*A New York Times Bestseller*
‘Mesmerizing. . . a high wire act full of verve and dark, comic energy.’ Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad
My goal is to teach you how to sell. And if I’m half the salesman every newspaper, blog, and hustler in New York City says I am, then you are in luck. With my story, I will give you the tools to go out and create the life you want. Sound fair?
Meet Buck. But before Buck was the Muhammad Ali of sales, floating like a butterfly and selling like a demon, he was Darren: an unambitious twenty-two-year-old living with his mother and working at Starbucks. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of NYC’s hottest tech startup, results in Darren joining Rhett’s elite sales team.
On his first day Darren realizes he is the only Black person in the company, and when things start to get strange, he reimagines himself as ‘Buck’, a ruthless salesman, unrecognizable to his friends and family. Money, partying, and fame soon follow Buck, and wherever he goes more is never enough.
But when tragedy strikes at home, Buck begins to hatch a plan to help young people of colour infiltrate America’s sales force, setting off a chain of events that forever changes the game.
An earnest work of satire, Black Buck is a hilarious, razor-sharp skewering of office culture; a propulsive, crackling debut that explores ambition and race, and makes way for a necessary new vision of the American dream.
‘A hilarious, gleaming satire as radiant as its author. . . this novel is both balm and bomb.’ Nafissa Thompson-Spires, author of Heads of the Colored People
‘Mesmerizing. . . a high wire act full of verve and dark, comic energy.’ Colson Whitehead, author of The Underground Railroad
My goal is to teach you how to sell. And if I’m half the salesman every newspaper, blog, and hustler in New York City says I am, then you are in luck. With my story, I will give you the tools to go out and create the life you want. Sound fair?
Meet Buck. But before Buck was the Muhammad Ali of sales, floating like a butterfly and selling like a demon, he was Darren: an unambitious twenty-two-year-old living with his mother and working at Starbucks. All that changes when a chance encounter with Rhett Daniels, the silver-tongued CEO of NYC’s hottest tech startup, results in Darren joining Rhett’s elite sales team.
On his first day Darren realizes he is the only Black person in the company, and when things start to get strange, he reimagines himself as ‘Buck’, a ruthless salesman, unrecognizable to his friends and family. Money, partying, and fame soon follow Buck, and wherever he goes more is never enough.
But when tragedy strikes at home, Buck begins to hatch a plan to help young people of colour infiltrate America’s sales force, setting off a chain of events that forever changes the game.
An earnest work of satire, Black Buck is a hilarious, razor-sharp skewering of office culture; a propulsive, crackling debut that explores ambition and race, and makes way for a necessary new vision of the American dream.
‘A hilarious, gleaming satire as radiant as its author. . . this novel is both balm and bomb.’ Nafissa Thompson-Spires, author of Heads of the Colored People
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Reviews
A crackling satire of corporate America, it has been compared to other classics of the genre Sorry to Bother You by Boots Riley and Jordan Belfort's The Wolf of Wall Street'
A satire about race, work, ambition and power, it's sharp and hilarious. . . Different and fabulous
A wonderful, riotous romp
An entertaining read with much to say about race relations
An irresistible comic novel
Askaripour closes the deal on the first page
Askaripour wields a sharp satirical blade to deliver social commentary . . . He may have written the first satire that doubles as self-help
Askaripour's satire of the tech industry-and of the intersection between capitalism and American racial politics-will appeal to fans of Paul Beatty's Booker-prizewinning novel "The Sellout" and Jordan Peele's film "Get Out"
Black Buck is as funny as it is smart
Blazing . . . A fast-paced, sharp, hilarious story with a lot of heart.
Darkly comic
Different and fabulous
Energetic . . . Black Buck boasts a brisk pace, ebullient narrator and an inspirational tone
Fast-paced, energetic and confident
Razor-sharp
Rhapsodic and incisive
Sharp, clever and often hilarious
This quick-witted, trenchant debut novel starts like a superhero origin story . . . What follows is a harrowing tale that operates at the fraught intersection of capitalism, race, and class