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Black Buck
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Fiction (2021), Nominee for Readers' Favorite Debut Novel (2021)For fans of Sorry to Bother You and The Wolf of Wall Street —a crackling, satirical debut novel about a young man given a shot at stardom as the lone Black salesman at a mysterious, cult-like, and wildly successful startup where nothing is as it seems.
There’s nothing like a Black salesman on a mission.
An unambitious twenty-two-year-old, Darren lives in a Bed-Stuy brownstone with his mother, who wants nothing more than to see him live up to his potential as the valedictorian of Bronx Science. But Darren is content working at Starbucks in the lobby of a Midtown office building, hanging out with his girlfriend, Soraya, and eating his mother’s home-cooked meals. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of Sumwun, NYC’s hottest tech startup, results in an exclusive invitation for Darren to join an elite sales team on the thirty-sixth floor.
After enduring a “hell week” of training, Darren, the only Black person in the company, reimagines himself as “Buck,” a ruthless salesman unrecognizable to his friends and family. But when things turn tragic at home and Buck feels he’s hit rock bottom, he begins to hatch a plan to help young people of color infiltrate America’s sales force, setting off a chain of events that forever changes the game.
Black Buck is a hilarious, razor-sharp skewering of America’s workforce; it is a propulsive, crackling debut that explores ambition and race, and makes way for a necessary new vision of the American dream.
There’s nothing like a Black salesman on a mission.
An unambitious twenty-two-year-old, Darren lives in a Bed-Stuy brownstone with his mother, who wants nothing more than to see him live up to his potential as the valedictorian of Bronx Science. But Darren is content working at Starbucks in the lobby of a Midtown office building, hanging out with his girlfriend, Soraya, and eating his mother’s home-cooked meals. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of Sumwun, NYC’s hottest tech startup, results in an exclusive invitation for Darren to join an elite sales team on the thirty-sixth floor.
After enduring a “hell week” of training, Darren, the only Black person in the company, reimagines himself as “Buck,” a ruthless salesman unrecognizable to his friends and family. But when things turn tragic at home and Buck feels he’s hit rock bottom, he begins to hatch a plan to help young people of color infiltrate America’s sales force, setting off a chain of events that forever changes the game.
Black Buck is a hilarious, razor-sharp skewering of America’s workforce; it is a propulsive, crackling debut that explores ambition and race, and makes way for a necessary new vision of the American dream.
389 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 5, 2021
2086 people are currently reading
65216 people want to read
About the author
Mateo Askaripour
3 books1,077 followers“A month ago, I’d never heard of Mateo Askaripour. Today I would buy anything from him.”
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post
Mateo Askaripour wants people to feel seen. His first novel, Black Buck, takes on racism in corporate America with humor and wit. It was an instant New York Times bestseller and a Read with Jenna Today show book club pick. Askaripour was chosen as one of Entertainment Weekly’s “10 rising stars poised to make waves” and was named as a recipient of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” prize. This Great Hemisphere, published in July 2024, is his second novel. He lives in Brooklyn. Follow him on Instagram @AskMateo.
—Ron Charles, The Washington Post
Mateo Askaripour wants people to feel seen. His first novel, Black Buck, takes on racism in corporate America with humor and wit. It was an instant New York Times bestseller and a Read with Jenna Today show book club pick. Askaripour was chosen as one of Entertainment Weekly’s “10 rising stars poised to make waves” and was named as a recipient of the National Book Foundation’s “5 Under 35” prize. This Great Hemisphere, published in July 2024, is his second novel. He lives in Brooklyn. Follow him on Instagram @AskMateo.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 4,731 reviews
March 18, 2021
The book started off strong, but the second half really lost me as the story became increasingly absurd and the pacing was all over the place. I'm aware this is satire, but satire can also be used to explore themes in a deeper and thought-provoking way, which I don’t believe this book achieved. Instead, it opted for very obvious messaging, over-the-top slapstick, and jokes that were, at best, outdated, and at worst, cringey (proclamations like “any white person who has this book should consider themselves an honorary black person” and analogies like “colder than Jeffrey Dahmer’s freezer” and “sharper than Michael Jackson’s nose”).
I work in tech and advertising, and I believe that there is a lot to explore with how people of color, especially black people, are treated within the tech industry and startup culture. Rather than breaking down these issues, however, the book seems to equate hiring more POC = equality, and gives a way too easy solution to a complex and systemic problem.
I also wasn’t a fan of how women were treated by the protagonist. It’s very obvious the author is a man because of the roles that the women characters were regulated in: either sexualized or matronly. Both archetypes were there to “teach” the protagonist and used to further his journey without the characters actually having much of a story on their own. For a book that is supposed to tackle black and POC’s experiences within corporate culture, the absence of women's perspectives shows just one of the industry’s many core issues that were not explored in the book.
I work in tech and advertising, and I believe that there is a lot to explore with how people of color, especially black people, are treated within the tech industry and startup culture. Rather than breaking down these issues, however, the book seems to equate hiring more POC = equality, and gives a way too easy solution to a complex and systemic problem.
I also wasn’t a fan of how women were treated by the protagonist. It’s very obvious the author is a man because of the roles that the women characters were regulated in: either sexualized or matronly. Both archetypes were there to “teach” the protagonist and used to further his journey without the characters actually having much of a story on their own. For a book that is supposed to tackle black and POC’s experiences within corporate culture, the absence of women's perspectives shows just one of the industry’s many core issues that were not explored in the book.
February 17, 2021
(SPOILER WARNING!)
I don't want what Black Buck is selling.
By page 9, I'd had enough of Askaripour's excessive use of metaphors, similes and shallow, unnatural dialogue between his characters. His repetitive jokes and sarcasm were laid on thick and never funny. Never. The word "fuck" appeared so many times in the first quarter of the book that it lost all impact. Read: A very obvious debut. Black Buck was not satirical, but sloppy.
Let's start with the main character, Darren, the titular Black Buck. The nickname Buck refers to his job at Starbucks, meant to degrade him, but it's a name he comes to own and associate with his success. The first half of Black Buck is an ego trip where any and everyone around Darren, including random strangers, tell him how amazing he is. On the one hand, Darren humbly questions his capabilities whenever someone tells him he deserves more or better. On the other, Darren is sometimes angry to the point of near violence when his skills are questioned. There are several instances throughout the story where Darren's thoughts and actions seem to be at odds; he comes across as disingenuous and untrustworthy, which I don't think was Askaripour's intention.
I never quite figured out why people believe in Darren anyway. Sure, he convinced Rhett, CEO of Sumwun, to switch one type of cold brew out for another, but that seems to be the extent of his talents in sales. Darren more or less lucks his way into situations that advance his career without really doing anything. He's truly mediocre.
As for the other characters, all are rooted in some kind of trope: the ailing single parent who wants their child to leave the nest in search of something more; the old men who don't realize no one else is laughing at their jokes; the jealous best friend from the hood who turns to a life of crime to make ends meet; the hotshot greedy exec with a one-track mind. And then there's Brian, a secondary character with Tourette's, specifically coprolalia where obscene language is unavoidable, who is used for comic relief. Not only does he shout all the names for genitalia at the top of his lungs, he is stereotypically nerdy, socially awkward, and acne-scarred. A severely overused joke in Black Buck in which Black people are compared to the celebrities white people think they resemble likens his face to Seal. Brian is a representation of the elementary school-level humor Black Buck is full of and a shining example of why Mateo Askaripour's debut novel failed: it is so over the top that it is ineffective in achieving everything it seeks out to be.
“I wrote this book so that anyone who reads it, especially Black and brown people, would be able to take away a few gems on how to advance their own lives and the lives of those who they love,” said Askaripour in an interview with Langston Collin Wilkins this month. Indeed "each one, teach one" becomes a major theme in Black Buck, but what does Darren, or this book, really teach anybody? After the 200-pages-too-many whirlwind of a story, I still can't say. But just about every attempt made to address racism, microaggressions and cultural appropriation saw me cringing. The message Askaripour wanted to portray was overshadowed by poor writing and plot execution, as well as his heavy-handed comedic touches.
For the first several chapters, the storytelling follows a painfully repetitive cycle of Darren's daily routines. Probably tired of copying and pasting, Askaripour eventually started to itemize those passages like a list. If that's not a sign your book needed another round of editing, I don't know what is. Things got really wild on page 68, where the book should have ended, because there's no way that anyone would have continued to work at a place where a company-sanctioned hate crime was carried out against them. "They forced me to rap, pulled some KKK tar-and-feather shit on me, and made me write on a board until my fingers bled." And yet, every morning Darren goes to work, completely accepting of racism being used as a learning tool for his success or as a cute cultural prop for white people. I couldn't figure out if Darren is meant to be a martyr for all the future black salesmen of America, taking the abuse so they wouldn't have to. Somehow, Rhett manages to sell Darren on a dream with a series of vague and blanketed statements, and that's enough for Darren to continue to bite his tongue and endure. A true idiot, considering he was the valedictorian of Bronx Science.
Darren becomes Rhett's right-hand man (friendly reminder that hotshot salesman Darren never really went on to sell much of anything besides coffee) and, when things go south at Sumwun, the company's Black poster child for diversity. If he wasn't feeling himself before, Darren is by this point, transforming from the sweet guy who learned Arabic to communicate with his girlfriend's father, to the guy from the hood that's suddenly too good for every body back home. And the transformation happens rather quickly, even before Darren has really proven himself, making the events which follow proceed too fast to feel real. After a series of back-to-back-to-back arguments with everyone in Bed-Stuy, Darren manages to shut those closest to him out of his life, including his ill mother.
If you guessed that Darren's descent into an asshole and NWA (Negotiator with Attitude, the culturally appropriated name given to his sales team at Sumwun) was going to culminate with a life-altering event that rocks his world, you were right. His mother passes away from lung cancer, which everyone but Darren knew she had, including myself. I guess he wasn't as suspicious of all the coughed up blood, fainting, and missed shifts at the chemical factory as I was. Heartbroken, Darren ends things with his girlfriend and kicks the grandfatherly tenant Mr. Rawlings out of his house for failing to disclose his mother's illness with him. Darren channels all of that grief into the sales pitch of a lifetime, saying absolutely nothing of substance to a very important, seemingly smart man who falls for it, and somehow goes on to save Sumwun from imminent bankruptcy. Darren's a star, he's someone, just like all of the random strangers on the street told him he'd be!
But he's also dead inside, having regular one night stands, hooked on coffee and coke, and plagued by nightmares about all of the people from his past life in Bed-Stuy. Needing to feel good about himself, Darren seeks out Brian and molds him into his image as a successful black salesman. Cue the makeover montage, but picture Brian selling an imaginary magazine subscription where white people dress in blackface, he gets beat up, and has the sudden confidence to pick up a girl in a bar despite two black eyes and his Seal-like face.
Subjecting himself to completely unnecessary humiliation, Brian somehow also becomes a master salesman. Then comes alonga ragtag group of misfits Black and brown people from all over NYC who want to get into sales as well. After a half-hearted speech about Black people having been denied the same opportunities as their white counterparts, Darren realizes that this is his mission as a Black man: "each one, teach one." Gone are the days of there being only one black or brown employee in tech and startups. He would give them all the tools needed to succeed: if they knew how to sell, they can do anything, be anyone!
Black Buck also brings attention to the higher rates of incarceration and police violence against Black men. I found that especially interesting because one of Darren's teaching methods, what he refers to as "illegal homework," involves asking Black men and women to commit crimes and other questionable acts since it teaches "tone, confidence, and delivery." One such escapade leads to Brian being arrested and detained for a murder he didn't commit, another thing that happens to black men far too often. Askaripour trying to highlight these issues was ineffective when the main character, a Black man himself, has complete disregard for the consequences of encouraging criminal activity and little concern over Brian's well-being in jail. Admittedly, the only thing important to Darren at the time was making sure a job position is filled by one of his new recruits—failure to do so affected his bottom line. Though he promised to get Brian a lawyer, he did absolutely nothing to help, and turned his focus on training another recruit for the role. Juxtapose this with other conversations about Black men serving extended sentences for crimes they didn't commit, or those who go on to commit suicide when it seems no justice is in sight or as a result of traumatic experiences they endured in prison. Darren's nonchalance about Brian makes all of this extremely jarring. Brian's eventually released, and I expected him to be angry with Darren for abandoning him, but he is eternally grateful—just one of many characters in the story that idolizes Darren for no reason. Darren successfully gets the job position filled, again feeling good about himself for having "given back to the community", and he apologizes to his old friends in Bed-Stuy.
