A New York Times Bestseller A Read with Jenna Today Show Book Club Pick! Longlisted for the Center for Fiction’s First Novel Prize“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 … 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.
more
Askaripour closes the deal on the first page of this mesmerizing novel, executing a high wire act full of verve and dark, comic energy.
Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour is a fascinating satirical book written in a unique self-help/sales training style that works so well for the story. I was gifted the ebook from NetGalley, then went and bought the hardcover and THEN went and bought the Audible audiobook. I usually prefer reading physical copies but this is a book that works really, really well as an audiobook. The narrator, Zeno Robinson, was fantastic. He WAS Buck. His reading was perfection. I could vividly imagine Buck in real life and there were times I had to remind myself that this wasn’t actually a self-help book narrated by the author but rather it was a work of fiction. The narrator was THAT good!
The story is compelling and interesting. There are some funny parts but it is definitely on the darker side of satire. There are heartbreaking experiences and all of the characters aren’t always their “best selves” but that made it relatable and real. The characters felt like real people, people you could know in your own life. It deals with race in a really unique way. There are quite a few parts that really made me uncomfortable and things don’t necessarily end in the way I was hoping. However, all of that is what made this book so powerful.
Also, if you’ve ever worked in sales or even received a sales call, there is so much in this book to which you’ll be able to relate – the tips, the tricks and the training…. Black Buck is a mix of Wolf of Wall Street with a sales training manual and a self-help book while dealing with racial issues in a satirical way.
I loved it. This is a book I would definitely reread. There’s so much to process and discuss. Mateo Askaripour’s next book? I want it. I need it. I don’t know when it comes out or what it’s about but I will be buying a copy.
2.5 stars (which isn’t an option, so I went with 2 stars)
I’ve struggled to decide how to rate this book. On one hand, I wanted to see how it ended, so I forced my way through to the end. On the other hand, I had to force my way through it. My biggest beef with the book–I didn’t like a single character.
I felt bad for Darren/Buck through the whole book because there wasn’t a single person in his life who supported him unconditionally and treated him with integrity, even his mom and girlfriend. They pressured him into a different life, then got mad at him when he changed (how does a person NOT change when they’re in a different setting, doing different work, being exposed to different people, etc.).
I think the only person in the whole book who ever asked Buck how he was doing was the driver, and there wasn’t anyone who ever asked Buck how they could help him–they all used him for what he could do for him. I cannot imagine a sadder life than being surrounded by so many manipulative, self-centered people. The only character I even remotely connected with with Buck, and I just wanted him to get away from all of those toxic people to find someone who really cared about him.
I’m not really sure who I’d recommend this book to.
R-rated for some suggested content and LOTS of swearing–I generally don’t mind swearing, but these characters will yell the F-bomb at anyone, anytime. It was too much for me.
Damn. Just stellar! Review will come after I digest.
UPDATE: Darren is a 22-year-old shift lead at a Starbucks in downtown Manhattan. He’s been there for four years, serving coffee to the same corporate types day after day. He lives w/ his mom in their brownstone in the gentrifying Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood and has a gorgeous Arabic girlfriend and his homeys on the corner. Darren sees one “suit” multiple times a day, and for some reason one afternoon, denies the man his normal drink – and talks him into trying a different one. The “suit” was so impressed w/ Darren’s ability to change his – the “suit’s” – mind that he offers him a job at his tech start-up on the spot.
Darren decides to take Rhett (the “suit”) up on his offer, b/c he wants to offer his Mom a less-hard life. She’s getting weaker from her job mixing chemicals in a factory, and Darren wants her to get out. When he walks into Rhett’s office, it is nothing else like he has ever seen; it is controlled chaos w/ disheveled-looking folks throwing stress balls at each other. And – Rhett changes Darren’s name to “Buck” – for “Starbucks” supposedly. The Director of Sales, Clyde, seems to hate “Buck” upon sight, and we don’t know why. Or do we? Buck is the only POC (person of color) in sight in this start-up. Buck is hazed by literally being white-washed – a bucket of white paint is rigged over his desk to spill all over him when he sits down. And although Buck NEVER addresses the issue, his new name is itself a racist dog whistle, IMHO, given him by a clueless white guy. I discussed this w my husband who saw my issue w/ the name immediately, so I don’t think I’m gonna be alone in thinking this.
Darren goes from his intensive training week into cold-calling sales. He’s about to lose everything when he desperately cold-calls a CEO of a company – and also gets hired by the CEO as the CEO offers Rhett a $1M contract for Rhett’s services. So in just a couple of months, Darren-the-barista turns into Buck, the sales guru living the high-rise life far from home.
