Satire with a lot of heart

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SUCH a readable book. Wonderfully characterized, fallible main character who grows into himself, who has a flair for storytelling and a good sense of humor. There were more hits than misses for me, regarding the humor, and at a few points I even laughed out loud. Like that bit with the woman at the bodega throwing a fit over them not having organic rolling tobacco. ORGANIC... TOBACCO...

I loved the many short segments where Darren interrupts the story to address the reader, usually to point out something worth remembering or impart some advice.

Everything to do with the satirical handling of racism was spot on. There's a running joke where Darren keeps meeting "well-intentioned" white people who tell him he looks like [insert famous black person they're familiar with].

And "Black Buck" IS satire. It's not subtle, but it's not too unsubtle. The tone fluctuates, though. So there are a few moments when, because it goes from being incredibly sincere and then back to ironic and/or semi-implausible/exaggerated to make a point, some of my immersion was lost. Without that sincerity, though, I doubt Darren would be such a compelling or likeable character. This isn't something that bothered me exactly, but it did make me stop and think about what exactly the book was going for.

Anyway, I loved "Black Buck!" 4.5/5. Hope Mateo Askaripour writes another novel in the future.