The Master Salesmen of None come to be known as the Happy Campers, an educational and recruitment agency for BIPOC with chapters around the globe. Darren's able to get more Black employees in the ranks of Sumwun while seeing upward mobility himself. His racist nemesis Clyde, responds to the growing diversity by founding the White United Society of Salespeople (yes, WUSS). A race war ensues, complete with modern-day slave auctions of homeless people, chants of "white lives matter," and the revelation that Clyde is a closeted gay man in an interracial relationship. Despite blatantly racist actions themselves, WUSS manages to convince the world that Happy Campers is an anti-white terrorist organization. To silence his lies, Clyde is kidnapped by the Happy Campers and waterboarded. This, of course, after much debate between the Happy Campers on whether or not to address the race war MLK-style or Malcolm X-style.
Things escalate quickly, but it doesn't end there: WUSS avenges Clyde by setting Darren's childhood home, now the Happy Campers HQ, on fire, killing Darren's Black assistant Trey, who has a comedic-crutch of a stutter. Trey ran back into the flames trying to save the object he treasured most: a photograph of him and Darren. I had to pause and laugh at the thought of someone idolizing Darren so much, they'd risk the flames just to save a photo of him! Trey is burned to a crisp, leaving nothing but a few shreds of sneaker behind. I shed no tears, but my eyes did roll.
When it's revealed that Darren is the leader behind the Happy Campers, Rhett no longer wants anything to do with him. "Making things about race" just isn't cool, but since diversity is "so hot" right now, Darren's final act as a Sumwun employee will be to speak about it at a conference. In what Askaripour describes as a modern-day lynching, Darren finds himself leading a room full of 5,001 pro-WUSS bigots through a 3-minute guided meditation where their hearts are softened ever so slightly and maybe, just maybe, they can tolerate a world where there's a BIPOC in the next cubicle over.
But because that wasn't a semi-decent enough place to end things, Askaripour shifts from Wolf of Wall Street meets Sorry to Bother You knock offs to John Singleton's Boyz n The Hood meets Park Chan-Wook's Vengeance Trilogy knock offs.
Darren does his best friend a favor by agreeing to sell cocaine for him after a drug deal gone wrong lands him in the hospital. There's a dramatic scene in which Darren tells his worried Senegalese personal chauffeur to "drive off and don't come back if I'm not out in 15 minutes,promise me Rose" he finds himself tied up and face-to-face not just with Clyde, but Trey! Trey, who not only wasn't burned to a crisp but doesn't even have a stutter! He reveals himself as the grandson Mr. Rawlings, who later suffered a stroke that Trey ultimately blames Darren for. Wanting nothing more than to ruin Darren's life and the lives of those he loves, Trey (who, again, is Black) pitches the white-supremacy-rooted WUSS to Clyde, who also wanted revenge against Darren for ruining his bromance with Rhett.
Yep. I read 380 pages of what was ultimately a bromance/family revenge tale.
Using the footage they were able to obtain of Darren trading coke for cash, Trey and Clyde send Darren to prison, where he writes a book, THIS book, a guide for Black and brown people everywhere looking to better themselves through sales. Darren's closing remarks are actually a self-serving sales pitch for Askaripour himself: a request to wear the book out, reread your favorite passages, and buy new copies for your friends.
I'm fine, thanks.
Humor, exaggeration and societal commentary are the key ingredients to a successful satire. I've already said the humor was juvenile; I'm not sure what the target demographic was for jokes like "sharper than Michael Jackson's nose" or "colder than an Inuit's titty." Askaripour relied on humor so much that it became distracting and a likely contributor to Black Buck becoming an overly-exaggerated story that tripped over its own plot points. One of the most important topics, racism, was at times glossed over or mishandled, especially when we look at how Darren responded in those moments. He filled more seats with Black and brown people, which, yes, is extremely important, but it takes significantly more than that to address systemic and blatant racism in the work place.
I don't want what Black Buck is selling.
By page 9, I'd had enough of Askaripour's excessive use of metaphors, similes and shallow, unnatural dialogue between his characters. His repetitive jokes and sarcasm were laid on thick and never funny. Never. The word "fuck" appeared so many times in the first quarter of the book that it lost all impact. Read: A very obvious debut. Black Buck was not satirical, but sloppy.
Let's start with the main character, Darren, the titular Black Buck. The nickname Buck refers to his job at Starbucks, meant to degrade him, but it's a name he comes to own and associate with his success. The first half of Black Buck is an ego trip where any and everyone around Darren, including random strangers, tell him how amazing he is. On the one hand, Darren humbly questions his capabilities whenever someone tells him he deserves more or better. On the other, Darren is sometimes angry to the point of near violence when his skills are questioned. There are several instances throughout the story where Darren's thoughts and actions seem to be at odds; he comes across as disingenuous and untrustworthy, which I don't think was Askaripour's intention.
I never quite figured out why people believe in Darren anyway. Sure, he convinced Rhett, CEO of Sumwun, to switch one type of cold brew out for another, but that seems to be the extent of his talents in sales. Darren more or less lucks his way into situations that advance his career without really doing anything. He's truly mediocre.
As for the other characters, all are rooted in some kind of trope: the ailing single parent who wants their child to leave the nest in search of something more; the old men who don't realize no one else is laughing at their jokes; the jealous best friend from the hood who turns to a life of crime to make ends meet; the hotshot greedy exec with a one-track mind. And then there's Brian, a secondary character with Tourette's, specifically coprolalia where obscene language is unavoidable, who is used for comic relief. Not only does he shout all the names for genitalia at the top of his lungs, he is stereotypically nerdy, socially awkward, and acne-scarred. A severely overused joke in Black Buck in which Black people are compared to the celebrities white people think they resemble likens his face to Seal. Brian is a representation of the elementary school-level humor Black Buck is full of and a shining example of why Mateo Askaripour's debut novel failed: it is so over the top that it is ineffective in achieving everything it seeks out to be.
“I wrote this book so that anyone who reads it, especially Black and brown people, would be able to take away a few gems on how to advance their own lives and the lives of those who they love,” said Askaripour in an interview with Langston Collin Wilkins this month. Indeed "each one, teach one" becomes a major theme in Black Buck, but what does Darren, or this book, really teach anybody? After the 200-pages-too-many whirlwind of a story, I still can't say. But just about every attempt made to address racism, microaggressions and cultural appropriation saw me cringing. The message Askaripour wanted to portray was overshadowed by poor writing and plot execution, as well as his heavy-handed comedic touches.
For the first several chapters, the storytelling follows a painfully repetitive cycle of Darren's daily routines. Probably tired of copying and pasting, Askaripour eventually started to itemize those passages like a list. If that's not a sign your book needed another round of editing, I don't know what is. Things got really wild on page 68, where the book should have ended, because there's no way that anyone would have continued to work at a place where a company-sanctioned hate crime was carried out against them. "They forced me to rap, pulled some KKK tar-and-feather shit on me, and made me write on a board until my fingers bled." And yet, every morning Darren goes to work, completely accepting of racism being used as a learning tool for his success or as a cute cultural prop for white people. I couldn't figure out if Darren is meant to be a martyr for all the future black salesmen of America, taking the abuse so they wouldn't have to. Somehow, Rhett manages to sell Darren on a dream with a series of vague and blanketed statements, and that's enough for Darren to continue to bite his tongue and endure. A true idiot, considering he was the valedictorian of Bronx Science.
Darren becomes Rhett's right-hand man (friendly reminder that hotshot salesman Darren never really went on to sell much of anything besides coffee) and, when things go south at Sumwun, the company's Black poster child for diversity. If he wasn't feeling himself before, Darren is by this point, transforming from the sweet guy who learned Arabic to communicate with his girlfriend's father, to the guy from the hood that's suddenly too good for every body back home. And the transformation happens rather quickly, even before Darren has really proven himself, making the events which follow proceed too fast to feel real. After a series of back-to-back-to-back arguments with everyone in Bed-Stuy, Darren manages to shut those closest to him out of his life, including his ill mother.
If you guessed that Darren's descent into an asshole and NWA (Negotiator with Attitude, the culturally appropriated name given to his sales team at Sumwun) was going to culminate with a life-altering event that rocks his world, you were right. His mother passes away from lung cancer, which everyone but Darren knew she had, including myself. I guess he wasn't as suspicious of all the coughed up blood, fainting, and missed shifts at the chemical factory as I was. Heartbroken, Darren ends things with his girlfriend and kicks the grandfatherly tenant Mr. Rawlings out of his house for failing to disclose his mother's illness with him. Darren channels all of that grief into the sales pitch of a lifetime, saying absolutely nothing of substance to a very important, seemingly smart man who falls for it, and somehow goes on to save Sumwun from imminent bankruptcy. Darren's a star, he's someone, just like all of the random strangers on the street told him he'd be!
But he's also dead inside, having regular one night stands, hooked on coffee and coke, and plagued by nightmares about all of the people from his past life in Bed-Stuy. Needing to feel good about himself, Darren seeks out Brian and molds him into his image as a successful black salesman. Cue the makeover montage, but picture Brian selling an imaginary magazine subscription where white people dress in blackface, he gets beat up, and has the sudden confidence to pick up a girl in a bar despite two black eyes and his Seal-like face.
Subjecting himself to completely unnecessary humiliation, Brian somehow also becomes a master salesman. Then comes along
Black Buck also brings attention to the higher rates of incarceration and police violence against Black men. I found that especially interesting because one of Darren's teaching methods, what he refers to as "illegal homework," involves asking Black men and women to commit crimes and other questionable acts since it teaches "tone, confidence, and delivery." One such escapade leads to Brian being arrested and detained for a murder he didn't commit, another thing that happens to black men far too often. Askaripour trying to highlight these issues was ineffective when the main character, a Black man himself, has complete disregard for the consequences of encouraging criminal activity and little concern over Brian's well-being in jail. Admittedly, the only thing important to Darren at the time was making sure a job position is filled by one of his new recruits—failure to do so affected his bottom line. Though he promised to get Brian a lawyer, he did absolutely nothing to help, and turned his focus on training another recruit for the role. Juxtapose this with other conversations about Black men serving extended sentences for crimes they didn't commit, or those who go on to commit suicide when it seems no justice is in sight or as a result of traumatic experiences they endured in prison. Darren's nonchalance about Brian makes all of this extremely jarring. Brian's eventually released, and I expected him to be angry with Darren for abandoning him, but he is eternally grateful—just one of many characters in the story that idolizes Darren for no reason. Darren successfully gets the job position filled, again feeling good about himself for having "given back to the community", and he apologizes to his old friends in Bed-Stuy.
The Master Salesmen of None come to be known as the Happy Campers, an educational and recruitment agency for BIPOC with chapters around the globe. Darren's able to get more Black employees in the ranks of Sumwun while seeing upward mobility himself. His racist nemesis Clyde, responds to the growing diversity by founding the White United Society of Salespeople (yes, WUSS). A race war ensues, complete with modern-day slave auctions of homeless people, chants of "white lives matter," and the revelation that Clyde is a closeted gay man in an interracial relationship. Despite blatantly racist actions themselves, WUSS manages to convince the world that Happy Campers is an anti-white terrorist organization. To silence his lies, Clyde is kidnapped by the Happy Campers and waterboarded. This, of course, after much debate between the Happy Campers on whether or not to address the race war MLK-style or Malcolm X-style.
