One Book, One New York

The Sellout is the best book on there by a margin, and very funny once you get past the fact that the author explicitly states that he hates whites.

The only good part of Americanah was the parts in Nigeria and her old boyfriends part where he moves to England. I've read The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and I thought that was a lot better than Americanah but it was still a bit lame.

If you want some good modern alternatives, try this.

>Half of a Yellow Sun is way better, and probably the only one of her novels worth reading.

I've heard that but I'm too irritated at wasting my time on this. This didn't deserve the accolades it received but I have to give her credit for savvy self-promotion with the Beyonce tie-in.

>but the sellout is your best bet if you want to switch

No point. Americanah was voted on and if The Sellout is only the best of the five, that doesn't say much. Again, fuck NY.

>If you want some good modern alternatives, try this.

Thanks. I'll give it a look.

reading purple hibiscus now, im convinced its one of the worst books ive ever read
this is an actual quote from the book: >defiance is like marajuana - its not a bad thing when used right
is it possible to be more retarted?

Prog lit is a form of genre fiction not unlike Soviet propaganda cinema, spy novels or YA. There are ideological cliches, specific settings and character tropes which must be maintained in order to appeal to the genre's loyal fanbase, who reward repetition with praise, attention and money.

What essential ingredients do I need to write the quirky ethnic novel?

write about immigrants moving to brooklyn

>Again, fuck NY.
I know it's something of a meme to shit on New York on this site, but anyone who cared enough to vote in something this normie plebcore would've likely picked garbage no matter where they were from.

That's a rather oversaturated market by this point. But you can bet the 'next big thing' in publishing is gonna be literature marketed towards white nationalists. Lots of money to be made in escapist pulp about swole vikings or tradwife romance novels. But if you are more ambitious, you should write for the midbrow 'sophisticate' WN dad/mom market, novels about young well meaning aryan dudes getting screwed over by jewish greed or cultural marxism, frauleins taking a stand against race mixing. something on the lines of racist Jonathan Franzen. Upper Middle class people like to feel like they're cultured but they don't want to put in the effort. that should be like an universal law of sociology or something.

Who even publishes that sort of thing these days?

>Oppression is unfair and white people are bad

Wow, such a unique perspective! It's hard to understand how the white man was able to oppress such a creative race for so long. I'm sure if Africa hadn't been colonized there would be black people living on Mars by now.

I'll be sure to buy a subscription to the new yorker to get access to more underrepresented perspectives like these!

The first enterprising scribbler to start churning out Volkisch lit fic is definitely going to stumble upon a goldmine. Also, YA supernatural romance has always been a genre chock full of vaguely concealed fascist implications, another potential publishing goldmine.

Hypothetically, if I had something that'd probably offend liberals and conservatives alike, who would I send it to?

A progressive social ideology is an absolute must. This is the selling point of your novel; do not be afraid to lay it on a little thick. Be sure to feature heavy handed microaggressions from ignorant white people whose ethnicity prevents them from understanding the nuances of racism (unlike you and me, who get it. ugh.)

Main character has to be an uppity and resentful minority who is disillusioned with the Western liberal democracy he or she is leeching off. bonus points if it's a quadroon or some sort of half-caste mongrel (this means its treatment of identity, an important and interesting issue, is more complex).

Setting should feature a groundbreaking contrast between third world mudhut shithole and first world cosmopolitan urban shithole. Your protagonist is a brown genius so she's probably migrating to a Western country for studies at a prestigious university, where she struggles with oppression despite the fact that she's smarter than everybody else

Don't have any understanding of style? Lack a solid grounding in traditional Western literature? Not a problem. Simply shove in as many neologisms, slang terms and cultural aberrations your people have "contributed" to their host society as possible. This makes your "voice" unique and original, player

Pop culture references and a smug, ironic tone which occasionally veers violently into sentimentality without warning are encouraged.

be sure to include copious amounts of vague and mysterious symbolism to give your novel the appearance of depth. Random animals combined with primary colors is a good formula (why is that green elephant haunting the latina maid? I bet it has something to do with colonialism)

If you're struggling to find a compelling solution to your convoluted plot threads (of which you of course have many), no matter. simply have something totally irrational occur which is then treated as a normal, everyday occurrence by your books' characters. This is called magical realism, and it makes you creative.

Done all that? Made sure to whine about white people? Then, voila! You've created a Slate reading group masterpiece. See bigots, brown people ARE talented.

holy shit this is spot on

>9419996

Never heard the term "prog lit" but that sounds right.

Haha. Too accurate. Don't forget smug author interviews.

newrepublic.com/article/113766/insufferable-chimamanda-ngozi-adichie

> Still, it seems it is mostly American readers who most miss the fact that “Americanah” is supposed to be funny. I laughed a lot when writing it (although it is a bit worrying to be so amused by one’s own humor). But I suppose race when bluntly dealt with does not blend well with that wonderful, famed American earnestness.

Go fuck yourself you humorless, condescending wannabe. The patronizing tone just oozes through every chapter. I'm halfway done and this is such a chore.

>"I could have done “Americanah” differently, in a way that was safer. I know the tropes. I know how race is supposed to be dealt with in fiction (you can do a “novel of ideas” about baseball, but not about race, because it becomes “hectoring”), but I wanted to write the kind of novel about race that I wanted to read."

Thank God for TNR.

>It is indeed brave of Adichie to write a book that would sell well, garner tremendous amounts of press, and get excerpted in The New Yorker.

>If you're struggling to find a compelling solution to your convoluted plot threads

You forgot a burst of violence by a white authority figure or uncle tom towards the protagonist.

He is full of shit, if you read about the publishing industry you would know that it is dominated by white women, and that the awards circuit is dominated by ultra-liberal journalist.

blog.leeandlow.com/2016/01/26/where-is-the-diversity-in-publishing-the-2015-diversity-baseline-survey-results/

study

That's not gonna last forever, you know. Cultural hegemony is a fragile thing indeed. One could cash in the inevitable downfall of cultural liberalism, see it as an investment

>cultural hegemony
>corporate nepotism

pick one

The Sellout is good, but it seems you just dont like racial narratives so avoid anything by nonwhites. you're doing yourself a disservice, because, while most of those you mentioned arent great (Wondrous Life is the biggest non deserving shitpile in there) there are good racial narratives out there.

Strictly identity-based or primarily identity-focused narratives are a banal waste of time no matter how technically proficient the writing may be.

>Strictly identity-based or primarily identity-focused narratives are a banal waste of time no matter how technically proficient the writing may be.

Muh monolithic generalizations

>white narrative
>muh existentialism
>muh human condition
>historical novel!!!

please, both sides are creatively corrupt.

How can a book be "passionate"?

Anyway I'm a Nigerian American and didn't know ethnic people coming to America and telling stories was a thing

I have stories tf
I want to write YA and im not a liberal tho

Just write whatever you want senpai

Getting published is like winning the lottery except instead of millions you'll get a few thousand.

>implying prog lit is technically proficient

It's not as far as I know but there could hypothetically be an example that was.

>How can a book be "passionate"?

>Anyway I'm a Nigerian American

Autism occurs in all nationalities.