Black Buck

Rachel
I loved this book! It was clever, fast-paced and had interesting characters. The main character, while sometimes frustrating in terms of the decisions he makes, feels very authentic, and his flaws feel human. Some of the secondary characters can feel a bit like caricatures, but then I think that’s the point.

I always find books that explore a certain culture or sub-culture fascinating, and this one did so expertly! I didn’t manage to guess who the traitor was in the end (I thought it was going to be Brian). One thing I wasn’t keen on about the ending is I didn’t think that Darren and Soraya should have resumed their relationship, given the message the writer was giving seemed to be that you can build a new future but you can’t return to the past. Other than that, the ending was excellent and highlights a real social problem while making great use of non-linear narration.

A couple of things seemed a bit unrealistic- like kidnapping an extremely wealthy and privileged person, torturing them, and there being no direct consequences - but that didn’t take away from my enjoyment of the book.

I would give it a 10/10 because the minor issues didn’t stop me being 100% immersed while reading and were simply things that occurred to me later upon reflection.

Arleen
I have to say I was not happy with the start of the book. Too many 'f' words for my liking. I decided to read a little more and wasn't impressed with the awful way people were treated as they joined the sales team.
My working life revolved around looking after children which I loved. I just couldn't understand the cut and thrust of sales. It was a living hell. Darren, or should we now call him Buck, as the story unfolds.

Buck worked in Starbucks and was very good at his job. He was 22 years and lived with his mother. He had a lovely girlfriend, and good friends, and life was good. That is until he meets a man who is impressed with his work and offers him a job in sales at a much higher wage than he was getting at Starbucks'. I was surprised how nasty and mean most people were. Now Buck was the only black man working there. He eventually started a new group of none whites to get them jobs so they were able to earn as much as the whites were earning.

Unfortunatly it didn't turn out too well and Buck ends up in prison. I won't go any further as I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't as yet finished the book. Still too much swearing for my taste.

I can't say I enjoyed this book but am pleased I did read to the end. I will give it 5/10.

Ffion
I must admit I found it hard work to read the first half of the book. I didn’t find many of the characters likeable and found the story rather unbelievable. The world of sales doesn’t appeal to me too much manipulation and fakery for me. The second half of the book held my attention much more. I did see a development of character in Buck and even Jason to a point. I was able to connect to the sadness in Buck with the loss of his mother but that was all.
On the whole it was a well written book, and I think the author wrote about ethnic minorities in the workplace very well. It isn’t usually a bio I’d have chosen to read and I don't think I would read something similar in the future.
I would give the book a 5 out of 10.

Mabe
I really tried to stick with it but I'm afraid it's just not for me. So I won't put in a review as I would bring the mark down unfairly.

Eve
I don't consider myself particularly PC - however, I did not like the language in this book, in the days when they are trying to rewrite Roald Dahl and even Agatha Christie, I wondered how it got to print. The author himself was coloured, of course. I fear I did not finish the book, mainly because there were times that I really could not understand what on earth they were talking about. This is probably not a book aimed at the South Wales community. I can only give it a score of 1, but only read half the book, so maybe unfair.

Cat
I didn't immediately click with this book as Askaripour made it clear this was a book for Black people, and to read it you should "picture yourself as Black". This made me feel slightly irritated as I don't normally think about skin colour when I'm reading. Then I felt guilty about feeling irritated. Then irritated that I felt guilty. So, after that battle however, I decided to read the first 100 pages and soon remembered that the reason I don't think about skin colour is because I don't experience racism. This is something I already knew in theory of course but which the book really made me actually feel - as it was supposed to! I became totally involved in the story. Darren, the main character, felt so real, I was really rooting for him. It was fast paced, funny and painfully sad at times. I think the writer challenged my perspective as a white reader and I appreciate that. It's good to be confronted and made to think about the world from other people's perspectives. 7/10.

Carolyn
Although this book wasn't what I'd usually read I did enjoy it. I liked Buck and felt his downfall wasn't all his own fault. He was bullied and manipulated and ended up in prison after being tricked. He was happy at the start of the book and happy at the end even though he was in prison. He was still trying to help other people. It was easy to read and I give it 7.

