Name: Black Buck
Rating: 3.792307692307692 (65 reviews)
ISBN: 9780358380887

Mateo Askaripour

For fans of Sorry to Bother You and The Wolf of Wall Street comes a blazing, 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.

Black Buck

Jordan

Paula Plaza Ponte 

This book was terrible. Women were not written well. It was so stressful to read. 
I tried and then abandoned it. Life is too short.

Allison Dempsey

Lamia Hajani

Going into reading Black Buck, I knew it wasn't written for me. I am a college-educated South Asian woman who empathizes greatly with the Black community's plight, but I will never truly understand it. I also know that I'm not the biggest fan of an entirely satirical book - I love sarcasm, but a book shrouded in satire? 

So, I'm actually surprised at how quickly I read Black Buck. I'm somewhat shocked at how much I really enjoyed it and how much I'm thinking about it the day after I read it. Darren, a Starbucks employee who lives in Bed-Stuy with his mom, morphs into Buck, a startup salesman, when he meets Rhett Daniels, CEO of Sumwun. We watch Darren, a guy with a good head on his shoulders, become the worst version of himself, as he falls into the startup trap. He slowly loses all the people he loves around him in the first half of the book. The second half of the book is his redemption arc, where he uses his skills for good for his community.

There is a bit of the final third that was too unrealistic for my taste. However, overall, this book was good! I enjoyed the pseudo-memoir style of the book. As someone who lives not-that-far from the Silicon Valley, I think Askaripour really got the startup culture just right. It was a bold choice to set this in NYC, which I feel is more shielded from criticism than the Silicon Valley when it comes to startup culture, but I enjoyed the setting nonetheless.

Overall, this was 3.5/5 stars for me. Thank you to NetGalley, Mateo Askaripour and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for the opportunity to read this book as an ARC. I'm thrilled that Black Buck is published and available for all readers now.

Charlsy Sekyere

Buck has no redeeming qualities, let me start by saying. Perhaps at the beginning of the book, but as the story continues on we soon realize that he is a hypocrite. Easily offended, he has no backbone, especially when it comes to Rhett, and is simply pathetic. I have never read a fictional character who progressively becomes unlikable and annoying. Dorian Gray from 'The Picture of Dorian Gray' is the only other fictional character that comes to mind. 

Buck does everything willingly, even if he tries to convince himself and us that he is forced to do so. His antics are so pathetic that they are laughable. In some ways, this is the purpose of the book. 

This is a satire, so everything is intended to be extreme. Most of the characters in Sumwun are just deranged, including Buck. They all need professional counselling, which is ironic since the company is so against therapy and looks down on it constantly. There are also some running jokes that can easily become annoying and drawn out to the point where they lose their original grit and sense of humour. One example is the joke where every white person thinks Buck looks like a different famous black figure. 

I also don't understand why this book tries to give Buck a redemption arc, like the damage has already been done. I did, however, feel a tad less negative toward him towards the end. Trying to make amends with the people he hurt was a bit cringe-worthy, and I didn't feel anything for him. His idea and construction of The 'Happy Campers', as well as the fact that he is helping POC, does not strike me as heroic. I do not think 'Happy Campers' is as revolutionary as Buck thinks. Members will probably eventually go through the same circle as Buck and will be subject to the same white supremacy common in business. Don't get me wrong, the idea and what Buck is doing is fantastic, but they will have to contend with white supremacy at their workplaces. A black-owned start-up company would have been a better option.

In spite of all these things, I have to admit that this book is very entertaining. There's no doubt that some of the characters are nuts, but they are intriguing, no doubt. It was enjoyable to read the entire book, especially the plot twist at the end. Every chapter added to the story in some way. 

This is a difficult book to review or even rate. Despite the book's satirical nature, it still manages to grind your gears, rather than making you laugh along with it. The book held my attention and was surprisingly entertaining (much more so than other books I've read this year), resulting in a rating of 4/5. I highly recommend this book, regardless of my feelings about Buck and the other characters, or the effectiveness of the satire. The book captured my attention the entire way through. It contained some highly relevant talking points regarding the struggle of holding on to one's blackness in a workplace infused with white supremacy. The talking points and entertaining nature of the book make it so worthwhile.

Karis Ryu

While tone and delivery could get heavy-handed and lean into its (ingenious!) absurdity in ways that required a suspension of readers' disbelief rather than generated literary appreciation, it's a wickedly clever book and I'm extremely interested in what Askaripour writes next.

