Review: Black Buck

I’m catching up on reviews for the next few days. Today I’m sharing my review of Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour. This book is a wild ride!

Synopsis

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.

Why I Decided to Read this Book

The synopsis sounded interesting and I was lucky to receive a free audiobook. This was Read with Jenna’s book club pick for January.

Rating

4 Stars (An Excellent Book!)

My Thoughts

I had never read something like this before (in a good way!). It is a dark satire (I didn’t even know that was a thing) and very “readable”. I went into this book with no expectations and it took me in a journey. It is a rollercoaster ride and gets pretty crazy at times. Are you up for that?

This book is about being BIPOC in a white man’s world. There are some very unlikeable characters in this story and even the main character Darren I didn’t like at times but somehow I found myself rooting for him. The author was able to cover so many topics in a very interesting way including racism, gentrification, micro aggressions and so much more. This is a book that gave me all the feelings. I laughed, cried, was angry, sad, and disappointed. How could he accomplish all that in the same book?

I listened to the audiobook (thanks to Libro.fm) and the narration is amazing! Definitely recommend that format.

Content Warnings

Racism, racial slurs, bullying, emotional abuse, death of a parent, cancer, grief, physical violence, drug abuse, torture, kidnaping, murder

Who I Recommend this Book to

If you are up for something different read this book! I recommend the audio format for this one.

Get the Book!

Did this review of The Wife Upstairs convince you to read it? Check out the links below to get it from Bookshop.org and libro.fm. Please consider ordering it from a Black owned independent bookstore. This list of Black owned independent bookstores accepts online ordering.

>>Shop on Bookshop 

>>Shop on Libro.fm (use code GISSELLEREADS for a discount if you want to start a membership)

If you’ve read this book let me know your thoughts in the comments!