Sonia
I found this book hard going to read at the start and was only going to read 100 pages but then I got more interested in it and did finish it. The beginning with all the "black" speech I found difficult to read and the subject of sales and money is one that I find particularly uninteresting. The way Darren was initially recruited I found implausible and the emphasis on manipulation of people distasteful - I could feel myself cringing as I read. As that got even worse as the book continued so did my distaste and that Darren - Buck - turned that from customers to colleagues was unpleasant for me. Not a book I enjoyed I'm afraid. Some reviewers have likened it to The Wolf of Wall Street but for me it did not have the same level of humour nor did it have the benefit of being based on a true story and the results of which we had actually lived through. This book became more readable after the first few chapters but unfortunately not more enjoyable. I can only give it a 3 out of 10.

Chris
Found this book easy to get into and the way the storyline kept moving forward kept my interest. The story line seemed a bit far fetched although being American perhaps not!
The characters were well described and although not all were likeable, I did feel sorry for Buck at times.
I will give it 8

Helen
I loved this book. I found the storyline novel and engaging. It wasn’t something I would have picked from the shelf so it was an opportunity to explore some different issues. I was interested in seeing the journey Darren made throughout the story - and thought the ending was a good one. I really liked the style of the book - I thought Darren’s notes to the reader were sharply focused. 9/10

Average Score 6.75

Mateo Askaripour's debut novel, Black Buck, is a solid 4-star, break-neck ride through the decadent world of American start-ups.With race issues rightly being thrust back to the fore in American politics, I hoped that this would be a contemporary book which would help me grapple that bit better with such a nuanced, complex and emotional issue.

The story centres on Darren Vender (who literally sells things), also known as Buck. He's a black and he works in a branch of Starbucks until he catches the attention of a start-up CEO, seizing for himself the opportunity that he has been waiting for to show his potential. What follows is a rollercoaster ride where he works his way through a predominantly white corporate environment, is treated according to how he looks, loses himself in the opulent lifestyle, forgets his roots, and alienates the people who matter most. So far, so Wall Street.

I call it a rollercoaster because the story does chuck the reader around a fair bit. I wasn't convinced by every twist and turn in the plot, particularly the speed at which the protagonist achieves his success and develops his business acumen. He's so good, it's almost as if he has this implausible ability to hyptonise clients, an ability which he passed on to others. The story hurtles along, however, such that you can't really complain.

The book has all the ups and downs of a theme park ride as well. At one point a character is locked up for a murder that they didn't commit and then they're released and we never hear anything more about it. We race through the plot, via betrayal and tragedy towards a contrived conclusion. So yeah, fast-moving. You won't be bored, but the scenery may fly by.

Unfortunately, my feeling was that the issues the novel tries to tackle also zoom by. The story deals with racism, affirmative action and the question of what responsibility we have to pass on what we know and create opportunities for one another. Darren gradually learns that his privilege is an opportunity to help those shut out from the conversation. As the novel draws to its conclusion, one feels rather beaten over the head with these ideas, without much depth of insight offered.

The antagonists are out to get the heroes because they feel hard done by affirmative action; they are the maligned white men. The opponents are another part or the novel which I find unlikely and improbable, though this might be more down to my naivety rather than a fault on the part of the book.

It's an optimistic ending, stretching plausibility in an exercise of wishful thinking, as a systematic problem is overcome, or at least significant strides are made in that direction. If only.

In a recent interview, Askaripour said: "It’s easy to post a black square. It’s harder to speak up. It’s harder to actually enact change, that change I was talking about before the changing of heart and then the changing of law, the changing of systems."

You'll be entertained by this debut novel, and it definitely pushes in the right direction. I'm eager to see what Mateo Askaripour produces next.

I read this book through my Book Club. It is not my usual genre of book, but I thought I would give it a go.

Unfortunately, although I finished it, it took me a long time. I didn’t enjoy it - the characters were not very likeable and the story, I thought, was really non existent. It was about a young black man, who was plucked from his job in a coffee shop into the world of hard sell, although what he was selling is not very apparent.

Not for me I’m afraid.

I started off hating this book, coming close to flinging it across the room in protest at its unrelentingly jaunty, annoyingly modern tone and cultish Startup company office setting, my total failure to relate to any of the characters and constant irritation at Buck, our narrator cum Self Help guru. I persevered, however; it's a quick read and it was for a Book Group.

