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92 reviews for:
Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster
Stephen L. Carter
3.62 AVERAGE
92 reviews for:
Invisible: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster
Stephen L. Carter
3.62 AVERAGE
I enjoyed this book well enough, but not the audiobook. The narrator was slow and monotonous.
This is an affectionate, well-sourced biography of an intelligent, influential woman, Eunice Hunton Carter. She also happens to be the author's grandmother, of whom he is justly proud. Carter had a long and varied career, many parts of which defied expectations for a black woman of her time period, and I'm glad I read this book and learned about her.
As a book, it does have some flaws. The title, cover, and premise misrepresent the thrust of the book. While the mobster prosecution is included, it is a small part of the book. A reader looking forward to a long meaty book about the case should look elsewhere. Simultaneously, the author has a tentative approach to his great-uncle, Carter's younger brother, who was a leading Communist. At times Alphaeus' story feels like a tangent intruding on Carter's biography, at times it's ignored and forgotten, and only occasionally is it integrated well.
I think these two points of tension should have been grappled with earlier in the book's conceptualization. I can think of at least four different directions the author might have gone to make his book more coherent and satisfying to the reader, but instead he seems to have wanted to go halfway towards all sorts of directions, and left us with a lot of half-loaves. Ultimately this may not bother him, of course, and the finished product is still a fine tribute to his grandmother.
As a book, it does have some flaws. The title, cover, and premise misrepresent the thrust of the book. While the mobster prosecution is included, it is a small part of the book. A reader looking forward to a long meaty book about the case should look elsewhere. Simultaneously, the author has a tentative approach to his great-uncle, Carter's younger brother, who was a leading Communist. At times Alphaeus' story feels like a tangent intruding on Carter's biography, at times it's ignored and forgotten, and only occasionally is it integrated well.
I think these two points of tension should have been grappled with earlier in the book's conceptualization. I can think of at least four different directions the author might have gone to make his book more coherent and satisfying to the reader, but instead he seems to have wanted to go halfway towards all sorts of directions, and left us with a lot of half-loaves. Ultimately this may not bother him, of course, and the finished product is still a fine tribute to his grandmother.
The book title is a bit misleading—the actual story of Eunice Carter's involvement in the Lucky Luciano case only covers about half the book—but this is still a fascinating read, both as a biography and as a snapshot of American politics 1930s-1950s. Excellent narration by Karen Chilton if you enjoy audio books.
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
So dull and the focus is off. I can’t believe we’re getting a play by play of her social standing and we got a paragraph about her social worker career.
hopeful
informative
inspiring
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I've long been a fan of Stephen Carter's fiction so I grabbed this ARC assuming it was a new novel. I was surprised to find that it's really a biography of Carter's grandmother, Eunice Hunton Carter, a woman who deserved more recognition in the wider (read White) world than she received. A smart and ambitious woman, Carter was one of the first black, female lawyers in America. She was an instrumental player on the team which brought down mobster Lefty Luciano in 1936. She accomplished more in her life time than many people would in 10 lifetimes. When a wall of racism or sexism became impossible to climb, Eunice Hunton Carter figured out a work-around. She wasn't perfect by any means but her life deserves more visibility in the historical record. Stephen Carter's thoughtful, readable, well-researched biography helps rectify the situation. To be published in October.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced