Mateo AskaripourRezensionen

Audio

I liked a lot of things about this but overall I found the audio experience kind of off putting. Having super jerk sales guys scream and curse directly in to your ears is not great! I might have enjoyed it more on paper. The characters also use the n word a lot which probably makes sense in their dialog but makes it awkward to play in audio if somebody might hear it out of context.

In general the story is engaging but maybe a bit predictable. I didn’t like the timeline - it all happened too quickly and it seemed more unrealistic because of it but just as a plot it was OK. The bad guys never fully made sense to me especially when some details were revealed about one of them that didn’t really align with their behavior - a little confusing to me.

Shines a light on systemic racism and people may find that objectionable (even though they shouldn’t.) That didn’t bother me and I loved the Happy Campers as a concept.

Excellent cover.

audiobook performance 10/10. looooooved listening to this one. this book started off with a bang and i was all in. then i started getting mixed feelings. then i was like this is great again! and then the ending killed me... but i did find the journey of this book very satisfying. it’s memorable and i can't stop thinking about it. what i really didn't like was the rapid transformation of Buck. i felt his descent into horrible behavior was rushed, but at the same time it felt right with the pace of the book? idk i still have very mixed feelings about this book. this book was funny, shocking, cringe worthy, sad and full of twists and turns. Black Buck is not supposed to be a realistic depiction, but i think that people who operate inside corporate america can see that a lot of this isn't too far off from what really happens

For this story, I think the humor would translate better on film, whether TV or movie. It comes off dry, awkward, and slightly offensive in writing. I get where the jokes are coming from; it’s like The Office meets Sorry to Bother You meets Boondocks vibes, but the execution is all over the place.

Darren/Buck was insufferable. It’s hard to root for him when he starts talking to everyone like dirt. Majority of the Sumwunner guys act like frat boys meets Wallstreet. Rhett was interesting, but I hated Clyde soooo much. Please stick a foot up his behind and push him down a stairway. If you read the story, you’ll want to kick his teeth in too.

In addition, the female characters outside of the mom and some aspects of Rose leave a lot to be desired. Sorry to be vulgar: But Soraya’s just there to be the voice of reason and hop on Darren’s dick. And Jason you hating ho, why are you here? I feel like he helped push Darren away. He was too defensive and hating so hard even before Darren lost his way.

The microaggressions get heavy and gaslighting abounds in this satire about Corporate America and startups. There are some clever digs at work culture and companies who pretend to care about diversity, but ultimately, this one wasn’t for me.

1.5

[Thank you to Netgalley for the opportunity to read and review an ARC in return for sharing my honest assessment of this book]

Addressing the topic up front - yes, "Black Buck" is specifically about race. The name alone makes a statement, since it has a dark history rooted in the U.S.'s treatment of Black men. Black Buck is - on its surface - a quick read, but there are messages that are intended to be sticky, make us think, and perhaps shine a light on our own behavior. Darren, a young Black barista living in Brooklyn, lands himself in a very Glengarry Glenn Ross job situation. There are some larger than life 'symbolic' characters, but rather than annoy, they play the role of the Greek Chorus, highlighting messages to which we should pay attention.

While I'm not going to give away the story line, the take away is that this is a small but mighty tale that forces us to look at our conscious and subconscious preconceptions about race and racism - both in the workplace and in our general lives. RECOMMEND

Oh my gosh. That was a decidedly DNF.
Really contrived and at times, just ridiculous.
I SO wanted to love it, but couldn't get past the stereotypical characters and plot.

Young African-American Darren Vender works as a shift supervisor at Starbucks, but his mother and friends think that he can do a lot better. When he comes to the attention of tech entrepreneur Rhett Daniels, he reluctantly accepts the offer of a job with software startup Sumwun.

At Sumwun, Darren is the sole person of colour in a sea of privileged white colleagues, and sales director Clyde makes no secret of what he thinks of that. He hounds Darren mercilessly, gives him the nickname "Buck", and singles him out for harsh treatment. Despite this, Darren manages to secure a job and, due to an unexpected turn of events, manages to entrench himself and thrive.

As he thrives in the white capitalist world, Darren finds he is paying a price with his own community. He is confronted by people from his old life, and decides that he needs to help others share his good fortune.

This novel lays bare the privilege and bias that prevents people of colour from accessing the path to success in the USA, and also the barely-concealed veneer of racism that still pervades corporate workplaces and the media there. It has a clever structure that dresses Darren's story up as a sales manual, and also contains some quite unexpected twists.

