Do you want a book that absolutely wrecks your brain? Read Black Buck.
Book Review:
The entire time my mind kept screaming “What the fuck?!”
I am not lying. This book was seriously insane. I have not read a book that has taken me through such a crazy mind tunnel. Black Buck was a phenomenal book.
Book Plot:
Everything was a twist and a turn. We went through this absolutely insane racist workplace and this guy absolutely fucking up his life. Speaking too much about the plot can lead to huge spoilers so I am just going to say this book is seriously insane, and you should read it.
Book Characters:
Darren is the most unlikeable character I have ever met. Throughout the story, he becomes this absolutely tortuous character. I hated him for hundreds of pages. Yes, In the beginning, and the end he is a better person, but this man goes into the craziest head spaces. Did I hate him? So much so. Do I love him? YES
I don’t have much to say about the other characters. Soraya was great and seeing her life through little moments was upper interesting. Everyone else was good, bad, and ugly.
There were huge character-driven twists at the end of this. My friend, who read this book with me, and I were absolutely blown away by the character’s development.
Quality of Writing:
During my summer program, Mateo Askaripour, the author, came and spoke at our class. While speaking, he told us about how it took him three books to finally get Black Buck published. He sounded exactly like his book read. His writing was provocative, stunning, and addictive. I cannot wait for Mateo’s next book just so I can read his writing again.
What I Liked:
- The absolute crazy shit that happened
- Speaking about the themes of racism in the sales world
- Beautiful writing
- The author
- The shock factors
What I Didn’t:
- It was a bit much, but I think that is the point. The point was to be a lot.
Read This Book If You Love:
- Diverse books
- Starbucks
- Death of a Salesman
- Literary fiction
Star Rating: 5
As always, thanks for reading,
A Bookie
Book:
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Title: Black Buck
Author: Mateo Askaripour
Published January 5th, 2021 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Genre: Fiction, Contemporary, Race
Pages: 388
“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.” –Goodreads