Things escalate quickly, but it doesn't end there: WUSS avenges Clyde by setting Darren's childhood home, now the Happy Campers HQ, on fire, killing Darren's Black assistant Trey, who has a comedic-crutch of a stutter. Trey ran back into the flames trying to save the object he treasured most: a photograph of him and Darren. I had to pause and laugh at the thought of someone idolizing Darren so much, they'd risk the flames just to save a photo of him! Trey is burned to a crisp, leaving nothing but a few shreds of sneaker behind. I shed no tears, but my eyes did roll.
When it's revealed that Darren is the leader behind the Happy Campers, Rhett no longer wants anything to do with him. "Making things about race" just isn't cool, but since diversity is "so hot" right now, Darren's final act as a Sumwun employee will be to speak about it at a conference. In what Askaripour describes as a modern-day lynching, Darren finds himself leading a room full of 5,001 pro-WUSS bigots through a 3-minute guided meditation where their hearts are softened ever so slightly and maybe, just maybe, they can tolerate a world where there's a BIPOC in the next cubicle over.
But because that wasn't a semi-decent enough place to end things, Askaripour shifts from Wolf of Wall Street meets Sorry to Bother You knock offs to John Singleton's Boyz n The Hood meets Park Chan-Wook's Vengeance Trilogy knock offs.
Darren does his best friend a favor by agreeing to sell cocaine for him after a drug deal gone wrong lands him in the hospital. There's a dramatic scene in which Darren tells his worried Senegalese personal chauffeur to "drive off and don't come back if I'm not out in 15 minutes,
Yep. I read 380 pages of what was ultimately a bromance/family revenge tale.
Using the footage they were able to obtain of Darren trading coke for cash, Trey and Clyde send Darren to prison, where he writes a book, THIS book, a guide for Black and brown people everywhere looking to better themselves through sales. Darren's closing remarks are actually a self-serving sales pitch for Askaripour himself: a request to wear the book out, reread your favorite passages, and buy new copies for your friends.
I'm fine, thanks.
Humor, exaggeration and societal commentary are the key ingredients to a successful satire. I've already said the humor was juvenile; I'm not sure what the target demographic was for jokes like "sharper than Michael Jackson's nose" or "colder than an Inuit's titty." Askaripour relied on humor so much that it became distracting and a likely contributor to Black Buck becoming an overly-exaggerated story that tripped over its own plot points. One of the most important topics, racism, was at times glossed over or mishandled, especially when we look at how Darren responded in those moments. He filled more seats with Black and brown people, which, yes, is extremely important, but it takes significantly more than that to address systemic and blatant racism in the work place.
November 12, 2020
My thoughts about this book were all over the map. It’s called satire, but it’s not the traditional laugh out loud satire. Other than a running joke in which every white person thinks Buck looks like a different famous black man, there’s not much to laugh about. Instead, it’s the tale of what happens when a young black man tries to emulate a successful white man and loses his soul.
Darren is happy working at Starbucks, waiting for the right opportunity. He gets that opportunity to work as a salesman at a startup company. It’s one of those high stress sales jobs, made more so as he’s the only black in the company. Given the nickname Buck, supposedly because he worked at Starbucks, he’s initially sympathetic, but then he drinks the kool aid and incorporates the lessons a little too well. Later, he finds his purpose again, as well as his freedom.
The book is written as a pseudo memoir/self help/sales manual, filled with lessons. The style works well.
I can’t say I really enjoyed this. I think appreciate is the better word. The last part of the book got too far fetched, although maybe not as much as I’d like to think given Trump and his supporters. For every part of this book that I liked - the depiction of the saleroom and the gonzo mentality, there were other parts that just fell flat.
My thanks to netgalley and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for an advance copy of this book.
January 5, 2021
A month ago, I’d never heard of Mateo Askaripour. Today I would buy anything from him.
This young debut author apparently polished his patter as director of sales at a tech start-up. Now he’s bounced off that success to produce an irresistible comic novel about the tenacity of racism in corporate America. “Black Buck,” which marks the launch of an effervescent new career, is alternately sly and sweet, a work of cultural criticism that laments and celebrates the power of money.
In a tradition stretching back to Ben Franklin, Askaripour positions this Bildungsroman as a self-help manual, but the book is cast with a distinct hue. Darren, the narrator, tells us, “I am a black man on a mission. No, I am a black salesman on a mission.” Writing from his penthouse overlooking Central Park, Darren wants only to give other Black people the tools they need to fulfill their dreams. The introduction is as American as Dale Carnegie, and the story that follows is periodically interrupted by habits of highly effective people who would make Stephen Covey proud:
Reader: Watch closely and take notes. Sales isn’t about talent, it’s about overcoming obstacles, beginning with yourself.
Depending on the light, the magical sheen of Askaripour’s prose can make those bits of homespun advice look wholly sincere or wickedly parodic. “Every day is deals day” for Darren, an ambitious Black man always working in two registers — playing along and the long game.
But when the story begins, Darren is. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
This young debut author apparently polished his patter as director of sales at a tech start-up. Now he’s bounced off that success to produce an irresistible comic novel about the tenacity of racism in corporate America. “Black Buck,” which marks the launch of an effervescent new career, is alternately sly and sweet, a work of cultural criticism that laments and celebrates the power of money.
In a tradition stretching back to Ben Franklin, Askaripour positions this Bildungsroman as a self-help manual, but the book is cast with a distinct hue. Darren, the narrator, tells us, “I am a black man on a mission. No, I am a black salesman on a mission.” Writing from his penthouse overlooking Central Park, Darren wants only to give other Black people the tools they need to fulfill their dreams. The introduction is as American as Dale Carnegie, and the story that follows is periodically interrupted by habits of highly effective people who would make Stephen Covey proud:
Reader: Watch closely and take notes. Sales isn’t about talent, it’s about overcoming obstacles, beginning with yourself.
Depending on the light, the magical sheen of Askaripour’s prose can make those bits of homespun advice look wholly sincere or wickedly parodic. “Every day is deals day” for Darren, an ambitious Black man always working in two registers — playing along and the long game.
But when the story begins, Darren is. . . .
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entert...
February 7, 2021
I finished this book days ago, but it took me a while to reason with my feelings about it. It’s unlike anything that I’ve read before and the audiobook was truly an experience, but there were some elements that didn’t work for me as a reader. 3.75 Stars rounded up to 4 Stars for GR
One of the most important things to recognize about Black Buck is that it is a satire. If you’re not a fan of satire’s this book may not be up your alley. Personally, I haven’t read many satirical works in my lifetime so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. The book itself focuses on Darren who is content working as a manager at Starbucks, living in brownstone in Bed-Stuy with his mother, and dating long-time girlfriend Soraya. It’s when he makes the decision to challenge a regular customer, Rhett, on his usually drink choice that his world takes an interesting turn. Darren then becomes “Buck” as he becomes employed and goes through this rough initiation process for Rhett’s company Sumwon. Unclear of the intentions of the company, it is surprising to watch Darren fully embrace his new persona and lose the closest things and people to him.
I’m going to be honest, the macro and micro-aggressions in this book are enough to make any Black person’s blood boil. And while they may seem exaggerated, there are so many Black individuals in corporate America that continuously deal with the same conflicts as Darren (I can’t bring myself to call him Buck). The intrigue in literally watching him sell his soul for the company had me on edge. In some ways it feels like psychological warfare. How could a Black man who knows that he’s dealing with passive-aggressive behavior, abuse, and racists managers and coworkers continue to go so hard for this company? But then I have to ask myself: in reality how many Black people have had to essentially sell themselves short and have lost family and friends just to make even close to the financial gains that their White counterparts make with ease? This is especially applicable in corporate America where “the rats race” is the name of the game. You do what you have to do to survive and while it’s ugly to watch, it’s reality. From the use of Darren to promote the company’s “efforts” on diversity and inclusion to saying that he reminds people of “insert any name of any famous Black man,” Askaripour does not shy away from making readers cringe (although I suspect Black readers will be floating between laughter and anger at behaviors that are reminiscent of what they see in their daily lives). Another interesting aspect of this book is that it is literally written as a cross between a sales manual and a memoir. It’s an instruction guide and really navigates the way in which Darren will conduct his life throughout the book. From joining the company to realizing that BIPOC people must create their own way. And when they do, expect White corporate America to be filled with rage.
Now as much as I enjoyed those specific elements of the book, I must admit that the second half of the book was a drag. Askaripour had a lot going in the first half, but the second half became too muddled with too many different elements. The book itself got away from him and he was attempting to do too much at once. Part of me understands the direction he was aiming for: some White people are bothered by the success of Black people, some White people won’t even be satisfied once Black people attempt to create their own spaces, “each one teach one” – Black people helping other Black people should always be our intention; however, it was too long and became just a tad bit on the unrealistic side. It was going in so many different directions that I, as a reader, began to question my interpretation of the novel. I found myself wishing that it would come to an end. And when I reached the very end, I was pissed. I was frustrated because it came across as no matter what Black people do they can’t win against a system that was designed to fail them from the beginning. It didn’t seem to fit the construct or the primary intention of the work as a whole. I’m not sure if it was intended to be a redemption arc (part of it felt that way); however, I didn’t buy into the way I should have because my attention was taken into so many different directions. Had this section of the text been more concise, I would have felt justified in giving it 4.5 stars or higher. Overall, I think that this was a solid read with fantastic storytelling. The message in this book is going to make some readers feel uncomfortable as it should. I haven’t had a book challenge me like this in a while. Part of me still doesn’t know what to think and part of me still feels like I need to read it again before the year is over with to make sure this is the rating I want to stick with. Interestingly enough, I’m anticipating what else Askaripour will offer the literary world.
One of the most important things to recognize about Black Buck is that it is a satire. If you’re not a fan of satire’s this book may not be up your alley. Personally, I haven’t read many satirical works in my lifetime so I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. The book itself focuses on Darren who is content working as a manager at Starbucks, living in brownstone in Bed-Stuy with his mother, and dating long-time girlfriend Soraya. It’s when he makes the decision to challenge a regular customer, Rhett, on his usually drink choice that his world takes an interesting turn. Darren then becomes “Buck” as he becomes employed and goes through this rough initiation process for Rhett’s company Sumwon. Unclear of the intentions of the company, it is surprising to watch Darren fully embrace his new persona and lose the closest things and people to him.
I’m going to be honest, the macro and micro-aggressions in this book are enough to make any Black person’s blood boil. And while they may seem exaggerated, there are so many Black individuals in corporate America that continuously deal with the same conflicts as Darren (I can’t bring myself to call him Buck). The intrigue in literally watching him sell his soul for the company had me on edge. In some ways it feels like psychological warfare. How could a Black man who knows that he’s dealing with passive-aggressive behavior, abuse, and racists managers and coworkers continue to go so hard for this company? But then I have to ask myself: in reality how many Black people have had to essentially sell themselves short and have lost family and friends just to make even close to the financial gains that their White counterparts make with ease? This is especially applicable in corporate America where “the rats race” is the name of the game. You do what you have to do to survive and while it’s ugly to watch, it’s reality. From the use of Darren to promote the company’s “efforts” on diversity and inclusion to saying that he reminds people of “insert any name of any famous Black man,” Askaripour does not shy away from making readers cringe (although I suspect Black readers will be floating between laughter and anger at behaviors that are reminiscent of what they see in their daily lives). Another interesting aspect of this book is that it is literally written as a cross between a sales manual and a memoir. It’s an instruction guide and really navigates the way in which Darren will conduct his life throughout the book. From joining the company to realizing that BIPOC people must create their own way. And when they do, expect White corporate America to be filled with rage.