*A New York Times Bestseller* 'Mesmerizing. . . a high wire act full of verve and dark, comic energy.' Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad My goal is to teach you how to sell. And if I'm half the salesman every newspaper, blog, and hustler in New York City says I am, then you are in luck. With my story, I will give you the tools to go out and create the life you want. Sound fair? Meet Buck. But before Buck was the Muhammad Ali of sales, floating like a butterfly and selling like a demon, he was Darren: an unambitious twenty-two-year-old living with his mother and working at Starbucks. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of NYC's hottest tech startup, results in Darren joining Rhett's elite sales team. On his first day Darren realizes he is the only Black person in the company, and when things start to get strange, he reimagines himself as 'Buck', a ruthless salesman, unrecognizable to his friends and family. Money, partying, and fame soon follow Buck, and wherever he goes more is never enough. But when tragedy strikes at home, Buck begins to hatch a plan to help young people of colour infiltrate America's sales force, setting off a chain of events that forever changes the game. An earnest work of satire, Black Buck is a hilarious, razor-sharp skewering of office culture; a propulsive, crackling debut that explores ambition and race, and makes way for a necessary new vision of the American dream. 'A hilarious, gleaming satire as radiant as its author. . . this novel is both balm and bomb.' Nafissa Thompson-Spires, author of Heads of the Colored People

The 'darkly comic' blisteringly smart satire on race, tech and the new American dream - A New York Times bestseller

Kristen Claiborn

This is the best example of satire I have ever read! The attack on corporate America is spot on and well written.

Cindy Lieberman

A young man is recruited from his counter job at Starbucks to work for a startup. It’s everything he’s always wanted. But is it? 
This is a dark comedy of salesmanship, networking, and race. Makes a clear case for affirmative action, mentoring, and programs like “Get Ready” that help POC to start leveling the playing field that is, before them, full of potholes and not the smooth pavement that the white privileged legacies so often enjoy (many without fully appreciating or acknowledging the advantage).

Cheri McElroy

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫

Darren lives with his mom, works at Starbucks, has a great girlfriend and a pretty good life. Then one day, he is given an opportunity to learn how to play the sales game in a start-up. And he is the only black man in the company.

This story was heartbreaking. Darren, given the nickname Buck, struggles to be his best, ends up fitting in, then realizing he has to find himself through helping other people of color. I didn’t like Buck all the time, but, darn, I understood him in a way I didn’t expect to. Giving that gift to a 55-year-old- white woman is a testament to the genius of the author’s storytelling.

Delaney Woods 

i think my actual rating is a 2.5 but i rounded to 3. i really don’t know how to feel about this book. the first half was relatively good but then the second half was just weird and random. it was also boring and i never really wanted to read it. i listened on audio and it just took me forever. the portrayal of the hardships black people face in the workplace is well done. i also didn’t like the main character

Fraser Simons

A young and happy, though stressed, black man working at a Starbucks has an encounter with a start-up bro who seduces him with promises of affluences and money if he joins the company he founded. Starting at the sales floor, from the ground up, we see the ways in which the cult of sales literally breaks Darren, literally breaking him like a buck, co-opting his identity and forcing him into a constant performance, rather than passing when needed as a way of navigating white culture. 

Narrated from Darren’s perspective and framed as a kind of self-help manual for success in life we, the readers, learn from Darren himself just how much he has to sacrifice and alter himself to conform and “thrive” under capitalism. 

This is when the book is at its best. Confident in its direction and it’s critique of white, corporate culture, cult of personality, parasocial relationships, and gender performance. The framing is very effective. Horrific from our perspective, narrator swept up in the come up. 

But…then it takes a turn. As Buck now finds his prior identity inaccessible and the fall out ensues. It slowly turns into a much less interesting story that involves Bucks ostensibly using his learned knowledge and skills to uplift other people of colour, which rapidly devolves and undermines the themes in the first half of the book. 

It lays everything previous aside, for the most part, and begins illustrating how the intersections of racism and pop culture and technology make it hard to impossible to organize and perform direct action. Not as interesting as the first half, but it does start to get interesting again. And then it is, again, stymied, just like the first half.

Not only is any real critique removed from the plot and character arcs, the reader has to connect circuitously with concepts that were, at one time, becoming salient in the respective parts of the novel. 

In the end, Buck himself wonders at the point of it all. And while it is (arguably) fitting Buck wonders this in a satire retrospective perhaps, the reader must live with no real reckoning, only a punishment that is shoe horned in for satirical value, but feels contrived and convoluted. Why make any kind of reckoning, at times gestured at, especially when an entire identity is coopted and inexorably, it seems, altered, the real joke?

Punishment being synonymous with growth in a satire feels poignant—until, like all the other themes touched on and discarded, it too proves to be vapid.

Torrey

4.5 stars* 

This book was incredible. I don't typically read adult fiction and didn't know what to expect but I loved this book. This story follows Darren Vender, who gets hired at a start-up company and immediately gets the nickname "Buck". You follow Darren and his experiences as the only black man at the company and his experiences as a black man in sales. Darren is an incredibly fascinating and complex character. He is definitely not always a likable character, I and I just wanted to scream at him sometimes, but he was also such an interesting character to read from his perspective. This book will put you through so many emotions and you will probably feel frustrated and angry throughout the majority it. 

