While Mateo Askaripour's novel Black Buck is crazy like Wolf of Wall Street, it also presents an interesting picture of race in America. What happens when an African-American becomes successful in an all-white industry? How does that success affect him? How does he choose to use his success? And what happens when he starts to help other minorities break into traditionally all-white fields?
So Darren works at Starbucks, and he's pretty okay with his lot in life, despite the fact that he's crazy smart and his friends and family keep telling him he can do better. And then he does do better. In a fit of insanity, he gives a sales pitch to a Starbucks customer to get the guy to try a new beverage, and the guy likes it so much, he hires Darren to work at his online therapy start-up.
Darren notices that he's the only black person there, and he gets treated differently (in a not-good way) from the other white recruits during their first week. But he doesn't want to let the white man get to him. He wants to prove to his mom and his girlfriend that he can do it.
And he does. With consequences. Consequences that come back to bite him even after he's decided to use his newfound sales superpowers for good.
The whole book is written as though it's a sales guide for the reader, with little asides every now and then pointing out a key idea to remember. And then you get to the end.
Wow. Just wow.
This book is going to make you think.
Black Buck is published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and is on bookstore shelves today! I received a free e-ARC in exchange for a review.
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