Now as much as I enjoyed those specific elements of the book, I must admit that the second half of the book was a drag. Askaripour had a lot going in the first half, but the second half became too muddled with too many different elements. The book itself got away from him and he was attempting to do too much at once. Part of me understands the direction he was aiming for: some White people are bothered by the success of Black people, some White people won’t even be satisfied once Black people attempt to create their own spaces, “each one teach one” – Black people helping other Black people should always be our intention; however, it was too long and became just a tad bit on the unrealistic side. It was going in so many different directions that I, as a reader, began to question my interpretation of the novel. I found myself wishing that it would come to an end. And when I reached the very end, I was pissed. I was frustrated because it came across as no matter what Black people do they can’t win against a system that was designed to fail them from the beginning. It didn’t seem to fit the construct or the primary intention of the work as a whole. I’m not sure if it was intended to be a redemption arc (part of it felt that way); however, I didn’t buy into the way I should have because my attention was taken into so many different directions. Had this section of the text been more concise, I would have felt justified in giving it 4.5 stars or higher. Overall, I think that this was a solid read with fantastic storytelling. The message in this book is going to make some readers feel uncomfortable as it should. I haven’t had a book challenge me like this in a while. Part of me still doesn’t know what to think and part of me still feels like I need to read it again before the year is over with to make sure this is the rating I want to stick with. Interestingly enough, I’m anticipating what else Askaripour will offer the literary world.
March 2, 2021
Mateo Askaripour writes a biting satire on the state of the US corporate world and race, it unfortunately carries an all too real a depiction of the contemporary realities that it often makes for a deeply uncomfortable reading experience. The young, bright and black 22 year old Darren is reasonably content with his life as a barista at a busy Manhattan Starbucks, with his girlfriend, Soraya, although his mother thinks he should be aiming higher and do justice to his talents and abilities. Thinking that a customer of his would appreciate another drink more than his usual choice, Darren persuades him to change. The customer, Rhett Daniels, is a CEO of a tech start up, Sunwum, he is relentlessly determined that Darren should come work for him on his sales team, and Darren eventually agrees.
Darren joins the all white ambitious sales team, racist, aggressive, with its ruthless dog eat dog culture, undergoing a hell week of training in this hostile environment, and is called Buck, because of his Starbucks association, and exploited as the face of diversity for the company. Buck changes his entire personality to succeed at sales, shaping a new identity, transforming himself into becoming single minded, money driven, to become someone his family and friends no longer recognise. A tragedy, a loss, triggers a crisis within Buck, one which triggers an initiative to help and advise people of colour enter the American sales force. This is a powerful, well written, profound and thought provoking novel, presented in the style of a memoir, a self help sales manual, which works really well.
Askaripour's novel is funny, shocking and cringe worthy on occasions, full of twists and turns, and portrays many of the ghastly reasons why America struggles when it comes to employing a diverse work force. To be honest, it was a difficult read for me at times, but its core themes could not be more relevant in the American work place of today. Many thanks to John Murray Press for an ARC.
Darren joins the all white ambitious sales team, racist, aggressive, with its ruthless dog eat dog culture, undergoing a hell week of training in this hostile environment, and is called Buck, because of his Starbucks association, and exploited as the face of diversity for the company. Buck changes his entire personality to succeed at sales, shaping a new identity, transforming himself into becoming single minded, money driven, to become someone his family and friends no longer recognise. A tragedy, a loss, triggers a crisis within Buck, one which triggers an initiative to help and advise people of colour enter the American sales force. This is a powerful, well written, profound and thought provoking novel, presented in the style of a memoir, a self help sales manual, which works really well.
Askaripour's novel is funny, shocking and cringe worthy on occasions, full of twists and turns, and portrays many of the ghastly reasons why America struggles when it comes to employing a diverse work force. To be honest, it was a difficult read for me at times, but its core themes could not be more relevant in the American work place of today. Many thanks to John Murray Press for an ARC.
December 29, 2020
If I were a HS English teacher or a college English professor, I would assign this book to my class. I've been ruminating on this for a few days and I think now that I'm finally extracting my analysis and putting it into words I have much more of an appreciation for what this book is meant to do. What the author has accomplished here is pretty remarkable. The more non-POC who read books like this and supplement that with research and conversations from POC, we can work towards really trying to make things better. With that said, the skeptical part of me thinks that if you choose to read this then you're already trying (and maybe already willing to really look at how things are), but the more we can get books like this into the mainstream and into our classrooms or in front of young people who don't recognize this as their life - we can maybe, just maybe help open eyes that might have otherwise been closed.
While I was reading my rating was all over the map. After finishing it, I initially didn't like it. I told myself to stop being so old and out of touch. As I previously mentioned, it has taken me a few days to analyze this and while this is an extremely provocative book with a lot of extremes, I think there is a lot of value here. If you don't feel like you were just slapped in the face after reading it, then you're either too close to what this is about or you need to try reading it again. You should also feel really uncomfortable at times (at least I hope you do).
What I think worked in a lot of ways for me about this was that it was written as a sales manual. I liked how the narrator would talk to the reader and provide context on certain things that were happening to further illustrate a point. (The end was particularly clever.) What I was a little confused by was the rapid transformation of Buck. I felt his descent into vile behavior was a little too rapid and rushed, but I haven't seen much else about this from other reviews so it might have just been me.
I predict this book will be on a lot of lists next year and I hope it catapults Mr. Askaripour into the limelight. He has a lot of talent and I look forward to how his next book will challenge me too.
Thank you to Netgalley, Henry Holt & Co and Mateo Askaripour for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review.
Review Date: 12/29/2020
Publication Date: 01/05/2021
While I was reading my rating was all over the map. After finishing it, I initially didn't like it. I told myself to stop being so old and out of touch. As I previously mentioned, it has taken me a few days to analyze this and while this is an extremely provocative book with a lot of extremes, I think there is a lot of value here. If you don't feel like you were just slapped in the face after reading it, then you're either too close to what this is about or you need to try reading it again. You should also feel really uncomfortable at times (at least I hope you do).
What I think worked in a lot of ways for me about this was that it was written as a sales manual. I liked how the narrator would talk to the reader and provide context on certain things that were happening to further illustrate a point. (The end was particularly clever.) What I was a little confused by was the rapid transformation of Buck. I felt his descent into vile behavior was a little too rapid and rushed, but I haven't seen much else about this from other reviews so it might have just been me.
I predict this book will be on a lot of lists next year and I hope it catapults Mr. Askaripour into the limelight. He has a lot of talent and I look forward to how his next book will challenge me too.
Thank you to Netgalley, Henry Holt & Co and Mateo Askaripour for the opportunity to read and provide an honest review.
Review Date: 12/29/2020
Publication Date: 01/05/2021
January 8, 2021
Before reading the first word of Black Buck, close your eyes, breath deeply, then recite this definition to yourself:
Satire = The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
For if you don’t keep that definition in mind, this novel will be weighed down by its ridiculousness. The main character, Buck (so nicknamed because he worked at Starbucks), actually tells the reader repeatedly that his story is unbelievable. His story being that of a young black man who is plucked from his job making mochaccinos and thrust into the world of high-stakes sales at a New York tech startup.
The entire book is written from Buck’s first person perspective, including the Author’s Note at the beginning. There he writes, “I am a black salesman on a mission. And the point of this book - which I am writing from my penthouse overlooking Central Park - is to help other black men and women on a mission to sell their visions all the way to the top.” He’s not lying - the book is even written like a sales manual with specific tips on selling highlighted in bold for his readers.
And what if you’re not black, like this particular reader? He writes, “If you’re not black but have this book in your hands, I want you to think of yourself as an honorary black person.” If you can do that, and continue to bear in mind this is SATIRE, Black Buck is a heck of a fun read. Otherwise the plot and characters will seem too over the top and unrealistic. You need to set aside your “why’s” and “how’s” entirely. You’ll also need to excuse a lot of cringe-worthy analogies like, “colder than Jeffrey Dahmer’s freezer,” “drier than a nun’s vagina,” and “sharper than Michael Jackson’s nose.” (Groan.)
All things considered, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this debut is the January 2021 Read With Jenna book club selection. Devotees of her recommendations are in for a little something different, and I hope they’ll keep their minds open to the lessons Buck is trying to sell.
My thanks to Mateo Askaripour and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the opportunity to review an advance copy via NetGalley.
Satire = The use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
For if you don’t keep that definition in mind, this novel will be weighed down by its ridiculousness. The main character, Buck (so nicknamed because he worked at Starbucks), actually tells the reader repeatedly that his story is unbelievable. His story being that of a young black man who is plucked from his job making mochaccinos and thrust into the world of high-stakes sales at a New York tech startup.
The entire book is written from Buck’s first person perspective, including the Author’s Note at the beginning. There he writes, “I am a black salesman on a mission. And the point of this book - which I am writing from my penthouse overlooking Central Park - is to help other black men and women on a mission to sell their visions all the way to the top.” He’s not lying - the book is even written like a sales manual with specific tips on selling highlighted in bold for his readers.
And what if you’re not black, like this particular reader? He writes, “If you’re not black but have this book in your hands, I want you to think of yourself as an honorary black person.” If you can do that, and continue to bear in mind this is SATIRE, Black Buck is a heck of a fun read. Otherwise the plot and characters will seem too over the top and unrealistic. You need to set aside your “why’s” and “how’s” entirely. You’ll also need to excuse a lot of cringe-worthy analogies like, “colder than Jeffrey Dahmer’s freezer,” “drier than a nun’s vagina,” and “sharper than Michael Jackson’s nose.” (Groan.)
All things considered, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this debut is the January 2021 Read With Jenna book club selection. Devotees of her recommendations are in for a little something different, and I hope they’ll keep their minds open to the lessons Buck is trying to sell.
My thanks to Mateo Askaripour and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the opportunity to review an advance copy via NetGalley.
March 7, 2021
"Black Buck" by Mateo Askaripour is a mixture of Black & African American Literary Fiction and Satire.
Darren is the manager of a Starbucks in the lobby of a New York City high rise. He's happy with what he's doing. He's not really interested in doing anything else. Yeah! Life is good!
One morning on a whim, he teasingly entices a regular customer to step out of his comfort zone, to try something different, promising he'll absolutely love it! The customer is doubtful, but the result is surprisingly good!
His customer, Rhett Daniels is mostly impressed with Darren's 'will-not-take-no-for-an-answer' sales pitch! He extends an invitation to Darren to visit his tech startup company, Sumwun, on the 36th floor later that afternoon.
Darren goes upstairs, is fascinated with what he sees and accepts an unbelievable job offer! He also notices that he is the only black person on the 36th floor! Wow! They also call Darren "Buck" because he worked at Starbucks. Well. Okay. If you say so.....
When someone gives you an opportunity like Rhett is giving Darren, don't you take it? A chance to build your future and possibly change the world? In spite of how you're treated or how uncomfortable you feel?
Told in the first person voice of protagonist, Buck, it reads like a training manual. It's an unexpected format, making it fun in the way that most manuals aren't. And, it was the voice of the narrator, Zeno Robinson that brought all of this to life for me. He was Buck! What a spectacular job! Oh. My. Goodness!
Somewhat autobiographical! Mostly satirical. Very creative in the beginning. Great in the middle. It tipped over in the end with too much 'over-the-top' crazy stuff and I felt lost. I know. I know. It's a satire. Deep breathe!
The characters are not likeable. Their connections with one another are superficial and 'personal-agenda' focused. The story wanders way off course so, I believe, the characters wander, too! But who care's right? It's a satire....
I highly recommend this book to...well, everyone who can read! In a non-satirical form, this is mostly about real occurrences that take place everywhere, every day. We need to get better at not ignoring they happen or labeling them something they aren't and act on being better human beings to other human beings. Now. Period. The end.
3.5 stars rounded to 4 stars for a brilliant concept by this author. I can't wait to see what Mr. Askaripour comes up with next. I'll be here waiting!
Darren is the manager of a Starbucks in the lobby of a New York City high rise. He's happy with what he's doing. He's not really interested in doing anything else. Yeah! Life is good!
One morning on a whim, he teasingly entices a regular customer to step out of his comfort zone, to try something different, promising he'll absolutely love it! The customer is doubtful, but the result is surprisingly good!
His customer, Rhett Daniels is mostly impressed with Darren's 'will-not-take-no-for-an-answer' sales pitch! He extends an invitation to Darren to visit his tech startup company, Sumwun, on the 36th floor later that afternoon.
Darren goes upstairs, is fascinated with what he sees and accepts an unbelievable job offer! He also notices that he is the only black person on the 36th floor! Wow! They also call Darren "Buck" because he worked at Starbucks. Well. Okay. If you say so.....