Well, as you can surely guess, folks have it in for a Black man who has such a fortuitous rise in life. Buck himself forgets who he is and where he’s from, and bad things arise from that. He beats his former best friend to a pulp; loses his girlfriend; and then even greater losses hit him. Buck.Is.Lost. He starts living the high life: lots of sex and cocaine. It’s just so hard to see a hard-working young man lose himself the way Buck does.
He eventually starts to pay it forward by helping one of his former Starbucks co-workers get into sales, and eventually expands, forming a group of sales trainees that are mostly BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and women. But the folks at Rhett’s business are getting grumpy w/ him and terrible things happen thereafter. The shocking plot twist was almost more than I could handle; I put the book down for a day or so before I finished it.
As above, I found “Black Buck” to be a stellar offering from a new author. What a stunning debut: Laugh-out-loud funny yet heartbreaking. I give it 6 stars out of 5.
From the taunting title to satisfying finish, Mateo Askaripour’s cutting satire challenges, infuriates, provokes, and entertains. While much in the story was appropriately and entertainingly exaggerated for the satire genre, the macro and micro-aggressions Darren endured felt all too real. The brilliant narration from Zeno Robinson made the audiobook a plus!
This was funny and also horrifying but all in a good way!
Didn’t see what the hype was about.. I finished it but it was a struggle.
SUCH a readable book. Wonderfully characterized, fallible main character who grows into himself, who has a flair for storytelling and a good sense of humor. There were more hits than misses for me, regarding the humor, and at a few points I even laughed out loud. Like that bit with the woman at the bodega throwing a fit over them not having organic rolling tobacco. ORGANIC… TOBACCO…
I loved the many short segments where Darren interrupts the story to address the reader, usually to point out something worth remembering or impart some advice.
Everything to do with the satirical handling of racism was spot on. There’s a running joke where Darren keeps meeting “well-intentioned” white people who tell him he looks like [insert famous black person they’re familiar with].
And “Black Buck” IS satire. It’s not subtle, but it’s not too unsubtle. The tone fluctuates, though. So there are a few moments when, because it goes from being incredibly sincere and then back to ironic and/or semi-implausible/exaggerated to make a point, some of my immersion was lost. Without that sincerity, though, I doubt Darren would be such a compelling or likeable character. This isn’t something that bothered me exactly, but it did make me stop and think about what exactly the book was going for.
Anyway, I loved “Black Buck!” 4.5/5. Hope Mateo Askaripour writes another novel in the future.
*ARC received free from HMH via BookishFirst
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.
Black Buck was infuriating, essential, engrossing, and real! Excuse me if I didn’t find anything funny or exaggerated. If anything I was triggered to my personal career challenges! Oh yeah, It was funny to me in a way that it was eerily relatable!
I see it daily. Under qualified, inexperienced people in upper management positions because they are well connected. Every time someone commented how Darren looked like some famous black man (countless times), it made me cringe and think about my own awkward hair moments When they started calling him “Buck” & he later accepted the name as his own I wanted to pimp slap him! Fool, they didn’t call you Buck because you worked at Starbucks! That word is rooted in slavery. Hell they may as well have called him Boy!
I admire the strength that Darren showed in the beginning from not knocking the cowboy shit out of Clyde, and lasting through hell week. I knew he would drink the kool aid after gaining their acceptance as the token black guy. When certain people reach a certain level of success they “switch up”, forget where they came from and suddenly they’re one of them. (**Cough** Daniel Cameron). The shucking and jiving only lasts until you serve your purpose then get thrown under the bus.
Loved the “each one, teach one” approach which led to the formation of the Happy Campers. A FB member told me it was a nod to the book/movie, The Spook Who Sat By the Door, which was banned in the US. I’ve gotta learn more about this!!
There are a host of discussion topics that can take weeks to unpack.
Whew, I may need to book a counseling session after this book because the bullshit is real, it’s not going to change anytime soon, and I need coping strategies.
This book was clever, potent and packed a punch! The author pulled my emotions in every direction as Darren struggled with the old him and the new him. BB contained so many profound messages that we all can learn from. Books like this is what keeps my fire burning for reading.
The narration was spectacular! Zeno Robinson brought so much energy, emotion and life to this story!
5 MUST READ
Thank you @librofm @blackstonepublishing @hmhbooks for the #gifted ALC copy of this book.
Black Buck is a debut SATIRE novel from Mateo Askaripour, written in the form of a self help book. While some of the situations were exaggerated (again this is satire), it bring some tough topics to the forefront such as racism, gentrification, classism, privilege, greed, and more.