This was absolutely outrageous and over the top and I loved it.

And honestly, after the redemption arc, I kept thinking "but what about his neighbour? Is he okay?" especially when I learned Darren wasn't even living in the house! So though I didn't see that twist coming and obviously the trial was messed up, it was suuuch a cool kind of "got you" moment. Was it worth it? Of course. I was surprised the comparison to a fraternity never came up--Happy Campers essentially is just a big frat, right?

There's not much I can say about this other than it failed to engage on many levels. Having worked in sales, combining a character's journey with sales tips doesn't fly where I'm concerned. Simply put, it's not what I had hoped for nor can I recommend it.

What a great book - if there is one thing that really hits my anger nerve it is any kind of discrimination - but racism especially. I can't explain why as I am white myself. I've gotten to be very suspicious minded in that if someone isn't actively anti-racist, I will assume the worst. On another note - I have worked in sales (but really, the more I thought about it, EVERYTHING is basically sales) and found the company, Sumwun to seem like a really scary cult.

I received a complimentary digital copy of this book from the publishers and NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I initially received a preview through Bookish First Impressions of Chapter 5&6.
This excerpt begins with Darren Vender who seems to be satisfied working at Starbucks and hanging out with his girlfriend, Soraya. He is swooned to work for Rhett Daniels, CEO of Sumwun a start up company as a sales representative. This seems to be a fortuitous opportunity for him to change his family’s financial situation. His mother works for a chemical company and has a letter of interest on the sale of her home, “should she need” it. He assures her that he will be successful and alleviate any financial woes.

On his first day at Sumwun he feels like he walked into the twilight zone. Aside from being the only black person he seems to be surrounded by hyped up loud and obnoxious sales team. It seems they give all newbies nicknames which coins him as “Buck” due to him working at Starbucks. Every Monday is Sales Week fury and excitement celebrated with food and drinks. He is flummoxed when white paint tips in his head as a “welcome joke” so he wouldn’t be the only Black person. This story had me cringing as I wondered what lengths the sales force will go to achieve success!

Although labeled as satire some parts just didn’t feel too funny for me. When things seem too good to be true they usually are. Being the only person of color at this company certainly made him a target for Clyde who was determined to see Buck fail. The company is oddly representative of all things inappropriate with the names of the conference rooms to team groups. When Clyde claims not to be racist you know it’s because he is the definition of the word. He is a totally unlikeable character who is unfortunately present in most work places.

Buck represents the epitome of what one can achieve with determination and hard work. He literally bucks the status quo to prove he is worthy of success. There are many times when he wants to quit and go back to Starbucks where he had more control over his day. The story does end chapters with side comments and advice in a clever manner. Bucks internally processing is amusing as he maneuvers his way though obstacles that don’t appear for other employees.

The author states that he wrote this book as inspiration for other struggling black workers to realize it is possible to be successful. If you are not a person of color then you will most likely get a sense of how life experiences can be different based on the color of your skin.

DNF at 24%. I'm sorry, this just wasn't for me. I liked the premise, enjoyed the main character and his family, but the boot-camp atmosphere of the workplace was just brutally unpleasant to experience, and I want no further part of it. I like the author's writing, and it has a lively propulsiveness to it, so I hope I enjoy his next work more.

Final verdict: this book was a wild romp that was undergirded by some serious, disturbing themes, which made for a dynamic but at times incomplete picture of a niche, fascinating part of the world.

This book was a wild ride. Words that come to mind include "a lot of fun" and also "brutal."

(aside: I'm realizing that a lot of people include synopses of the books they review, probably so that those who haven't read it yet can get an idea of if they might be interested...? So I'm going to try that.)

Blurbs describe this book as being Wolf of Wall Street (Jordan Belfort's memoir and movie starring Leonardo Dicaprio about a Wall Street criminal...he's worth $100 million today, if anyone cares; seen it) meets Sorry To Bother You (movie starring Lakeith Stanfield about a 'young black telemarketer who adopts a white accent' per Wikipedia, seems like it's a bit magically realist, too; haven't seen). Our protagonist, humble, Brooklyn-bred, Starbucks barista Darren/Buck, gets recruited to become a salesperson for the hottest new wellness/tech startup in NYC. Plot ensues.

Apparently, author Askaripour led a very successful career as a salesperson in New York before quitting at a relatively young age and writing this. (I know, I know, I'm not supposed to do this...I can't help it.) This obviously filled me with all kinds of curiosity about what company he worked for, which of the events in the book actually happened, etc. He has disclosed some of this information in interviews and stuff.

