Black Buck

 

Welcome Back, Booklovers!  I got into listening to audiobooks last year after a little bit of a learning curve. I find what makes or breaks an audiobook is not only the subject matter of the story but how great the narrator is.  A good narrator will have you following through even if the book has you losing interest. I am not someone who normally reads satire. When I first read a preview of Black Buck I thought it sounded interesting but I couldn't quite get into the writing style so I passed. I passed over the opportunity to read an arc of this twice but then Libro FM gave me the opportunity to listen to the audiobook. If you're interested in checking out the audiobook with Libro FM feel free to click here.

 

Black Buck sucked me in from the beginning. We follow Darren, a young man living in NYC working at a Starbucks with no ambitions. After an encounter with the CEO of  tech startup he ends up joining their team and reimagining himself as Buck. Yes, the Buck is because they know him as the guy who works the Starbucks in the Lobby. Yes, his white coworkers are racist as hell.  Right away there's a recurring bit about them constantly saying he looks like a random famous Black men. And of course none of those men look alike or anything like Darren. The novel is an interesting cross between a sales manual and a memoir.

Slowly you see him change and he grows distant from his family, friends, and girlfriend. And once he starts making that good money he has to let a lot of micro and macro aggressions slide. And I think it's a very familiar story. You want someone to do better but as they improve themselves it tears them away from you and they morph into something unrecognizable. 

After a major loss, hitting his rock bottom, and receiving some sound advice he decides to help people like him become better salesman. That's when I felt the book was trying to throw too many messages at the reader at once and it felt lengthy and started to drag a bit.

To be fair Darren gave multiple warnings that his story was unbelievable and the end it veered into ridiculousness.  I suggest getting the audiobook because the narrator does a great job. It reads like a movie. Though when parts lagged they truly lagged. It got a little rough in the middle before the train completely when off track. The ending was insane and I'm still trying to process it.