It took me a little bit to get into this story. The first 20% or so I was trying to figure out where this was going and what the point of it was. Once it started to pick up though, I was hooked. I became invested in Darren/Buck, his rise to success and the struggles he faced. While I knew that some of the situations were extreme, I also knew that POC have to deal with these prejudices every day. Darren’s character was really interesting; he started off as an unambiguous kid working at Starbucks and transformed into a top salesman, for better and for worse. This book was entertaining, but also impactful.
Other than the slow start for me, I found some of the sexualization to be unwarranted (and this coming from someone who loves steam). I think that the points could have been easily made without some of the more crude moments and made it a good read for a slightly younger audience.
: I loved the narration of this book. I thought the narrator did a fantastic job at bringing Darren/Buck to life while also having a clear voice. I also loved the touch of music that accompanied some of the chapter intros, it added another element to the “self help book” style that this was written in.
Read this book!
That’s really all I’ve got. Read this book.
Read this book if you’re a young person, especially a young person of color, trying to find your path.
Read this book if you’re a white person who still doesn’t understand you benefit from white privilege.
Read this book if you want to laugh, rage, cry, and cheer for people trying to do the right thing.
Read this book even if, like me, you mostly just read romance because the last scene of this book is totally romance novel worthy.
Read this book!
“I didn’t want to start my career, especially as the only Black person in the room, as some wind-up monkey that would bang his cymbals whenever white people wanted him to.”
This!!!!
As someone who has been the only Black person in an all white office environment, I definitely related to this book as far as the frustration goes of being in that position goes. It felt like being under a microscope at all times and I had to conduct myself a certain way at all times while others didn’t. Also dealing with stereotypes. I’ll never forget the look on their faces when they found out I attended Catholic school.
The story is told in five parts. I really enjoyed the first three parts. Part four lost me a little not going to lie. Part 5 was buck wild (see what I did there) and I didn’t expect that ending at all!!
This was a solid debut and I’m highly anticipating Askaripour next novel.
This quote took me out clean.
“If you’re a black man, the key to any white person’s heart is the ability to shuck, jive or freestyle. But use it wisely and sparingly. Otherwise you’re liable to turn into Steve Harvey.”
Deceased.
CW: One of the main characters calls the workers the “r” word.
Darren works at Starbucks, providing caffeinated drinks to the busy women and men who require a fix of this simple addiction as the slave away at their jobs. Little does Darren know, after influencing one simple coffee order, his whole future is about to go through some drastic changes, altering his future and throwing him into the intense and unpredictable world of internet startups. After enduring a hellacious hell week at the company Sumwun, and walking away with the name Buck, Darren eventually has to decide if he will forget where he came from, now that he is Sumwun, or if he will work to better his community.
Full of satire and humor, Black Buck is a novel that not only entertains but has some important messages that many need to hear. Covering racism, the media, internet startups, white fragility, and the beast that is New York City, Askaripour creates a rollercoaster ride of a novel that is extremely timely. The characters are amazing–gay, straight, rich, poor, black, white, and every color inbetween–they are all so well developed and enjoyable to read about. I can’t remember a time when I have ever gone back and forth so much about a character like I did with Darren/Buck, from rooting for him, to wanting to knock some sense into him, to rooting for him again.
I highly recommend Black Buck. I found it to be a real page-turner that entertained me while covering some serious topics. Thank you to NetGalley for providing an electronic advanced copy of Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
A satirical tale of a young Black man’s rise from a Starbucks barista to a ruthless salesman for the hot Internet startup Sumwun. Along the way, he suffers various indignities and alienates his family and friends. When it all comes crashing down, can he rediscover himself and find a path forward?
Before working at Sumwun, Darren is satisfied with being an underachiever waiting for the right opportunity. He accepts the position at Sumwun in a misguided pursuit of money to make his mother happy and ends up losing his sense of self. All his mother wants is for him to live up to his full potential.
Darren’s story spotlights the daily challenges of POC in corporate America. He adopts the corporate persona of Buck to fit in a while dealing with microaggressions and the boss from hell. Darren is a genuine, likable character that many, like me, will relate to. I empathize with his struggles, appreciating his desire to do the right thing while often falling short.
Black Buck will make you think about how you define happiness and success. While not successful in the traditional sense of the word, did Darren already have it all before working at Sumwun? Did he need to have the Sumwun experience to reach his potential and, therefore, success?
I loved the author’s humor, talking directly to the reader, “sales manual” approach; it was engaging, smart, and effective.
The narration of this book is excellent! It feels like you are in conversation with Darren. He’s telling you about his Sumwun experience and weaving in self-help lessons to give you the necessary tools to succeed in a cutthroat sales culture. The narration delivers on the author’s intended effect of having the story be told as a self-help manual.
This must-read novel gives the reader much to consider long after finishing the book. I highly recommend it.