I thought that the book actually split very neatly into two different parts: one before and one after his sales training (to put it without spoilers). Usually I get off on this kind of story because I don't "feel bad" for the people whose misfortune I'm reading about (except for their wives and kids): like, oh, poor white collar criminal took too many quaaludes and can't fly his personal helicopter and gets arrested? But this book of course was layered with the covert (and overt) racism of the upper echelons of the financially elite, so it was also painful to watch the narrator navigate that, and to think of the reality that this story is standing in for.

I found it moving throughout, but the one thing that I lacked was a real understanding of the main character's story arc. We can tell that he's undergoing a change because of his actions, but I was left wondering why or how he underwent the extraordinary, 180-degree evolutions that he makes in this pretty short book. I think it's possible that if this hadn't been a first novel, that the author might have been confident enough to split this into two books; it was so tightly packed (great for a fast read) that I felt like some crucial details and nuance were left out. There are also huge themes at play: racism, capitalism, identity, family, and probably more, and I felt there was a lot of room left to examine how all of these things were interconnected in Darren/Buck's story.

Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour is almost two stories in one novel. The first part, about Buck’s rise from Starbucks barista to startup sales darling, felt almost too familiar. The second part, though, was completely unexpected in so many ways.

Buck is living in Bed-Stuy and working contentedly at a Manhattan Starbucks when he upsells (sort of — it’s a great scene and a great look at Buck’s character) a startup founder and gets offered a job in sales.

Buck’s hazed and harassed, constantly, at this new job. His hazing isn’t covered with what? I was just joking, you’re so uptight, though, the way it is for most women working in tech startups. Instead, it’s presented as an essential part of the job. Buck isn’t even his name — it’s a nickname from “Starbucks,” just in case he forgets what his last job was. I thought this whole section was terribly realistic. We love to say that the American dream is accessible to everyone who works hard, and we love a good rags-to-riches story, right? But there’s plenty of shame and hostile jokes when the startup tech bros find out your last job was waitressing.

Full review is on my book blog

I loved this. An intelligently written, gripping page turner novel with a little Spike Lee bite to it. At times the plot is a little predictable, but the story and characters justified it. A funny and smart look at black people, tech culture, and the idea of the self made man.

Part sales manual, part life lesson, and one full enjoyment of a read, Askaripour creates a modern day tale of tech startups, family, diversity and racism, the American Dream, and how sometimes you have to lose yourself to find your soul. Highly recommend!

The Publisher Says: 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.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: Please, please, someone in Black Hollywood make this into a movie! I can't think of a better time, or a better story, to use this terrific twist on The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit to skewer the shrinking opportunity pool! The Economist cites statistics that show that white bros are more eager than BIPoC employees to return to the office, stop remote working. Reading this book will give you a visceral, intense sense of why that most likely is true...and what the grim consequences for diversity in the workplace could turn out to be.

Not, however, if Author Askaripour has anything to say about it.

You see, there's some truth to the old adages "be careful what you wish for, lest the answer be 'yes'" and "you get back what you give out." Darren, twenty-two and a barista with a pretty good life (he thinks; his mom disagrees), sees one of his regulars ordering the same boring thing every morning. He does what a good sales person always does: suggests an alternative, a different and more interesting drink. Without being crappy about it, he persists until the customer agrees to try the new item. Which he loves.

Darren's brewed his last latte. He upsold the founder of SumWun and now he has a high-powered sales job waiting for him. That maybe he doesn't want...or isn't sure he wants...but let me tell you, when someone who's got what it takes to grab enough money to found a viable tech company wants you, it would do you best to get your stuff out of your locker and go with him right then. There will be no rest until your onboarding process is complete and your world revolves around Selling the Widget.

Author Askaripour chose to frame this narrative as one of those metastatic "positivity/self-help/I succeeded you can too" memoirs recrudescing all over bookstores like lesions on a cancer patient. It was, I thought for about two chapters, going to make me a crazy person. "I have to bail," I whimpered to my Young Gentleman Caller. "I might get seriously ill, this is reminding me of all those years selling!"

"Read me some," he said, "just enter {position number} and let's go."

“Ain’ no Black people need no therapists, ’cause we don’ be havin’ those mental issues. OCD, ADD, PTSD, and all those other acronyms they be comin’ up with every day. I’m tellin’ you, the only acronyms Black folk need help with is the NYPD, FBI, CIA, KKK, and KFC, ’cause I know they be puttin’ shit in those twelve-piece bucket meals to make us addicted to them.”