When someone gives you an opportunity like Rhett is giving Darren, don't you take it? A chance to build your future and possibly change the world? In spite of how you're treated or how uncomfortable you feel?
Told in the first person voice of protagonist, Buck, it reads like a training manual. It's an unexpected format, making it fun in the way that most manuals aren't. And, it was the voice of the narrator, Zeno Robinson that brought all of this to life for me. He was Buck! What a spectacular job! Oh. My. Goodness!
Somewhat autobiographical! Mostly satirical. Very creative in the beginning. Great in the middle. It tipped over in the end with too much 'over-the-top' crazy stuff and I felt lost. I know. I know. It's a satire. Deep breathe!
The characters are not likeable. Their connections with one another are superficial and 'personal-agenda' focused. The story wanders way off course so, I believe, the characters wander, too! But who care's right? It's a satire....
I highly recommend this book to...well, everyone who can read! In a non-satirical form, this is mostly about real occurrences that take place everywhere, every day. We need to get better at not ignoring they happen or labeling them something they aren't and act on being better human beings to other human beings. Now. Period. The end.
3.5 stars rounded to 4 stars for a brilliant concept by this author. I can't wait to see what Mr. Askaripour comes up with next. I'll be here waiting!
March 8, 2021
4.5 stars, rounded up.
Wow, what a book. Black Buck , Mateo Askaripour's debut novel, is powerful, satirical, poignant, and so relevant.
Darren Vender isn’t unhappy with his life. He lives with his mother in a Bed-Stuy brownstone, works at a Starbucks in the lobby of a NYC office building, and loves spending time with his longtime girlfriend, Soraya. Maybe it’s not what one would expect from the 22-year-old former valedictorian of Bronx Science High School, but he’s fine with it, even if his mother wants more for him.
One day, feeling bored at work, he challenges a customer to step outside their comfort zone and order something different. This selling job wows the man, who happens to be the CEO of a tech startup in the building above the Starbucks, and he convinces Darren to come to work for him at his up-and-coming company, Sumwun.
What Darren finds at Sumwun is an almost cult-like environment, driven by pressure to close deals and make money. He’s the only Black person in the company and he definitely feels as if he’s treated differently, especially by the company’s ruthless sales manager. They call him “Buck,” because he worked at Starbucks, and that may be the least objectionable thing that happens.
After enduring an awful “hell week” of training, he decides to throw himself into this job fully, even if he’s not sure of the person he’s becoming, and he’s still experiencing significant racism from his coworkers, although no one wants to acknowledge it. When crises occur both professionally and personally, he has to decide what road to take—and what kind of a man he wants to be.
This book really packs a punch. It’s sly and satirical at times, while at others it can be shocking and provocative. Not everything that happens is believable—which was the one thing I struggled with a tiny bit—but this is built on an all-too-realistic core of the racism and mistreatment and discrimination faced by minorities in the workplace. It also deals with the divide between the person you are becoming and the person those in your life want you to be.
I thought Black Buck was so well-written and I couldn’t put it down. There were even some twists I wasn’t predicting. This is definitely going to be a book I’ll be thinking about for a long while, and I can’t wait to see what comes next for Askaripour.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Goodreads provided me with a complimentary copy of the book. Thanks for making it available!!
Check out my list of the best books I read in 2020 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2020.html.
Check out my list of the best books of the last decade at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2020/01/my-favorite-books-of-decade.html.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.
Wow, what a book. Black Buck , Mateo Askaripour's debut novel, is powerful, satirical, poignant, and so relevant.
Darren Vender isn’t unhappy with his life. He lives with his mother in a Bed-Stuy brownstone, works at a Starbucks in the lobby of a NYC office building, and loves spending time with his longtime girlfriend, Soraya. Maybe it’s not what one would expect from the 22-year-old former valedictorian of Bronx Science High School, but he’s fine with it, even if his mother wants more for him.
One day, feeling bored at work, he challenges a customer to step outside their comfort zone and order something different. This selling job wows the man, who happens to be the CEO of a tech startup in the building above the Starbucks, and he convinces Darren to come to work for him at his up-and-coming company, Sumwun.
What Darren finds at Sumwun is an almost cult-like environment, driven by pressure to close deals and make money. He’s the only Black person in the company and he definitely feels as if he’s treated differently, especially by the company’s ruthless sales manager. They call him “Buck,” because he worked at Starbucks, and that may be the least objectionable thing that happens.
After enduring an awful “hell week” of training, he decides to throw himself into this job fully, even if he’s not sure of the person he’s becoming, and he’s still experiencing significant racism from his coworkers, although no one wants to acknowledge it. When crises occur both professionally and personally, he has to decide what road to take—and what kind of a man he wants to be.
This book really packs a punch. It’s sly and satirical at times, while at others it can be shocking and provocative. Not everything that happens is believable—which was the one thing I struggled with a tiny bit—but this is built on an all-too-realistic core of the racism and mistreatment and discrimination faced by minorities in the workplace. It also deals with the divide between the person you are becoming and the person those in your life want you to be.
I thought Black Buck was so well-written and I couldn’t put it down. There were even some twists I wasn’t predicting. This is definitely going to be a book I’ll be thinking about for a long while, and I can’t wait to see what comes next for Askaripour.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and Goodreads provided me with a complimentary copy of the book. Thanks for making it available!!
Check out my list of the best books I read in 2020 at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2021/01/the-best-books-i-read-in-2020.html.
Check out my list of the best books of the last decade at https://itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com/2020/01/my-favorite-books-of-decade.html.
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Follow me on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/the.bookishworld.of.yrralh/.
December 7, 2021
Now a Goodreads Choice nominee in Fiction and Debut Novel!
This was an interesting book, pretty different from a lot of other things I’ve read. I normally don’t think much of the comp titles that marketing departments like to toss out there to help sell books, but the two from the synopsis, Sorry to Bother You and The Wolf of Wall Street were pitch-perfect to me!
I’ve seen some complaints about how this book is over the top and to those readers I say......that’s kind of the point. This is a satirical novel. It’s also about a topic that’s likely to be uncomfortable for the average white person to explore. Black Buck is not supposed to be a ‘realistic’ depiction, true to life in every single way, but I think that people who operate outside the world Mateo Askaripour is discussing would be surprised to learn how much is pulled from real life examples.
As for the story, it’s a little all over the place for me. I felt like I read multiple books back-to-back as opposed to one cohesive narrative. Black Buck is broken down into five parts, and where a couple feel like natural breaks in the story, others feel like a complete departure. I don’t want to put spoilers in this review, but there are some pivotal moments in the main character’s life that really change the dynamic of the story Askaripour is trying to tell, and not always for the better. Sometimes I think he struggled with exactly what this book was trying to be, and instead of making some difficult cuts he decided to just include everything.
I also didn’t love the ending. Not because it was bleak or I didn’t appreciate the point the author was trying to make, but because it didn’t feel as well thought out as the rest of the book. It features a character introduced at the eleventh hour as a mustache-twirling villain instead of letting the natural consequences of Buck’s actions lead him to that conclusion. I just think there was a way to accomplish the same things without cheapening the effect.
As a whole, though, I did like the book. The narrator of the audio version, Zeno Robinson, really brought the story to life. I’d recommend the audiobook to anyone who might be interested! And I’d recommend the book itself to anyone who’s interested in reading a searing debut about the intersection between the business world and race in America.
*Thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt & Netgalley for an advance copy!
**For more book talk & reviews, follow me on Instagram at @elle_mentbooks!
This was an interesting book, pretty different from a lot of other things I’ve read. I normally don’t think much of the comp titles that marketing departments like to toss out there to help sell books, but the two from the synopsis, Sorry to Bother You and The Wolf of Wall Street were pitch-perfect to me!
I’ve seen some complaints about how this book is over the top and to those readers I say......that’s kind of the point. This is a satirical novel. It’s also about a topic that’s likely to be uncomfortable for the average white person to explore. Black Buck is not supposed to be a ‘realistic’ depiction, true to life in every single way, but I think that people who operate outside the world Mateo Askaripour is discussing would be surprised to learn how much is pulled from real life examples.
As for the story, it’s a little all over the place for me. I felt like I read multiple books back-to-back as opposed to one cohesive narrative. Black Buck is broken down into five parts, and where a couple feel like natural breaks in the story, others feel like a complete departure. I don’t want to put spoilers in this review, but there are some pivotal moments in the main character’s life that really change the dynamic of the story Askaripour is trying to tell, and not always for the better. Sometimes I think he struggled with exactly what this book was trying to be, and instead of making some difficult cuts he decided to just include everything.
I also didn’t love the ending. Not because it was bleak or I didn’t appreciate the point the author was trying to make, but because it didn’t feel as well thought out as the rest of the book. It features a character introduced at the eleventh hour as a mustache-twirling villain instead of letting the natural consequences of Buck’s actions lead him to that conclusion. I just think there was a way to accomplish the same things without cheapening the effect.
As a whole, though, I did like the book. The narrator of the audio version, Zeno Robinson, really brought the story to life. I’d recommend the audiobook to anyone who might be interested! And I’d recommend the book itself to anyone who’s interested in reading a searing debut about the intersection between the business world and race in America.
*Thanks to Houghton Mifflin Harcourt & Netgalley for an advance copy!
**For more book talk & reviews, follow me on Instagram at @elle_mentbooks!
February 24, 2021
#10Books10Decades Entry #1 Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour
Satire is defined as the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Mateo Askaripour, the author of Black Buck, has been a bit reluctant to call his novel satire. He has been consistent in telling anyone who asks that his novel was written in earnest. Sure there are moments that can be considered satirical & even absurd, but absurdity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. He didn't want to hide behind the shield of satire. No protection necessary.
A dope position, but one still worthy of challenge, because when capitalism & racism intersect at a startup in New York—Where the protagonist is the only Black person in the ENTIRE company—you are bound to run into a reality worthy of ridicule. A reality that exposes vices & stupidity in the context of the contemporary issues of capitalism & whiteness.
Thus, the reality Darren Vender navigates in Black Buck is full of stupidity & vices that Askaripour used humor and irony to ridicule. It just so happens that the fourth tool in the definition, exaggeration, didn't need to be wielded by Askaripour. Capitalism & those who place maximum value on whiteness exaggerate themselves.
💰💰💰💰💰💰💰
Darren Vender, the aforementioned protagonist of Black Buck, is a 22 year old supervisor at Starbucks who has his life changed after he reverse closes Rhett Daniels, CEO of Sumwun, during a shift. Rhett offers him a job, he eventually accepts & his life never finds the "what" to turn down for afterward.
Readers understand quickly why Darren would rise to the top in the world of sales. Through him, Askaripour created a voice that is funny, original & fully human due to his contradictory nature of honest misleading.
Black Buck is novel of the workplace being worshipped. Responsibility & ambition. Obligations & Family. War & Karma. Reparations & a potential revolution.
A revolution that is being sold to you, over the phone, as a surreptitious way of getting your piece of the pie from the burning house.
Will you answer the call?
---------------------------------------------
Thank you so much to Mateo Askaripour for giving me 3 hours of his time in this wonderful IG Live. A moment that will be hard to top in 2021. The link is below!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CLf9ZJDFMG6/
This is my 2020s entry for the #10Books10Decades Challenge! I hope you're able to participate. Here is a link to the Challenge for your consideration.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJnNxP5gRME/
It was important for me to include Black Buck in the #10Books10Decades Challenge because Askaripour wrote this great piece called Toward an Expanded Canon of Black Literature for LitHub in 2019. It's nice to know there is an author who is just as motivated by the backlist, and expanding our canon, as I am. Please take a read!
https://lithub.com/toward-an-expanded...
Satire is defined as the use of humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices, particularly in the context of contemporary politics and other topical issues.
Mateo Askaripour, the author of Black Buck, has been a bit reluctant to call his novel satire. He has been consistent in telling anyone who asks that his novel was written in earnest. Sure there are moments that can be considered satirical & even absurd, but absurdity, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. He didn't want to hide behind the shield of satire. No protection necessary.