I received a free electronic ARC of this debut novel from Netgalley, Mateo Askaripour, and Houston Mifflin Harcourt. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me. I have read Black Buck of my own volition, and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. Askaripour writes with a fluidity and rhythm that catches your mind and won’t let go. He is an author I will follow.
Black Buck is a novel about a young man living in NYC. Twenty-two-year-old Darren lives with his Mom, has a great girlfriend, and when given the opportunity to reach the top of the retail worker’s chain, he is hesitant to make any changes in his life. Written in the first-person perspective of a black youth, Darren Vendor, who is the supervising barista of the Starbucks located on the ground floor of the building housing a fairly new company, Sumwun, specializing in a program that employers may sign into, with connections to an associate who will council disenchanted or disgruntled employees, bringing them back to fully supporting and productive employees.
When Darren talked the head of Sumwun, Rhett Daniels, into trying a new coffee basically against his will, Rhett is very impressed. Within days he offers Darren a position upstairs, which he is encouraged by his mother, girlfriend, and various friends and neighbors to grab with both hands. He does, but his disenchantment, though slow-growing, is always there, and only the knowledge that his mother, showing signs of aging and ailing, would be terribly disappointed keeps Darren with his nose to the grindstone.
I was impressed with the accuracy of the emotions experienced by Darren – called by his boss and coworkers ‘Buck’ – and how true to life I found them to be. And in every instance, you can change the speaker to that of any woman or most especially a black woman, and it will be spot on to the experiences most of us have faced in our working lives. Definitely, a coming of age tale told very well.
Interspersed throughout the tale you will find bold hints to the Reader, to improve your participation in retail selling, all very important, accurate, and well-intended. This was an interesting, enlightening experience. Again, thanks for sharing your hard work.
pub date Jan 12, 2021
“Black Buck” started as one book, detoured into another book, and then ended as a wholly different, less enjoyable, book. The first twenty-five to forty percent of the book is about Buck being discovered and given an opportunity. There is a lot of white shaming, which the author justified by having the white characters act in overtly racist, demeaning ways toward Buck, the “for the metrics” Black employee. I cringed every time Buck had to keep his composure and grin through these moments. This part of the book was good. I was hooked and rooting for Buck.
After this strong, powerful start, I was Buck’s number one fan, eager to watch him transform himself into the skilled salesman the book description promises the reader.
The next segment of the book flirts with a “Wolf of Wall Street” and “Boiler Room” vibe. Buck’s ready to learn and I, the eager reader, was ready to experience training scene after training scene. But none of that happened. Instead, the author mentions a role play or two, has the characters abuse Buck some more, and then turns Buck into an inexplicably loyal Stan for these racist, privileged, egotistical salesman. The connection wasn’t there. Buck’s character was immediately presented to the reader as strong, independent and brilliant, so the 180 wasn’t believable without a few more scenes to explain Buck’s undying willingness to become what he’s becoming. It’s not enough for the character to use his family as his source of stamina if he’s only going to concurrently mistreat them.
The last segment is outlandish and ridiculous. I started skimming.
I wanted to love this one, and I know I’ll be in the minority for not being crazy about this book, but it was just too many disjointed stories in one book.
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.
Black Buck is a madcap look at compromises black people make while trying to get ahead. When are you code-switching, and when is the code switching you? Mateo Askaripour didn’t write a novel, he crafted a business book forged in the abyss as it stares back. It’s a world that looks an awful lot like the hell we’re in.
Black Buck is funny, sharp and carried by a voice that is entirely its own. This debut is ambitious and Askaripour’s daring pays off beautifully.
I don’t know what I was expecting from Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour, but it wasn’t what the book ended up being, in the best way.
4.75/5 stars (bumped to a 5 on all review websites)
This novel is a satirical humor, built around the world of minorities in sales positions. We start off with Darren (Buck) getting a job of a start-up therapy sales company and going through hell week. We are taken through “hell week”, through tragedy, loss, and success. Bucks changes and character arc throughout this story was absolutely incredible and made him one of my all time favorite characters.
This novel is written in both a how-to and novel format, small peaks of hits and tips popped in. Those are were I saw most of the funny moments. The humor in this book is mostly satirical and so it is extreme irony. I don’t read a lot of satire, so I may not be the best judge, but I really enjoyed the setup and the way it was written.
From the beginning to the end of this novel, we are taken through a lot of emotions. It is very realistic and very described in a way that makes you feel like you’re going through those emotions on this wild ride. There were moments where I was screaming at the main character, cussing them out and cheering Buck on.
And the revenge story… did not see that coming, but oh my god did it add so much to the ending!
This book comes out today, and I highly suggest checking it out. Thanks so much to the publisher for my gifted copy!