Black Buck by Mateo Askaripour

Book Review

I finally listened to my first audiobook! And I couldn’t have chosen a better book as my first. The voice actor that narrates the audio version of Black Buck truly brings the story to life.

Mateo Askaripour’s debut novel is unlike any other book I’ve read. The story is written in the style of a memoir, though the book is fictional. Black Buck follows the journey of Darren, a 22-year-old Black man living in NYC, as he becomes a high-powered salesman at a burgeoning tech startup.

The book begins with Darren living with his mother and working at Starbucks. After an encounter with the CEO of Sumwun inside Starbucks, Darren is offered a place on the sales team at NYC’s hottest startup. As Darren begins his journey at Sumwun, he’s confronted with an overwhelmingly white and cult-like culture where employees behave more like they belong in a frat house than in a place of business. After a series of ups and downs, Darren, renamed “Buck,” quickly rises through the ranks at Sumwun and is forced to reevaluate his life amidst his newfound success. Despite his missteps, Buck ultimately uses his success as a means to lift up other people of color. With the help of some unlikely suspects, Buck starts a secret society aimed at training BIPOC individuals to become successful salespeople.

One of the things I found most interesting about this unique story was how the narrator, Buck, weaves in real-life sales lessons throughout the book. I also think the author did a great job of capturing the microaggressions, tokenism and flat out racism experienced by Black professionals in white-dominated spaces. For example, at Sumwun, nearly every person Buck meets tells him he looks like the most famous black person that comes to mind - including Martin Luther King Jr., Malcom X and Denzel Washington.

Not only is this story funny and entertaining, but it makes an incredibly relevant statement about the price of success for a Black man in a world dominated by whiteness. At times the story felt a bit all over the place, but I absolutely loved how it came together in the end. I can’t wait to see what Mateo Askaripour writes next.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5

What audiobook should I listen to next??