A dope position, but one still worthy of challenge, because when capitalism & racism intersect at a startup in New York—Where the protagonist is the only Black person in the ENTIRE company—you are bound to run into a reality worthy of ridicule. A reality that exposes vices & stupidity in the context of the contemporary issues of capitalism & whiteness.
Thus, the reality Darren Vender navigates in Black Buck is full of stupidity & vices that Askaripour used humor and irony to ridicule. It just so happens that the fourth tool in the definition, exaggeration, didn't need to be wielded by Askaripour. Capitalism & those who place maximum value on whiteness exaggerate themselves.
💰💰💰💰💰💰💰
Darren Vender, the aforementioned protagonist of Black Buck, is a 22 year old supervisor at Starbucks who has his life changed after he reverse closes Rhett Daniels, CEO of Sumwun, during a shift. Rhett offers him a job, he eventually accepts & his life never finds the "what" to turn down for afterward.
Readers understand quickly why Darren would rise to the top in the world of sales. Through him, Askaripour created a voice that is funny, original & fully human due to his contradictory nature of honest misleading.
Black Buck is novel of the workplace being worshipped. Responsibility & ambition. Obligations & Family. War & Karma. Reparations & a potential revolution.
A revolution that is being sold to you, over the phone, as a surreptitious way of getting your piece of the pie from the burning house.
Will you answer the call?
---------------------------------------------
Thank you so much to Mateo Askaripour for giving me 3 hours of his time in this wonderful IG Live. A moment that will be hard to top in 2021. The link is below!
https://www.instagram.com/p/CLf9ZJDFMG6/
This is my 2020s entry for the #10Books10Decades Challenge! I hope you're able to participate. Here is a link to the Challenge for your consideration.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJnNxP5gRME/
It was important for me to include Black Buck in the #10Books10Decades Challenge because Askaripour wrote this great piece called Toward an Expanded Canon of Black Literature for LitHub in 2019. It's nice to know there is an author who is just as motivated by the backlist, and expanding our canon, as I am. Please take a read!
https://lithub.com/toward-an-expanded...
January 10, 2021
Very torn on this satire. While it has the bravado of a Vonnegut and the keen eye for race of THE SELLOUT, the actual plot and prose are very broad. This isn't the same kind of satire we've seen from Paul Beatty or Maurice Carlos Ruffin, it's quite different in tone even if there are definitely similarities in topic.
The concept and the ideas are the strongest pieces here. I love the fictional-memoir-as-sales-manual gimmick and it's one of the best elements of the book. The constantly twisting turning plot only gets faster as the book zips along. And just when you think you know what it is, it goes in a totally different direction.
What threw me is how much this book feels like melodrama rather than satire. Everything is dialed up to the extreme. There is little room for nuance or character building, the dialogue is so basic it often feels like a bad movie. (There is also that thing I keep running into in otherwise interesting books by men where the nice girlfriend is constantly described by how hot and sexy she is and it fills me with rage every time, someone please make them stop.) The tone can work very well in the business and sales scenes, but outside of those settings not so much. I can't tell if this is a purposeful attempt for an over-the-top, a kind of hyper-realism, but if it is it didn't really work for me.
There are ideas and plot points in this book that are so good and funny but that don't get fully realized. And for a book that seems to want to say something about race and class, there's not a lot of attention given to the ethics of the selling that becomes so important to everyone. It's not just entering a heavily white (and heavily male) field, it's also entering a field known for predatory tactics and fuzzy ethics. Sometimes it looks like we might go there, but then we never fully do and it dulls the overall message for me.
But even with my reservations I kept wondering where Askaripour was going to take me and I was impressed with how big a swing this is and how at its brashest it's often at its best.
The concept and the ideas are the strongest pieces here. I love the fictional-memoir-as-sales-manual gimmick and it's one of the best elements of the book. The constantly twisting turning plot only gets faster as the book zips along. And just when you think you know what it is, it goes in a totally different direction.
What threw me is how much this book feels like melodrama rather than satire. Everything is dialed up to the extreme. There is little room for nuance or character building, the dialogue is so basic it often feels like a bad movie. (There is also that thing I keep running into in otherwise interesting books by men where the nice girlfriend is constantly described by how hot and sexy she is and it fills me with rage every time, someone please make them stop.) The tone can work very well in the business and sales scenes, but outside of those settings not so much. I can't tell if this is a purposeful attempt for an over-the-top, a kind of hyper-realism, but if it is it didn't really work for me.
There are ideas and plot points in this book that are so good and funny but that don't get fully realized. And for a book that seems to want to say something about race and class, there's not a lot of attention given to the ethics of the selling that becomes so important to everyone. It's not just entering a heavily white (and heavily male) field, it's also entering a field known for predatory tactics and fuzzy ethics. Sometimes it looks like we might go there, but then we never fully do and it dulls the overall message for me.
But even with my reservations I kept wondering where Askaripour was going to take me and I was impressed with how big a swing this is and how at its brashest it's often at its best.
March 23, 2021
Listen to the full review here: https://bookclubbed.buzzsprout.com/15...
If you read the summary, you can guess the story. The start-up company is intense, the white people are nuts, one of the white people stands in as the overtly racist asshole, and Darren struggles to adjust to the environment. Then he becomes successful and turns into the person he initially hated. It only gets worse from there.
The writing is fine (and by fine I mean bad). You can skim and not miss anything; no phrasing will make you stop and need to consider it. He has a breezy, humorous writing style, like talking to a friendly acquaintance who seems nice enough. However, the similes and metaphors are strained, the dialogue deteriorating as we race towards a convoluted ending.
Askaripour seemingly can’t find a tone he wants to write in. A satire requires commitment to magnification, a drama requires more depth from its characters, and a contemporary, humorous book requires, well, better jokes. What we’re left with is a mess.
This is a capital-I “issue” book, but is also positioned to be a best-seller, so let’s make sure the I-ssues hit you square in the face. The reader, it seems, must be infantilized before they are properly educated. We wouldn’t want anyone to miss the message so they are repeated, ad nauseum, in dialogue, scene, and narration. It is satire, of course, which can use hyperbole as a tool, but it still has to be clever or original to generate real satire, at least in my opinion.
Oddly, many reviews of this book mention “bite,” which I guess is contractually obligated to appear in the same sentence as “satire.” Unfortunately, the satire and humor in this book are completely muzzled.
Other than that, we have flat secondary characters that are almost offensively stereotypical: the old black man on the corner to give him advice, the sad-sack Tourette’s character, and the long-suffering girlfriend who just wants him to be his best self. Worst, his best friend suddenly turns into a drug dealer to wedge in the cautionary tale of “hey, this could have been me” in some of the most abrupt and worst characterization I’ve ever seen.
If you read Baldwin, Morrison, Hughes, Wright, Butler, Evans, Hurston, Walker, Ellison, or Haley, race is of course at the forefront, but they are actually telling stories. Paul Beatty is a much better example of modern satire. This might qualify as satire if you’ve never read satire before and just Googled it for a definition.
If you read the summary, you can guess the story. The start-up company is intense, the white people are nuts, one of the white people stands in as the overtly racist asshole, and Darren struggles to adjust to the environment. Then he becomes successful and turns into the person he initially hated. It only gets worse from there.
The writing is fine (and by fine I mean bad). You can skim and not miss anything; no phrasing will make you stop and need to consider it. He has a breezy, humorous writing style, like talking to a friendly acquaintance who seems nice enough. However, the similes and metaphors are strained, the dialogue deteriorating as we race towards a convoluted ending.
Askaripour seemingly can’t find a tone he wants to write in. A satire requires commitment to magnification, a drama requires more depth from its characters, and a contemporary, humorous book requires, well, better jokes. What we’re left with is a mess.
This is a capital-I “issue” book, but is also positioned to be a best-seller, so let’s make sure the I-ssues hit you square in the face. The reader, it seems, must be infantilized before they are properly educated. We wouldn’t want anyone to miss the message so they are repeated, ad nauseum, in dialogue, scene, and narration. It is satire, of course, which can use hyperbole as a tool, but it still has to be clever or original to generate real satire, at least in my opinion.
Oddly, many reviews of this book mention “bite,” which I guess is contractually obligated to appear in the same sentence as “satire.” Unfortunately, the satire and humor in this book are completely muzzled.
Other than that, we have flat secondary characters that are almost offensively stereotypical: the old black man on the corner to give him advice, the sad-sack Tourette’s character, and the long-suffering girlfriend who just wants him to be his best self. Worst, his best friend suddenly turns into a drug dealer to wedge in the cautionary tale of “hey, this could have been me” in some of the most abrupt and worst characterization I’ve ever seen.
If you read Baldwin, Morrison, Hughes, Wright, Butler, Evans, Hurston, Walker, Ellison, or Haley, race is of course at the forefront, but they are actually telling stories. Paul Beatty is a much better example of modern satire. This might qualify as satire if you’ve never read satire before and just Googled it for a definition.
July 4, 2022
Reader: Watch closely and take notes. Sales isn’t about talent, it’s about overcoming obstacles, beginning with yourself.Four years after graduating as valedictorian of Bronx Science, Darren Vender is a Starbucks shift supervisor who has failed to live up to his potential. Until one day when he impresses the CEO of a tech start-up and gets hired as a sales person. Soon, he’s rocketing up the corporate ladder while struggling to hang on to who he is at heart and to the friends and family who knew him when.
...
Every day is deals day.
...
It’s the duty of every man and woman who has achieved some success in life to pass it on, because when we’re gone, what matters most isn’t what we were able to attain but who we were able to help.
Black Buck is a satire and—it bears saying because it’s not always true—a very funny one, even when the satire is completely over-the-top. The incorporation of real-life sales tips throughout the novel, directly addressing the reader as if you’re reading a self-help book, is interesting and effective. The story moves very fast, and is surprisingly unpredictable. At least three times during the novel, just when you think you know where the story is going, it changes course and goes off into an unexpected direction. Darren/Buck is an interesting character and narrator. And the writing is laser sharp throughout (“I didn’t want him to know anything about me. He reeked of privilege, Rohypnol, and tax breaks”).
More importantly, Black Buck is a satire with a lot to say. About race and racism, both subtle (the running joke that every white person tells Buck he looks like a different famous black person) and not-so-subtle. About how corporate culture handles and often mishandles race and diversity. About the costs and difficulty of assimilation. About how privilege works, and the utter nonsense that is “reverse racism.”
So please allow me to close this review as Darren would close a sales pitch: Black Buck is getting a world of hype for a reason. Pick up a copy and give it a try. If you don’t enjoy the first few chapters, you can just set it down and part as friends. Sound fair?
February 3, 2021
Darren is content working as the shift supervisor at Starbucks located in a corporate NYC office building. He’s worked there for 4 years, lives at home with his mom, and has a girlfriend. One day Darren persuades a customer to change his typical drink order and the customer, Rhett, is impressed. He invites Darren to come work at Sumwun, his startup company located upstairs. Eventually Darren agrees, beginning his new career.
Hell Week is rough for Darren — His mock calls are highly criticized and the stark white culture and blatant racism at Sumwun are apparent at every turn. His coworkers begin to call him “Buck” because of his former job and though things start out rocky, he does hit his stride in sales. Buck let’s this new confidence go to his head and affect his life outside of work.
After suffering a major loss and recognizing his success, Buck decides to create a hands-on training program to help Black people succeed in the world of sales. This anonymous network soars in popularity, first in the NYC startup community, then beyond, and Buck’s core group faces challenges as they look to disrupt this space.
I knew before starting Black Buck this book was labeled as satire, a style I (more often than not) have difficulty connecting with. I thought the story started out interesting. It lost some momentum and some of my interest toward the middle — Some major aspects including Buck’s loss were hastily brushed over yet he would get emotional about the bro culture at Sumwun when he was in a perpetually hostile environment — I know this is a fictional story and disappointingly, there are work cultures like this. I wish the story would have addressed it directly. While this book won’t make my favorites list, I would read more by Mateo Askaripour.