"That was funny! You haven't got that far yet, you have to find out why that's there," I was ordered.

You rock, Rob. I took the ride, I enjoyed the whole ride, and you're the one who made it happen.

It was sometimes cringe to me how close Author Askaripour sailed to the winds of snottiness. It was often the case, however, that he found my ticklish spot right after that. I am not going to say I think everyone should read the book because the humor-deficient will be blankly confused why it's supposed to be funny or outraged that their demographic is being scored off ("He reeked of privilege, Rohypnol, and tax breaks" is one of the most memorable snorts of derision). For me, possibly for you, there's an aesthetic hill to climb in the format being parodied; but there is something so very good to gain by persevering: Belly laughs at the sheer inventive snark leveled at targets who could use some dings and scratches on their cheap veneer.

Recommended for some good, cathartic belly laughs.

Black Buck follows the story of Darren Vender, an unambitious twenty-two-year-old, Darren lives in a Bed-Stuy brownstone with his mother. He’s happy with his Mom, his long term girlfriend, Soraya, his best friend Jason, and Mr. Rawlings, the man who’s lived on the first floor of his house since before he was born. Darren is even content with just being a shift manager at Starbucks. But his Mom wants nothing more than for Darren to live up to his potential. So when Rhett Daniels, the CEO of Sumwun, New York’s newest tech startup, invites Darren to join the elite team on the thirty-sixth floor, Darren agrees.

Quickly finding out he’s the only Black person in the company and after enduring a “hell week” of training, Darren gets the new name “Buck”, and turns himself into an impressive salesman who becomes unrecognizable to his friends and family. But after a tragic event back home, Buck feels like he hit rock bottom and he begins to make plans to help young people of color make their way into the sales force and it forever changes the game.

This is Mateo Askaripour’s debut novel and what a talent he is! He definitely takes you on a journey that is wild and crazy. This book deals with a lot, the narrator, Buck, puts it all out on the table for the readers to read and experience: racism, gentrification, white privilege, classism, etc.

The story is told with small “notes” from Buck, who is talking to you from a later time. The little notes really make the novel unique and sometimes even funny. There are many characters and many events that keep the story going and growing. You know it’s all somehow going to blow up, because there are so many ways it could, but how it does is the shock.

This book was not what I expected at all and for that I am glad. I will for sure be keeping Mateo Askaripour on my radar for anything he releases in the future.

*Thank you Bookishfirst and HMH Publishing for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review

***Reason why I don't want to read this (but do think other people should)***
I have zero interest in Wall Street. None. Also me and contemporaries don't get along very well.

That cover though*. If I saw this in a store I would buy this without thinking.

It also sounds like a story about beating the system? Or at last trying. And even though I see myself as an optimist there is a reason why I like that theme in my fantasy/sci-fi but not in contemporary fiction. I never believe it and then get sad/bitter about it.

But it does sound like a book many other people would like to read. Somehow it seems very hopeful to me based on the blurb. I hope I'll see lots of people talking about.

*

audiobook, adult fiction (racism and career mobility)
I liked it, but there were some traumatic parts that were tougher to listen to. There is significant racial aggression from a white supremacist, and even a torture scene. I would recommend this book, but it's not for everybody.

I enjoyed the first part and was rooting for Buck to succeed and overcome the work bullies. But as things started to get more and more crazy, I decided that I really didn't like who Buck had become.
The absurdity had a purpose, and I did enjoy lots of the side characters in Buck spiraling out of control life. But some of his choices just made me shake my head, or want to shake some sense into Buck.

I didn't get very far into this. It was all about a guy (given the nickname "Buck" by his white coworkers) who gets a sales job at a big company where he's the only Black employee and all the racism he deals with. I had a sales job for about 2 days once (it was one of those "Get a summer job saving the environment!" jobs for college students where actually what you do is go door-to-door convincing people to give money to your charity) and the book exaggerates the ridiculousness of sales culture, but not by much. It didn't feel like satire to me, it felt like a pretty honest depiction of toxic sales culture. The racism on top of that was just awful to read about, and I didn't find the book funny at all.

A narrative that looks closely at the race relations in predominantly white work places. The protagonist, Darren/Buck, at times seems like an antagonist, but since the reader is always rooting for him, even when we disagree with him, it cements a place for him as protagonist. He's a perfectly flawed character and the use of satire makes heavy situations funny.

