I don't think it comes off as a judgment, it is what it is and it's funny as hell.
Rating: 
Summary: The Chris Rock of Prose
Review: Paul Beatty's "White Boy Shuffle" is a scathingly irreverent look at modern day African-American "street" culture, and some of it's more ludicrous characteristics. Sort of an anti "Boyz In The Hood". Detailing the picaresque adventures of African-American Gunnar Kauffman as he makes the adjustment to a black inner city neighborhood after growing up in the relatively benign white neighborhood of Santa Monica, Beatty displays dazzlingly creative wordplay and mastery of language, in the tradition of James Joyce and Ralph Ellison. I give it four stars only because I reserve five stars for a book like Ellison's "Invisible Man" which is the apotheosis of the coming of age novel. But believe me, "White Boy Shuffle" is no slouch in that department. Plus it's laugh out loud funny. It's the black "Catcher In The Rye". I once recommended it to Chris Rock telling him, "This guy is doing in prose what you're doing on stage." Which was telling the truth. And while the characters of "White Boy Shuffle" are not developed emotionally and psychologically, this is an extremely clever rant against all the hypocrasies and excesses of contemporary American society.
Rating:
Summary: Read this book!!
Review: Paul Beatty's mastery of the English language is incredible! As is his mastery of current urban culture.He captures so perfectly the angst and struggles of being a young African-American today - without soundingpreachy or racist. This novel made me laugh out loud. The satire and wit are biting, and accurate. Beatty pokes fun at whites, blacks and society in general. He addresses stereotypes held by all participants of the race war in a humorous and surreal manner.
Rating:
Summary: "Hey, Hey, Hey...Do The WB Shuffle...."
Review: Perhaps the most brilliant fiction I've in the last 3 years. Beatty's writing reminds me of Orwell and Vonnegut, but it has a vibe that is all his own. The character development is incredible and the way he moves the story is outstanding. Gunnar is prophetic and pathetic in his coming of age and while his life is well beyond belief, it is very easy to believe. He's what black America needs a good dose of from time to time (especially that younger generation who saw the Rodney King debacle as job-having, tax paying, somewhat responsible adults. White Boy Shuffle combines great words, strong personalities and an energetic story that you can't put down. Besides, anyone who can use "eleemosynary" in everyday language is a true talent (hadn't heard that word since the high school advanced placement tests...thanks Mrs. Corbett for making me look it up and thanks Mr. Beatty for making me hit the Funk & Wagnall's to remind me what it meant).
Rating: 
Summary: a very clever man, but a less than spectacular book
Review: reading this book, i had the distinct feeling of being at aparty and no-one wanted to let me into their little private conversation. this is probably the reason that a lot of what paul beatty was obviously trying to say went completely unheard by myself. i wanted to like this book <i actually prefer tuff> but it was just hard. i didn't like any of the character's, therefore i didn't care what happened to them. the author of this book is undoubtedly a very clever man, but with so many mixed points of view coming from each of the character's, i ended up just feeling that this was a rather sad and sorry affair. parts of this book are obviously self-autobiographical mixed with the ott fictitious, which made me feel a little bad that people actually had this outlook on people that they don't even know. sometimes leaning extremely close to the rascist and offensive < i refuse to reveal my skin-colour> this was a waste of good subject-material. obviously, i can understand why people waould enjoy this book but i wouldn't personally recommend it to anyone.
Rating:
Summary: for black folk from the other side of the fence
Review: to read this novel is to experience a range of emotions at once. i was hurt, pissed off, saddened and dying of laughter at different spots...and sometimes all at once. gunnar kaufman and paul beatty hold it down for every african-american who has ever had their own people question their blackness simply because they wanted to be their own person. with a lexicon that can rival those within academia circles, footprints to prove his walks through urban spaces, and cultural references rich with life experience, beatty's debut novel is powerful, no-holds-barred kind of writing that speaks directly to you with each turn of the page. a gorgeous, twisted visage, brown-shaded style. don't be afraid.
Rating:
Summary: A cultural masterpiece
Review: Wow! What a great book! With each page I found myself more and more attached to Gunnar and his friends. Beatty's fast-paced style is refreshing and entertaining. It reads with the candor of a diary with the depth of a Black-American textbook. It is, humorous, thought provoking, witty, and serious. It is a definite solid read.
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