Hell Week is rough for Darren — His mock calls are highly criticized and the stark white culture and blatant racism at Sumwun are apparent at every turn. His coworkers begin to call him “Buck” because of his former job and though things start out rocky, he does hit his stride in sales. Buck let’s this new confidence go to his head and affect his life outside of work.
After suffering a major loss and recognizing his success, Buck decides to create a hands-on training program to help Black people succeed in the world of sales. This anonymous network soars in popularity, first in the NYC startup community, then beyond, and Buck’s core group faces challenges as they look to disrupt this space.
I knew before starting Black Buck this book was labeled as satire, a style I (more often than not) have difficulty connecting with. I thought the story started out interesting. It lost some momentum and some of my interest toward the middle — Some major aspects including Buck’s loss were hastily brushed over yet he would get emotional about the bro culture at Sumwun when he was in a perpetually hostile environment — I know this is a fictional story and disappointingly, there are work cultures like this. I wish the story would have addressed it directly. While this book won’t make my favorites list, I would read more by Mateo Askaripour.
February 10, 2021
I really enjoyed Black Buck. Buck is a great character that works hard to become successful. He also mentors and starts a group to help young blacks get the skills necessary to get better jobs. I enjoyed how hard Buck worked and found it interesting how he changed as he became more successful. This is an interesting portrayal of how people change when they earn more money and success isn’t always a good thing. Black Buck discusses important race issues. Buck was never accepted by some of his coworkers and used as the face of diversity when it was helpful to his company. Black Buck is a great story which does a great job of portraying race issues.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Zeno Robinson and thought he did an excellent job. Zeno was the perfect voice for Buck. Some of the language was difficult to hear in audio but how much I enjoyed the rest of the narration made up for that.
Thank you Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Blackstone Publishing, Libro.fm and NetGalley for Black Buck.
Full Review: https://justreadingjess.wordpress.com...
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Zeno Robinson and thought he did an excellent job. Zeno was the perfect voice for Buck. Some of the language was difficult to hear in audio but how much I enjoyed the rest of the narration made up for that.
Thank you Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Blackstone Publishing, Libro.fm and NetGalley for Black Buck.
Full Review: https://justreadingjess.wordpress.com...
February 20, 2021
So... lots of people are raving about this book and it probably does deserve all much of the hype it's getting. It's a clever take on racism, especially in the workplace.
Buck is a young Black man working at Starbucks. He's content with the way life is and not very driven to do more. Then this white guy named Rhett convinces him to interview for a job at a startup called Sumwun.
Buck does and is the first Black person to work for Sumwun. Just about every white person there, upon meeting Buck, tells him how much he looks like a famous Black person... a different one each time (of course). They want him to perform for them like he's in some present day minstrel show. Some of them talk in a stereotypical way to him. Really, they're a bunch of assholes.
I cringed even as I chuckled and it drove me crazy how Buck felt like he couldn't call them out and had to keep his justified anger inside. However, I also understand that he was in a position, as most Black people are, where he couldn't call out the racism without being punished.
Indeed, when Buck does speak up, he's accused of being a "reverse racist" (hint to white people: there's no such thing).
I love the way the author teaches about racism and microagressions and stupid shit white people do and say.
My problem with this novel is all the dialogue. I cannot stand a lot of dialogue. Usually when there's this much talking, I DNF. However, I was drawn in by Mr. Askaripour's satirical style and kept reading.
I ended up skimming much of the dialogue; at times I felt like I was reading a play. However, the parts written in narrative form captured me.
Those who don't mind dialogue will probably enjoy this more than I did. It was entertaining and I appreciate learning more about the ways in which racism manifests itself. Buck was a likable character (even though he let success turn him into an asshat for a while).
All in all, a partially enjoyable read. Witty and clever and at times hilarious, it's a brilliant way to teach about racism.
Buck is a young Black man working at Starbucks. He's content with the way life is and not very driven to do more. Then this white guy named Rhett convinces him to interview for a job at a startup called Sumwun.
Buck does and is the first Black person to work for Sumwun. Just about every white person there, upon meeting Buck, tells him how much he looks like a famous Black person... a different one each time (of course). They want him to perform for them like he's in some present day minstrel show. Some of them talk in a stereotypical way to him. Really, they're a bunch of assholes.
I cringed even as I chuckled and it drove me crazy how Buck felt like he couldn't call them out and had to keep his justified anger inside. However, I also understand that he was in a position, as most Black people are, where he couldn't call out the racism without being punished.
Indeed, when Buck does speak up, he's accused of being a "reverse racist" (hint to white people: there's no such thing).
I love the way the author teaches about racism and microagressions and stupid shit white people do and say.
My problem with this novel is all the dialogue. I cannot stand a lot of dialogue. Usually when there's this much talking, I DNF. However, I was drawn in by Mr. Askaripour's satirical style and kept reading.
I ended up skimming much of the dialogue; at times I felt like I was reading a play. However, the parts written in narrative form captured me.
Those who don't mind dialogue will probably enjoy this more than I did. It was entertaining and I appreciate learning more about the ways in which racism manifests itself. Buck was a likable character (even though he let success turn him into an asshat for a while).
All in all, a partially enjoyable read. Witty and clever and at times hilarious, it's a brilliant way to teach about racism.
January 17, 2021
So, “Black Buck” is billed as a satirical novel about racism, and I agree, there’s much satire in this amazing novel. While reading it, and after reading it, I took pause. Author Mateo Askaripour packs so much into his novel, and the racism…. oh my…it’s horrifying yet he writes it in such a clever way, many times cringe-worthy, that I had to admit to myself that yes, this crap happens and most likely is STILL happening! With satire and humor, Askaripour creates a message that is profound and for me, eye-opening (without being dogmatic).
But it’s not just a satirical story. It’s a sales manual…yep, he offers little tidbits along the way on how to be a successful salesperson. For example:
“Every great salesperson has to go through tough times in order to find out what they’re made of. The best thing to do is to try to come out as unscathed as possible but to never forget the experience. Pain is a powerful teacher.”
And
“Contrary to popular belief, fairness has no place in sales. It’s not a meritocracy. Every salesperson comes into the game with a different set of advantages and disadvantages, but it’s knowing how to double-down on what makes you special that will help you get ahead.”
Now, these gems are sprinkled throughout the novel; they do not serve as the main piece. However, these gems add depth to his story. And Askaripour knows what he’s talking about because he went to NYU with the intention of getting a career in startup sales and eventually owning his own company. He did become director of sales at his company, similar to the narrator.
Where does the title come from? I mean, it’s sounds racist to me. Well, the protagonist, an earnest and kind Darren, is a manager at a NYC Starbucks. He graduated valedictorian in his high school, lives with his mom in a brownstone in Brooklyn, has a long time girlfriend is and is regular kind guy. After an odd encounter with an entrepreneur, Darren is hired to work in sales for a start-up. He’s the lone black employee and the director of sales decides to name him Black Buck because he came from Starbucks. Yikes. And often, upon meeting a colleague, he’s asked, “has anyone ever told you that you look like (insert known black man)? He’s been told he looks like Malcom X; Sidney Portier, Dave Chappelle, and the list goes on. Askaripour has stated that most of his parody is for Black people, as inside jokes. As a white woman, I blanched because I could imagine it as reality.
I found this story to be original and creative. I loved the satirical elements. I cringed for the narrator and rooted for him. I hope Askaripour pens more work.
But it’s not just a satirical story. It’s a sales manual…yep, he offers little tidbits along the way on how to be a successful salesperson. For example:
“Every great salesperson has to go through tough times in order to find out what they’re made of. The best thing to do is to try to come out as unscathed as possible but to never forget the experience. Pain is a powerful teacher.”
And
“Contrary to popular belief, fairness has no place in sales. It’s not a meritocracy. Every salesperson comes into the game with a different set of advantages and disadvantages, but it’s knowing how to double-down on what makes you special that will help you get ahead.”
Now, these gems are sprinkled throughout the novel; they do not serve as the main piece. However, these gems add depth to his story. And Askaripour knows what he’s talking about because he went to NYU with the intention of getting a career in startup sales and eventually owning his own company. He did become director of sales at his company, similar to the narrator.
Where does the title come from? I mean, it’s sounds racist to me. Well, the protagonist, an earnest and kind Darren, is a manager at a NYC Starbucks. He graduated valedictorian in his high school, lives with his mom in a brownstone in Brooklyn, has a long time girlfriend is and is regular kind guy. After an odd encounter with an entrepreneur, Darren is hired to work in sales for a start-up. He’s the lone black employee and the director of sales decides to name him Black Buck because he came from Starbucks. Yikes. And often, upon meeting a colleague, he’s asked, “has anyone ever told you that you look like (insert known black man)? He’s been told he looks like Malcom X; Sidney Portier, Dave Chappelle, and the list goes on. Askaripour has stated that most of his parody is for Black people, as inside jokes. As a white woman, I blanched because I could imagine it as reality.
I found this story to be original and creative. I loved the satirical elements. I cringed for the narrator and rooted for him. I hope Askaripour pens more work.
December 20, 2023
Wow, what a ride of a novel. This one reminded me a lot of
Disorientation
by Elaine Hsieh Chou in terms of how it used satire to make a point. In Black Buck, we follow 22-year-old Darren who’s initially content working as a barista, until he gets an offer to join a fancy tech startup in Manhattan. He’s the only Black person in the company and soon enough starts believing in its mission enough to sell the startup’s promise himself. When things in his personal life take a dark turn, he devises a plan to recruit other young Black people to infiltrate America’s sale force, with devastating repercussions.
I think this novel does a fantastic job of raising important, timely questions: what are the personal, moral, and relational costs of advancing in a predominantly white workforce? Is there a way to advance in a capitalistic society that doesn’t involve dehumanization or exploitation? While the tone and execution of Black Buck is very much a satire, Mateo Askaripour conveys the real and serious themes of race and labor underlying all of the novel’s chaos. Like Chou’s in Disorientation, Askaripour’s writing is fluid and entertaining enough to keep folks flipping the pages even as the plot devolves further into absurdity as the story progresses.
A unique novel. Similar to how I felt with Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, I think it can be hard to feel a deep emotional connection to characters when they’re clearly being used to convey a broader social message within a satire. Still, I liked reading Black Buck and can see it stimulating complex conversations.
I think this novel does a fantastic job of raising important, timely questions: what are the personal, moral, and relational costs of advancing in a predominantly white workforce? Is there a way to advance in a capitalistic society that doesn’t involve dehumanization or exploitation? While the tone and execution of Black Buck is very much a satire, Mateo Askaripour conveys the real and serious themes of race and labor underlying all of the novel’s chaos. Like Chou’s in Disorientation, Askaripour’s writing is fluid and entertaining enough to keep folks flipping the pages even as the plot devolves further into absurdity as the story progresses.
A unique novel. Similar to how I felt with Yellowface by R.F. Kuang, I think it can be hard to feel a deep emotional connection to characters when they’re clearly being used to convey a broader social message within a satire. Still, I liked reading Black Buck and can see it stimulating complex conversations.
May 12, 2021
TWISTS AND TURNS GOT ME TRIPPIN
Discussed in my April Wrap Up Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWZJ3...
A black man called Darren or 'Buck' is rising through the ranks of the corporate world. I love how Buck has these internal struggles with himself thinking "I'm still a good person -right?" and it was really interesting to follow him on that journey.
Thought this book would be predictable but the story is put across in such a unique way and breaks the fourth wall.
For a debut novel the quality of writing was awesome - really excited to see what Mateo Askaripour comes out with next!
4.5 stars
Discussed in my April Wrap Up Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWZJ3...
A black man called Darren or 'Buck' is rising through the ranks of the corporate world. I love how Buck has these internal struggles with himself thinking "I'm still a good person -right?" and it was really interesting to follow him on that journey.
Thought this book would be predictable but the story is put across in such a unique way and breaks the fourth wall.
For a debut novel the quality of writing was awesome - really excited to see what Mateo Askaripour comes out with next!
