This was an interesting book, pretty different from a lot of other things I’ve read. I normally don’t think much of the comp titles that marketing departments like to toss out there to help sell books, but the two from the synopsis, Sorry to Bother You and The Wolf of Wall Street were pitch-perfect to me!
I’ve seen some complaints about how this book is over the top and to those readers I say......that’s kind of the point. This is a satirical novel. It’s also about a topic that’s likely to be uncomfortable for the average white person to explore. Black Buck is not supposed to be a ‘realistic’ depiction, true to life in every single way, but I think that people who operate outside the world Mateo Askaripour is discussing would be surprised to learn how much is pulled from real life examples.
As for the story, it’s a little all over the place for me. I felt like I read multiple books back-to-back as opposed to one cohesive narrative. Black Buck is broken down into five parts, and where a couple feel like natural breaks in the story, others feel like a complete departure. I don’t want to put spoilers in this review, but there are some pivotal moments in the main character’s life that really change the dynamic of the story Askaripour is trying to tell, and not always for the better. Sometimes I think he struggled with exactly what this book was trying to be, and instead of making some difficult cuts he decided to just include everything.
I also didn’t love the ending. Not because it was bleak or I didn’t appreciate the point the author was trying to make, but because it didn’t feel as well thought out as the rest of the book. It features a character introduced at the eleventh hour as a mustache-twirling villain instead of letting the natural consequences of Buck’s actions lead him to that conclusion. I just think there was a way to accomplish the same things without cheapening the effect.
As a whole, though, I did like the book. I’d recommend the book itself to anyone who’s interested in reading a searing debut about the intersection between the business world and race in America.
I’ve seen some complaints about how this book is over the top and to those readers I say......that’s kind of the point. This is a satirical novel. It’s also about a topic that’s likely to be uncomfortable for the average white person to explore. Black Buck is not supposed to be a ‘realistic’ depiction, true to life in every single way, but I think that people who operate outside the world Mateo Askaripour is discussing would be surprised to learn how much is pulled from real life examples.
As for the story, it’s a little all over the place for me. I felt like I read multiple books back-to-back as opposed to one cohesive narrative. Black Buck is broken down into five parts, and where a couple feel like natural breaks in the story, others feel like a complete departure. I don’t want to put spoilers in this review, but there are some pivotal moments in the main character’s life that really change the dynamic of the story Askaripour is trying to tell, and not always for the better. Sometimes I think he struggled with exactly what this book was trying to be, and instead of making some difficult cuts he decided to just include everything.
I also didn’t love the ending. Not because it was bleak or I didn’t appreciate the point the author was trying to make, but because it didn’t feel as well thought out as the rest of the book. It features a character introduced at the eleventh hour as a mustache-twirling villain instead of letting the natural consequences of Buck’s actions lead him to that conclusion. I just think there was a way to accomplish the same things without cheapening the effect.
As a whole, though, I did like the book. I’d recommend the book itself to anyone who’s interested in reading a searing debut about the intersection between the business world and race in America.