Invisible
Books | Biography & Autobiography / Cultural, Ethnic & Regional / African American & Black
3.5
Stephen L. Carter
“The astonishing story of [Carter’s] grandmother, a brilliant African-American lawyer who struggled with prejudice and personal tragedies.” —Walter Isaacson, #1 New York Times–bestselling authorShe was black and a woman and a prosecutor, a graduate of Smith College and the granddaughter of slaves, as dazzlingly unlikely a combination as one could imagine in New York of the 1930s—and without the strategy she devised, Lucky Luciano, the most powerful Mafia boss in history, would never have been convicted. When special prosecutor Thomas E. Dewey selected twenty lawyers to help him clean up the city’s underworld, she was the only member of his team who was not a white male.Eunice Hunton Carter, Stephen Carter’s grandmother, was raised in a world of stultifying expectations about race and gender, yet by the 1940s, her professional and political successes had made her one of the most famous black women in America. But her triumphs were shadowed by prejudice and tragedy. Greatly complicating her rise was her difficult relationship with her younger brother, Alphaeus, an avowed Communist who—together with his friend Dashiell Hammett—would go to prison during the McCarthy era. Yet she remained unbowed.Moving, haunting, and as fast-paced as a novel, Invisible tells the true story of a woman who often found her path blocked by the social and political expectations of her time. But Eunice Carter never accepted defeat, and thanks to her grandson’s remarkable book, her long forgotten story is once again visible.“[An] engaging biography . . . [Eunice’s] lifelong ‘determination to rise’ makes fora moving paean to female aspiration.” —The New Yorker
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Author
Stephen L. Carter
Pages
384
Publisher
Macmillan + ORM
Published Date
2018-10-09
ISBN
1250121981 9781250121981
Community ReviewsSee all
"Interesting book about a prominent figure in Harlem Renaissance era New York, but it oversells the Lucky Luciano story and the hand-wringing about communism is pretty silly."
Sarah Brown
"How disappointing to read a terrible book by a competent author. Carter’s overlong, badly edited history of his unpleasant grandmother is an uneasy mix of family memoir, awkward social commentary, and ham handed potboiler. Purporting in the breathless subtitle, to tell “the forgotten story of the Black woman lawyer who took down America's most powerful mobster” Carter’s account of the Lucky Luciano case takes up a mere 44 of the books 384 pages, and exaggerates her role; while Eunice Carter did conceive of the strategy for indicting Luciano , she did not prosecute the case, and the claim that “without her work the Mafia boss never would have been convicted” is a stretch.<br/><br/>Carter lards the narrative with unwieldy prose worthy of a dime store novel, ending chapters with clunky cliff hangers (“Or so she thought” “To no avail” “It sounded so simple. It was anything but”) and incessant, irritating references to “the darker nation”, “sassiety” and “the slippery slides of the Great Social Pyramid”. Ugh.<br/><br/>But the true weakness of the book is that Eunice is its least interesting character. Carter blames her many failures on her left wing brother Alphaeus, whose unpardonable crimes include organizing black voter registration drives and attacking the Republican party. There is a fascinating story to be told here about midcentury African American political divisions, and about Alphaeus’ role fighting racism and McCarthyism alongside Paul Robeson, Mary Mcleod Bethune, and W.E.B. Dubois. One hopes Carter’s next book will explore that story."
Lesley Williams
"Wonderful story of Eunice Hinton Carter. Written by her grandson"
M B
Meshelle Bradford
"This is an interesting book about a fascinating and complicated woman who defied the odds to reach great heights as a lawyer and activist in 1930s-50s New York. The book is written in a more simple "pop" style, in a way that kind of reminds me of "The Five". There is a lot of information here about the lives of the upper crust of the Harlem Renaissance, as well as insight into how legal cases are built and American electoral politics in general. I liked the way family stories were woven in even if the record proved them inaccurate in one way or another because it gives an insight into how she was viewed by her contemporaries that might not be visible in just the archival material.<br/><br/>I do think the Lucky Luciano aspect is oversold on the blurb (it does pop back up now and then but the majority of the information about the case is covered in maybe 50 pages) and the way her brother's communist activities are written about is in this hand-wringing tone that borders on parody at times."
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