A barista who hates coffee. That’s how we are introduced to Darren, an intelligent young man who to his family and friends seems to be going nowhere. But Black Buck is written by Buck, Darren’s super savvy alter ego who made it to the top of the sales world. Here, Buck explains to the reader how you too can make it to the top when it comes to selling. But what he also tells you is that nothing is quite what it seems.

Black Buck is part satire, part cautionary tale and part coming of age mixed in with some crazily wild rides. Darren is happy with his job at Starbucks, but everyone from his mother to his girlfriend is pressuring him that he could be so much more. He’s smart and when he puts his mind to it, he can sell anything to anyone. So when he tries to change the mind of one of his regular customers – and succeeds – the customer is impressed. Rhett also happens to be one half of the start-up Sumwun and offers Darren a job. Thinking that this could please everyone else, Darren takes the job and is reinvented as Buck. The training is humiliating and racist, and Buck realises that he’s the only Black person in the office. As Buck’s star rises, he forgets what grounded him until friends of his past come asking for help. He starts teaching other people of colour the secrets of selling and their underground group soon comes to blows with another, creating chaos.

Black Buck is a mix of many plots and occasionally genres and for the most it works well. The coming-of-age plot as Darren grows into Buck, loses his way and then finds it again is well done. Buck becomes almost repulsive at times as he loses his way and brushes off his family and friends, but is redeemed to the reader somewhat by the reflections of Future Buck knowing this is wrong. Future Buck offering wise words and sales tips as he tells his story is an inventive part of the plot and worth a chuckle or two. The satire was hit and miss for me at times. The warring groups taking to New York’s parks for a combative bake sale was amusing, but some of the over-the-top parts of the Sumwun office fell flat for me. Perhaps it was because these were interspersed with extreme, deliberate racist behaviour towards Buck which was really uncomfortable. Buck’s reactions were too, as he knows that even though it’s right to fight, he’s going to be seen as the bad guy because of his race. Buck as a character is flawed as he mixes good person with selfishness and a loss of principles. The ending is a nice way of linking Buck back to Darren again.

Sometimes the big jumps in the narrative, such as from Buck the junior seller to Buck the super seller were hard to settle into. I know that they were necessary to encompass the whole story, but it took a while to get my head round what had happened in the meantime. Buck’s first-person narrative and easy way of engaging the reader helped. I note that in Mateo Askaripour’s acknowledgements that he says the next book will be completely different, and I can’t wait to see what happens. Buck’s story was a wild ride and I’m here for the next journey.

Thank you to Hachette for the copy of this book. My review is honest.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com

My rating probably doesn't capture how much I liked this, which was both more than I expected but also decidedly less. It's a difficult book to characterize, I think in part because satire is like kneading bread dough. Perfectly kneaded dough should be able to stretch to the point that you can see through it but not beyond that. Sometimes Askaripour stretches it to the point of breaking.

I was particularly struck by how some of the elements that on the surface might sound the most absurd are the least farfetched. He absolutely nailed start up culture and not in a flattering way. The running joke about his constantly being compared to celebrities only by dint of race is also something I've experienced. Over the years, I have been told that I look just like Tracy Chapman, Oleta Adams, Grace Jones, Lena Horne, Joan Armatrading, Michela Coel, Viola Davis, Whoopie Goldberg, and I assure you I don't look like any of them. In fact, look them up--they don't resemble each other either. It's basically whomever was popular when I was of an age to be noticed. This rarely happens to me now and not because people have gotten enlightened but because women of my age are largely invisible regardless of race.

But back to Buck. I like how in the end he completely adopted his new identity, which is something that happens to people, i.e. we become actualized in an identity even if it's not the one we started with or necessarily chose. We end up choosing that which chose us. At least I think that happens. Or can happen.

I enjoyed the framework within which the Buck's story evolves, too. It's written under the guise of being self-helpy but quite unlike the last self-helpy novel I read and criticized for feeling like a switch and bait, Askaripour/Buck's aspirations in that regard are front and center, so I didn't have a problem with it. Yet I was troubled by a couple things. One is that it's very bro-centric, particularly in his forays with women. The other is that Askaripour is very heavy handed on the use of similes. I don't know if there's a general rule of thumb about how many one should use, but there should be. Let's just leave it at that.

The good is that Black Buck was often a fun read, and it was quick, and I think Askaripour has something to say that is relevant to the social climate. It isn't easy to guess where it's going, and the ending is super over the top, but I am okay with that because Buck has that kind of luck.½

This had excellent possibilities. The plot was pretty predictable, but the story really moves, without any slow parts or filler. However, I found all the characters, black and white, to be way over the top. The only exceptions were the girlfriend and her father.