Black Buck: The 'mesmerising' New York Times bestseller

This book is described as a satire but I obviously need to look up the meaning of this word as at no time did I find it comic.
I started off feeling admiration for Buck leaving a job he loved at Starbuck to use his intelligence and skills to develop himself and show the white US corporate that their racism is the only thing holding him back not the colour of his skin or background.
The exaggerated stereotypes left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I did not find the characters comic but ended up disliking them immensely. All of them including the girlfriend.
BUT I did actually like the way it was written and enjoyed reading it and the strong reaction I had to the characters. If you want a book that gives you undeniable strong feelings about people with no filters, compassion or ability to change I would recommend it.

A stinging satire on the corporate world. Entertaining and original, this book delivers a strong message. It challenges societal stereotypes and attitudes in accessible and easy to read language that really engages the reader. Thought provoking.

It's been a week since I finished BLACK BUCK, and I still have no idea what I read. I can't tell if it was a biting satire, a Wolf-of-Wallstreet fever dream, or an ineffective sales manual. I've gone back and forth between two and four stars, and I'm eventually settling on three because, when talking to others about this book, I found myself more passionately explaining what frustrated me about this book than what I enjoyed about it.

For me, the success of this book depends on what the author was trying to do. If the author was trying to write a rollercoaster of a story that shoots you back and forth between impossible scenarios, offering a few entertaining character and some attempts at humour, he succeeded. If, however, he was actually trying to write either a cutting critique of racism in corporate culture or a sales manual, he failed miserably.

I have to admit, the book was entertaining. I found myself pulled along by the crazy pace and I was intrigued by the ridiculous scenarios. While I didn't believe any of it for a moment, I was willing to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the ride. So, if you're looking for a fun, original story, BLACK BUCK is a great choice.

Beyond that, though, I don't think the novel accomplishes much else. If it is trying to critique a racist culture, its themes and characters are all so over-the-top there's really not much it can add to the conversation when nuanced writers like Kiley Reid and Brit Bennett have already written so well about the prevalence of racism in society. The characters were all so overtly racist it was impossible to see them as anything but caricatures, and the solution at the end (Buck's wonderful 3-minute meditation) is so simplistic I don't see how we're supposed to do anything but laugh.

And then there's the sales aspect of the novel. While, from an entertainment perspective, I really appreciated the narrator's interruptions offering sales tips, from a practical perspective I don't think I learned anything about sales. While there are a few clever sales pitches in the book, there are also frequent instances where the characters do something illegal, like walking past the police while drinking, or try to leave a restaurant without paying, and instead of using smart sales techniques to get out of the situation, they literally end up just running away. As a plot device, the teaching sales stuff works well, but as any real life advice, it's all pretty ridiculous.

Overall, this was an enjoyable read, but one which left me feeling more and more frustrated the longer I thought about it. The reality is that the plot is so over the top that we can't be expected to think it's realistic. That could be fine, as over-the-top is often fun, but the author addresses his subject matter with such earnestness that it seems we're expected to take it seriously. I'd potentially be interested in future books by this author, as there's a uniqueness to his style I really appreciate, but this novel just didn't do it for me.

Jamie Semple of Scunthorpe pageturners bookgroup -Review of Black Buck written by Mateo Askaripour.

On reading the initial book quotes and intro on the second page I assumed I was going to be reading a furious satire in the Vein of Paul Beatty's "The Sellout". But on completion of reading the novel decided that this is more of a coming of age tale with an implicit satiric weave.This approach is arguably even more effective in making the reader look at the issues raised and reflect on them rather than reacting to explosive set pieces.The central character is Darren, Unambitious and drifting, working at Starbucks with a beautiful girlfriend and still living with his devoted mother.The success of the novel is largely attributable to his sharply drawn character and background and how the reader travels with him and his friends on their journey of self discovery.A chance meeting changes Darrens life with a job offer and so the new scene is set in the world of fast paced sales.Good satirical mileage is gleaned from sales techniques pronouncements to the reader and serious points are made about a fixed deck in terms of opportunities for people of mixed race in America and beyond.This realistic tonal approach is also used to describe Darrens rise and fall (though not from grace) he finds grace in the novels final third, when he lives up to his mother's hopes by becoming an inspirational leader. Though there is predictability in the denouement which I won't spoil here, this is a confident debut novel full of good spirited humour and heart.