“In sales and in life, you’re either all in or you’re not.”
Welcome back Adventurers!
I know it’s been a while since we went on a literary journey together, but unfortunately, I have had to take a break and deal with my health. It turns out that my body has an unbridled contempt for me and is determined to destroy me from the inside out, even if it has to go down with me. Anyway, enough about that. Let’s talk about this wild book!
Mateo Askaripour’s Black Buck is a hyperbolic tale about a young black man named Darren Vender who leads a fairly uncomplicated life in Bed-Stuy, working as a manager in Starbucks, living with his mom, and enjoying time with his best friend Jason and his girlfriend Soraya. But when one moment of courage turns into a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enter the white world of sales and startups, his life starts changing in ways neither he nor anyone around him expects.
Honestly, I don’t know where to start with this one. There’s so much to talk about. I want to begin by saying that this one is strictly for adults. Sorry kids, but there’s plenty of other amazing works for you to read that are more age-appropriate.
That being said, this book is definitely a wild ride. From the very beginning, Askaripour creates a casual yet exciting atmosphere as he sets the stage for this story. Darren Vender is a very likeable character at the outset, even if he doesn’t stay that way (no spoilers), and the group that rallies around him endears itself to you pretty quickly, especially his mom, who wants the best for him and does whatever she can to push him to get more out of life. The author incorporates some delicious humor throughout that had me laughing out loud at times, and that almost never fails to hit, even when the circumstances in the novel get dire. And the circumstances get very dire. The reader is worked up to a frenzy as more and more pressure lands on Darren and he makes more and more difficult choices, wrestling with the consequences along the way. And the author keeps you guessing as to where this story will go next.
I will say, however, that not only does our main character change for the worst as he moves up in the business world, a black man trying to be himself in a space that is constantly trying to change or label him, but the circle of family and friends that supposedly support him falls apart in a way that makes me dislike them as much as I began to dislike Darren himself. Askaripour doesn’t entirely take sides, but I find it hard to judge some of Darren’s mistakes as much as the other characters do. But maybe that’s the author’s intention.
As far as the cultural content of this book, I feel hugely conflicted. As a black woman who spent the first half of her childhood in a poorer, predominately black area in Queens and the second half, as well as the college years, in ‘whiter’ and more affluent areas, there are some aspects of this novel that truly resonate with me. I have had that experience of sticking out in a sea of white individuals, some of whom genuinely care about you but don’t know how to cross the divide, some who want to reshape you in their own image and make you feel, unintentionally and intentionally, that your culture and understanding of the world results from ignorance and that you need white help to elevate yourself, some who put you in a box that they can understand, and some who outright do not like you.
But unlike Darren, I don’t feel that pain of being confronted with a rigged game. I don’t feel that there’s a war between my people and white people. I wouldn’t say that I think everyone starts out on equal footing, but I have never felt the contempt for white people that our main character seems to, and I don’t think that the book is necessarily critical of this. The business world laid out for us in Black Buck seems to be comprised of white people who hate you, white people who see you as black when they want to, and white people who are oblivious to your black problems, and they all want the world to stay just the way it is. It is neglectful of all the white people who know that things can be improved and are honestly trying. Much of what the author critiques about the white world of business is not, from my perspective, due to its whiteness, but to the fact that humans who gain power without being grounded behave inhumanely. People in the world of Black Buck criticize Darren for becoming more ‘white’, when actually he’s becoming more powerful and less humble, and those things are not the same.
Alright, guys. I want to hear from you. Have you read this book? If not, then I definitely recommend it. It’s a great read and very thought provoking, and I would love to chat about it with you guys, so let me know what you think in the comments. And subscribe to my blog in order to get notified when the next post hits! See you soon! – Cozie
Family Friendly Content Considerations:
For Adults Only
Mature Themes
Multiple Depictions of Sexual Activity
Extensive Use of Profanity
Depictions of Violence
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