Books Featuring Boston, In This Case Colleges: The White Boy Shuffle

Bostonist is a reader. If you ask, Bostonist's favorite book would likely be The White Boy Shuffle, the 1996 coming of age book by Paul Beatty. Hilarious(even re-reading it, Bostonist laughs out loud like it's a first-time reading of David Sedaris), satirical, dark and provocative, Shuffle follows the destined-for-greatness life of Gunnar Kaufman from West Los Angeles to the halls of Boston University. Sample, totally-unrepresentative-but-short-enough hilarity: "Here's a haiku you wrote: 'the full May moon/Christopher Walken's forehead/finally has competition'" Bostonist first heard of the book when Entertainment Weekly deemed Beatty the "It Novelist" around 2001 or so, when Shuffle was optioned by Ryan Phillipe and Will Smith to be a movie. It's still listed on the IMDB, but Bostonist has doubts: eavesdropping one day at the Diesel Cafe, a natty gentleman was discussing his recent leave from Hollywood life, namely fronting Will Smith's production company, which took a hit after 2001.
Paul Beatty's an interesting guy, too. He's from the West Coast, received his bachelor's and master's in pyschology from Boston University, and then went to New York City where he was a very successful poet, mentored by Allen Ginsberg, often performing at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe and publishing his poems in journals like AGNI. They're knotty, fascinating works. After The White Boy Shuffle, he published Tuff--another funny book that explores the shenanigans that would occur if a 19 year old version of Biggie Smalls ran for city council--in 2001. However, he's seemingly been silent since then. The White Boy Shuffle film may never happen (Bostonist thinks you'll understand if you read the book) but meanwhile, the book is creeping up in the halls of academia and Bostonist hopes that it will eventually be regarded as a classic. The book sticks with you; Bostonist can't even look at the BU law library without imagining Gunnar and his best friend Nick Scoby sitting on the roof.