4.5 stars
February 18, 2021
I want to preface this by saying that there are three things that are typically guaranteed to lower a book’s rating for me:
1. Black women being represented as matronly, inherently masculine or undesirable while other women are treated as the dream or the prize.
2. Books that are far longer than necessary or take too long to get to the point.
3. Half-baked plot twists
This book contained all of the above. Although I appreciate the story for talking about the rise of a black man in a corporate setting and showing his determination for helping other POC, the style of storytelling was completely lost on me. Maybe satire just isn’t my cup of tea, but I would’ve still given the book at least 3 stars had it not been for the above reasons. I also hated the fact that the prologue states that “any white person who has this book should consider themselves an honorary black person” and suggested they should “choose a black name like Jamal” (um... what?). I know the book was going for satire but so many parts made me cringe and this was the first of many - in fairness I probably should’ve stopped there.
The story was about a guy who takes an opportunity to improve his quality of life by taking a job at a sketchy tech start up. The micro aggressions aimed at him for being the only POC start immediately and the story follows his rise to success and what it does to/for the people around him. I’ll be honest, I was slightly bored by the plot summary I read prior to indulging by there had been a lot of hype around it so I took the plunge. Much was predictable, some insensitive and some parts made the novel disjointed and very hard to persevere through. I just didn’t enjoy it.
I do think the story had potential, I just felt that at least 1/4 of it needed to be edited out. I can see why some liked the book for the sales and life advice, or even for the social justice points made throughout, but I struggled the entire time for many reasons. Because I blame myself for finishing what I knew early on wasn’t meant for me, I’m rounding my 1.5 star rating up to 2.
1. Black women being represented as matronly, inherently masculine or undesirable while other women are treated as the dream or the prize.
2. Books that are far longer than necessary or take too long to get to the point.
3. Half-baked plot twists
This book contained all of the above. Although I appreciate the story for talking about the rise of a black man in a corporate setting and showing his determination for helping other POC, the style of storytelling was completely lost on me. Maybe satire just isn’t my cup of tea, but I would’ve still given the book at least 3 stars had it not been for the above reasons. I also hated the fact that the prologue states that “any white person who has this book should consider themselves an honorary black person” and suggested they should “choose a black name like Jamal” (um... what?). I know the book was going for satire but so many parts made me cringe and this was the first of many - in fairness I probably should’ve stopped there.
The story was about a guy who takes an opportunity to improve his quality of life by taking a job at a sketchy tech start up. The micro aggressions aimed at him for being the only POC start immediately and the story follows his rise to success and what it does to/for the people around him. I’ll be honest, I was slightly bored by the plot summary I read prior to indulging by there had been a lot of hype around it so I took the plunge. Much was predictable, some insensitive and some parts made the novel disjointed and very hard to persevere through. I just didn’t enjoy it.
I do think the story had potential, I just felt that at least 1/4 of it needed to be edited out. I can see why some liked the book for the sales and life advice, or even for the social justice points made throughout, but I struggled the entire time for many reasons. Because I blame myself for finishing what I knew early on wasn’t meant for me, I’m rounding my 1.5 star rating up to 2.
January 30, 2021
Audiobook... read by Zeno Robinson (excellent voice personality)
As for this book... itself...
my feelings are mixed.
My funny bone has limitations.
Satire mixed with corporate America, racism, climbing the mountain, white supremacy, a mother, a girlfriend, friends, a sad loss, and the *humor*
fizzled out on me. The fire just went out....
— with an ending that left me feeling very bleak.
It started out with a fun refreshing bang....( especially loved the gifted audiobook reader)...
but then I took a nose dive into the lagging hole.
My interest was dwindling...
But.....
THEN.....
a surprise ending left me sad....
and honestly I felt a little manipulated.
All that said...I do wish the author joy and success with this book... which it looks like he is getting.
As for this book... itself...
my feelings are mixed.
My funny bone has limitations.
Satire mixed with corporate America, racism, climbing the mountain, white supremacy, a mother, a girlfriend, friends, a sad loss, and the *humor*
fizzled out on me. The fire just went out....
— with an ending that left me feeling very bleak.
It started out with a fun refreshing bang....( especially loved the gifted audiobook reader)...
but then I took a nose dive into the lagging hole.
My interest was dwindling...
But.....
THEN.....
a surprise ending left me sad....
and honestly I felt a little manipulated.
All that said...I do wish the author joy and success with this book... which it looks like he is getting.
January 17, 2021
[4+] Sold! It is a thrill to read a novel that leads me into new territory. Biting, absurd, over-the-top, right-on-target, Black Buck repeatedly surprised me. It also angered me, dismayed me and delighted me. My feelings about Buck, a young black man trying to succeed in a racist company, frequently vacillated as he continually transformed himself.
I recommend the excellent audiobook, read by Zeno Robinson.
I recommend the excellent audiobook, read by Zeno Robinson.
May 2, 2021
This wasn’t really for me. But 2 stars seems a bit low. I found most of it sort of cliche and cheesy. A lot happened at fast rate a lot of which was also pretty unrealistic and unbelievable.
February 20, 2021
This book started out really strong for me but fell flat. I didn’t like any of the characters, especially Buck/Darren. The cover was beautiful! This book just was not for me.
It reminded me of the movie Boiler Room with the sales culture mixed with a lot of racism and micro aggressions.
It reminded me of the movie Boiler Room with the sales culture mixed with a lot of racism and micro aggressions.
January 31, 2022
Im at a lost for words, truly. I have no clue what to rate this book, and what to even say. This book has two major ending plot twist, one that I smelled a mile away and the other I was very shocked about. This book is SO engaging, and will keep you reading the entire time. But the SJW :/ in me can't help but have critiques of the thesis of the book. Buck, is trying to help black people achieve their dreams and he is DEEPLY obsessed with white supremacist structures and "mastering" them therefore he seems to be telling people by mastering them they can become free. That is just untrue. White supremacy always wins. And this books ending proves that, yet it doesn't seem to want you to draw that conclusion. Buck is still a loser and I do not see him as martyr at all. Just a black man who got bamboozled and thought he was more powerful than he was. But he is so delusional even he doesn't see that in the end he thinks he's "free".
November 1, 2020
“An opportunity means change. And opportunity means actions. But most of all, an opportunity means the chance of failure. And it’s the potential for failure, more than failure itself, that stops so many people from beginning anything.”
I started out really enjoying this book because I liked the main character, Darren, who gets the nickname Buck at a start-up company where he is the only black person. But then Buck becomes a person I disliked immensely, one of those sleazy salespeople that is a stereotype. Thus, a large portion of this book was hard to read because he treated people so terribly.
I also didn’t love the ending. While there is definitely humor in this novel, it’s not an easy read.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book, which RELEASES JANUARY 5TH, 2021.
I started out really enjoying this book because I liked the main character, Darren, who gets the nickname Buck at a start-up company where he is the only black person. But then Buck becomes a person I disliked immensely, one of those sleazy salespeople that is a stereotype. Thus, a large portion of this book was hard to read because he treated people so terribly.
I also didn’t love the ending. While there is definitely humor in this novel, it’s not an easy read.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book, which RELEASES JANUARY 5TH, 2021.
March 17, 2021
I finally read and listened to Black Buck! Now I see what everyone is talking about! If you are looking for a book that will make your laugh until your sides hurt, this is it! Black Buck is a witty satire and commentary on race and work in the US.
Written as a memoir/sales manual (I loved this format!), Black Buck is Darren’s story (he is nicknamed Buck). He has been working at Starbucks when he lands a sales job in a startup. He looks at this as an opportunity to make his mom proud. Darren’s journey isn’t an easy one once he begins working at SumWun. He has to fight far harder than his white colleagues for promotions and acknowledgements. Not only that, he’ll also be ridiculed and put down over and over again. Darren never gives up, though. He puts everything he has into his own survival at the company.
Black Buck offers so much for us to think about it in a perspective and voice from which I needed to hear. The messages are important, and I’m grateful to see this one receiving well-deserved buzz because we need more stories and voices like this.
I wish the author had not chosen to use the R word and on multiple occasions, too.
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
Written as a memoir/sales manual (I loved this format!), Black Buck is Darren’s story (he is nicknamed Buck). He has been working at Starbucks when he lands a sales job in a startup. He looks at this as an opportunity to make his mom proud. Darren’s journey isn’t an easy one once he begins working at SumWun. He has to fight far harder than his white colleagues for promotions and acknowledgements. Not only that, he’ll also be ridiculed and put down over and over again. Darren never gives up, though. He puts everything he has into his own survival at the company.
Black Buck offers so much for us to think about it in a perspective and voice from which I needed to hear. The messages are important, and I’m grateful to see this one receiving well-deserved buzz because we need more stories and voices like this.
I wish the author had not chosen to use the R word and on multiple occasions, too.
I received a gifted copy.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com and instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
January 24, 2021
Black Buck
Ambitious, Promising, Satire, Dark Humor
First off, if you want to read this book or still deciding, please have an open mind, this is going to be a wild ride, and if you are not familiar with satire , please do have a little research about it, it's going to affect your reading experience.
Darren (Buck) is an unambitious 22 year old valedictorian who works at Starbucks, and he is pretty fine with it, but his mother however really push him to go out there and show them what he's got. He encountered a white man Rhett Daniels who offered him a job on a company Sumwun, Darren accepted the offer. He didnt like it because he is the only black man in the company, but he accepted it anyway for his own mother, to make his mother proud.. but was it all worth it, could this be the way to Darren's success or will it drags him down and make him forgot where he came from and who he really is. Is he ready for the big change?
Black Buck is a story about racism, racism in a corporate America, White Privileges, Racial Injustice, Freedom, Decisions, And of course The American Dream.
Black Buck starts really good, really promising but it kind of went off the rails. I loved how it starts, the characters are really likable but as I continue reading, i find it so different, so ridiculous, especially near the end.
Sometimes other parts got disjointed from the main topic of the book. I find it really hard to keep up.
The good thing is it didn't fail to convey clearly and properly its purpose and its themes and lessons and everything that the author wants the reader to know. This book is a satire, which a genre that I'm not familiar of. is this supposed to be funny-sarcastic or something? . I read this really seriously. The denouement is fine, satisfying, the transformation of Darren to Buck as a human being, as a salesman, as a man, is really good. But it's expeditiously written. But acceptable.
I didn't like it that much. It's a good book, but it's not the book I expected but still it's a good read.
Thank you Mateo Askaripour, The Publisher, and Netgalley for a copy to review.
Ambitious, Promising, Satire, Dark Humor
First off, if you want to read this book or still deciding, please have an open mind, this is going to be a wild ride, and if you are not familiar with satire , please do have a little research about it, it's going to affect your reading experience.
Darren (Buck) is an unambitious 22 year old valedictorian who works at Starbucks, and he is pretty fine with it, but his mother however really push him to go out there and show them what he's got. He encountered a white man Rhett Daniels who offered him a job on a company Sumwun, Darren accepted the offer. He didnt like it because he is the only black man in the company, but he accepted it anyway for his own mother, to make his mother proud.. but was it all worth it, could this be the way to Darren's success or will it drags him down and make him forgot where he came from and who he really is. Is he ready for the big change?
Black Buck is a story about racism, racism in a corporate America, White Privileges, Racial Injustice, Freedom, Decisions, And of course The American Dream.
Black Buck starts really good, really promising but it kind of went off the rails. I loved how it starts, the characters are really likable but as I continue reading, i find it so different, so ridiculous, especially near the end.
Sometimes other parts got disjointed from the main topic of the book. I find it really hard to keep up.
The good thing is it didn't fail to convey clearly and properly its purpose and its themes and lessons and everything that the author wants the reader to know. This book is a satire, which a genre that I'm not familiar of. is this supposed to be funny-sarcastic or something? . I read this really seriously. The denouement is fine, satisfying, the transformation of Darren to Buck as a human being, as a salesman, as a man, is really good. But it's expeditiously written. But acceptable.
I didn't like it that much. It's a good book, but it's not the book I expected but still it's a good read.
Thank you Mateo Askaripour, The Publisher, and Netgalley for a copy to review.
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