Title : Black Buck
Author : Mateo Askaripour
Genre : General Fiction ; Multicultural Interest
Pages : 400
I received this Review Copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you so much Netgalley, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for giving me this opportunity to read and review this amazing book. A very big Thank You!!
BLURB
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, re-imagines 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.
REVIEW
Black Buck is an amazing novel written by Mateo Askaripour. The author’s writing style was extremely exceptional, that it had the ability to attract the reader’s attention from the very first page. The total way in which the author has sketched the entire novel was mind-blowing-ly amazing. The plot was very straight and clear. The plot moved ahead flawlessly and there was not even a single scenario which was written down pointlessly. Every scene had a reason and it helped structuring the plot perfectly.
The book has been divided into 5 parts and each part spoke about different and crucial phases of the Protagonist’s life. Each and every line written on the pages of this book was like a compilation of golden words.
This book is simply about Sales. Sales is one of the very high demanding jobs with lot of pressure and targets to achieve every single day. Not everybody can do sales because taking money out of someone’s pocket with their consent is definitely not an easy job. Particularly when the people are so hellbent not to spend their money.
This book was like a mini guide to sales, if you read this book and follow whatever the protagonist of this book asks you to do, you will become hell of a Salesperson. It was so accurate and authentic. Either the author must have been a real life Salesman in the past or he has done a tremendous job with his researches.
The sales lessons that Buck teaches the readers throughout the book was very interesting and easy to learn. These lessons will not just help the readers learn about sales but also about life in a greater depth. This is one of the best attributes of Black Buck.
The characterization of Buck was done very authentically and realistically because the author had deliberately shown the change in Buck’s character with every phenomenal events of his life. And it is genuine for a normal human to change after encountering certain changes in their life and lifestyle. Flaws exhibited in Buck’s character made him so real and relatable. Not just Buck, every support character her their own battles to fight and that defined why they behave and do certain things the way they do. They were a lot of support character and each and everyone of them had their own distinct part to be played.
Especially the lessons learnt from Wally Cat was life changing. How he gave big and complicated life lessons which would solve people’s problems just by simply sitting on the streets was awe-inspiring. The role played by Buck’s mom was very significant, she made him a better man and she brought about a lot of impact on him.
The problems and day to day difficulties faced by Black American in the world, especially corporate and sales world had been beautifully written. This book also exhibited the emotions of Black Americans in a greater depth. The initiative taken by Buck for his fellow people was really amazing and the author was considerate enough to give the required push to build Buck’s character appropriately in order to become that kind of an hero, that he was.
The turn this book took halfway through the book was seriously unique and it was something no one would have anticipated. The movement created by Buck and how Buck and his friends worked towards the betterment of all their lives was amazing. This quote “Each one teach one” was fantastically followed and executed in this book. The ideology that this book exhibit was really inspiring.
This book had a very good vibe to it. It was extremely fast pacing and informative as well. The author also vividly told about the life of a Salesperson. How occupied, busy and fast pacing their life will be and how that kind of a workaholic attitude of a Salesperson brings about a toll in their personal life has been written down so realistically.
On the whole, it was a mind blowing book. How it started and how it ended was really nice. And the parts in-between were nothing short of amazement.
MY VIEWS
Right now, I am working in Sales field and it felt really relatable. I could relate with each and everything that has been told in the book. I could almost find each and every word which had been taught to me during my sales training period has been written on the pages of this book. I immediately texted my training manager and told him about this book. It was so akin and that’s one of the reasons why I liked this book so much.
I was relying on the ending of this book to make a life decision and I guess this book helped me get a clear head. I kind of had mixed feelings about the ending of the book but when you think it through again and again in your head, you will realize it was the most apt ending and you will get accustomed to it. That’s what happened to me with this book as well. Initially I was not so very okay but then I started liking it.
There were lot of good quotes throughout the book, I almost highlighted 40 percent of this book. There was also emotional stuffs infiltrated into the book and the one which was very heart touching was the letter written to Buck by his mother. It had lots of values and lessons to learn. I cried a lot while reading it and also learnt a lot.
I generally like books written by Black authors and this book did not let me down. I absolutely loved this book. I learnt a thing or two about life and emotions of Black Americans and I would love to learn more about them. It was such a wonderful read. I’m so glad, I decided to read this book and I’m thankful for Netgalley and the publishers gave me the opportunity to read this book.
There are certain life altering books which could impact you in a way like you have never ever been. I loved this book so much and the things I learnt from this book will definitely stay in my heart forever. I hope it had brought about some solid positive change in my thought process and attitude.
My rating for this book would definitely be 5 out of 5 stars
I would like recommend this book to all the people who are working in the field of sales to read it without fail. If you are someone who is interested in reading multi-cultural interest kind of books then you can absolutely pick up this book. If you want to try something new, then please pick up this book, I promise this book will give you lot of takeaways!!
Do read this book and tell us how you feel about it.
Here is link to buy this book!!
Happy Reading Folks!!
~ Meenu