The biggest issue I had with this book is the way Darren describes his girlfriend, Soraya. He only really talks about her like she's an object for sex, and whenever he really describes her, he talks more about her body than her as a person. Even when Darren is supposed to be a likable character, this is still an issue. I also felt that the ending was a little rushed but the message it sends is so powerful.

**I was sent this book to read and review but all opinions are my own**

Maggie

The play with satire here is so cool- just right on the knives edge of reality and the absurd. It should be satire, but it's all too close to real. Kept me glued to the page. Early but strong contender for my favorite book of the year.

Jordan Heustis

This is the kind of book that takes you on a ride. I felt like a lot of what happened was really fast and illogical, but it didn’t bother me in this story. Parts of it made me laugh, some of it shocked me, and I teared up a little. I do recommend checking this one out!

A New York Times Bestseller A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! “Askaripour closes the deal on the first page of this mesmerizing novel, executing a high wire act full of verve and dark, comic energy.” —Colson Whitehead, author of The Nickel Boys “A hilarious, gleaming satire as radiant as its author. Askaripour has announced himself as a major talent of the school of Ralph Ellison, Paul Beatty, Fran Ross, and Ishmael Reed. Full of quick pacing, frenetic energy, absurd—yet spot on—twists and turns, and some of the funniest similes I’ve ever read, this novel is both balm and bomb.” —Nafissa Thompson-Spires, author of Heads of the Colored People 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.

Anika | @chaptersofmay

Black Buck is a sharp satirical window into the world of sales through the eyes of young and ambitious Black man. With intense and fast-paced dialogue, unique and obscure characters, and blindsiding twists, this bold story is an impressive debut. 

Askaripour uses satire and parody to explore heavier and deeper themes in an entertaining way. Black Buck is written like a self-help manual and memoir, with the story being told through Darren’s point of view. His charm and charisma are evident from the first page, and the running jokes keep an air of levity to the last. I particularly love the way Darren, or Buck, addresses the reader throughout the book. This tool for engagement helped the protagonist to feel grounded and human against the improbable (and chaotic) backdrop. 

However, a huge disappointment is the way women are treated and represented in this book. Some of the development used on the less desirable male characters could definitely have contributed to the women instead. Additionally, I found the story began with a strong punch; it had an appealing narrator and plenty of memorable characters. But after the halfway point, it seemed to lag and awkwardly switched between comical and thrilling to mysterious and dramatic. It couldn’t decide what it wanted to be. While the twists were unexpected, the development from one tone to the other wasn’t smooth enough to feel natural. I also thought the profanity was way over the top – but that’s down to individual taste.  

Satire isn’t my go-to genre, but it is evident Askaripour is using this narrative to highlight prejudice and corruption in the corporate world. Some of the macro and micro-aggressions may seem exaggerated, even funny, but they’re a direct reflection of the modern world. Personally, I found it easy to connect and relate to some events and environments, but I know not every reader will feel this way. Still, the book teaches important lessons regarding success and work cultures for minorities, which made it a notable read. 

Zoe Smolen

Phenomenal satire! Rarely do books make me laugh out loud - but this one did. I know it's not the big takeaway from the book, but I would LOVE a book about the cannibalistic Bieber cult. Can't wait to see what Arkaripour puts out next. Highly recommend the audio book for max enjoyment!

Becca Futrell

Thank you to Libro.fm for providing me with an ALC of Black Buck in exchange for an honest review!

Content Warnings: Racism, Loss of Parent 

When I saw Black Buck was comparable to The Wolf of Wall Street, I just knew that I needed to read it. This book, along with our protagonist, is a hot mess, and I mean that in the most entertaining (along with most stressful) kind of way. My emotions were all over the place during this one. I laughed at times, uttered "wtf?" at others, and at one point even felt my heart getting pulled out of its chest. I didn't know what to expect when starting Black Buck, but I do know that I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Also, the narrator for the audiobook is *chef's kiss*.

Christian Beck

I’m sure my experience with sales and startups factors into the sheer delight I got from reading this book. But I also love a great satire and Askaripour handles “the startup” well–just realistic enough to be believed but exaggerated where it needed to be. The choice to make this like a sales self-help book (even the book sections were modeled off sales process) was genius.

Sometimes the the book would outpace good transitions and character evolutions, and that made certain parts hard to follow and some characters a bit under-developed. But the pacing also made it an exciting read. Trade offs I guess.

I imagine that if you’re interested in tech, sales, or modern-day systemic racism, you’ll love this book.

Black Buck

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