Slowly, reluctantly, I came around. I understood what Mario Askarepour is doing with his novel, satire of a clever, subtle nature, to skewer how the corporate world, and success, are stacked against young people of colour (or any unlucky to be born outside the privileged classes), that this system can most effectively be taken on by playing them at their own game.

So yes, it's exaggerated and unrealistic, the characters little more than stereotypes, with a plot driven by the extreme and unlikely, but it makes the point. Only problem is that initial desire to give up at the starting gate, my early failure to 'get it', which would've ended in giving up had it not been a Book Group pick.

In addition to entertainment value as a good fun read, a close reading provides an excellent primer on 'How to become a successful salesperson and achieve your potential'. This is a cautionary tale, a modern fairy story if you like: be careful what you wish for. For me the the book read as screenplay for a good TV mini series. To sum up then, don't give up, stick with it and you will be rewarded.

After a promising start, following the life of Starbucks supervisor Darren/Buck and his unexpected entry into the murky world of sales in corporate America, for me, the book started to unravel somewhere around the halfway point where the store became much more far fetched and I fell out of love with all of the characters (except for his mother). I appreciate it's a satire, but the second half of the book just left a big mess in my head! I will look out for the TV adaptation though and other books from this author.

Darren (aka the eponymous Buck) works at Starbucks and lives at home with his mother. He is 22 and has no particular ambition to improve his prospects. However, his mother has other ideas and when Buck is approached by Rhett, CEO of a successful startup and a customer at Starbucks, she is not going to let him ignore the opportunity he is offered. As a result he becomes the only black salesman at this almost cult-like company but he soon realises that he has been hired as a token black face and that it is not going to be an easy ride. In order to survive, he reinvents himself as a ruthless black salesman and manages to alienate himself from both friends and family in the process. When tragedy strikes, Buck realises that he is not being true to himself and his origins and vows to commit to helping young people of colour enter the US corporate sales world. But not everything goes quite according to plan.

I really enjoyed this novel. It is not only clever and satirical but also uses humour and a good storyline to expose the darker side of the American Dream, with particular reference to race and ambition. Far-fetched, ludicrous and absurd are all words which would aptly fit the bill when describing the book, which is a bit of a mad roller-coaster ride - I guess you probably have to be in the right mood to appreciate it, or even cope with it. The characters are stereotypical extremes, almost penned caricatures of stereotypes and they are an eclectic bunch. The only really serious moments come in the form of sales tips which punctuate the narrative. I am no sales person but many of them seemed eminently sensible. Whilst I don’t think this book is going to save the world, I do think it makes a lot of valid points with regard to attitudes which are endemic in the corporate world (I would love to have said “in the American corporate world” but sadly I think it is a global issue).

There were a couple of occasions when I felt it went too far (not paying the bill in the restaurant and a couple of other similar sales techniques that were used when Buck was at his most wild) and I actually thought these detracted from the purpose of the book which, I assume, is to point out the prevalence of systemic racism in American corporate culture in a way which is engaging and fun. Without these incidents it could, just about, be considered to be grounded in the real world (albeit a slightly mad version of it), with some semblance of authenticity. When these completely off-the-wall incidents were introduced, I felt the book lost some of its potential clout and was in danger of selling out to commercialism.

This is a very accomplished debut novel. I would have no problem recommending it, but appreciate that it will not be everybody’s cup of tea.

This was a really enjoyable read and I was entertained throughout, as well as being left with plenty to think about. It is a satire, I enjoyed how it depicted the cultish start-up culture. I don’t usually go for a satirical, occasionally comedic, ultra-fiction read but this worked for me. The main character Darren transforms almost overnight as a chance encounter ‘elevates’ him from working in Starbucks to becoming the first black trainee salesperson at a mad start-up in Manhattan. The training is hellish, he encounters constant racism and elitism, and is in danger of alienating himself from his girlfriend and pals back home in a very different part of the city. After many twists and turns, some fortunate and some tragic, he renounces his new world and starts a philanthropic enterprise to give opportunities to other black people and develop sales careers for them. Of course what comes next is that he is accused of racism and exclusion, and the preppy white folk who resent his success use their privilege and influence to attack him. It is clever, and gives some insight into what the corporate world could be like if and when it isn’t dominated by these preppy white folk.