We Cast a Shadow

We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin, 324 pages

The barest description of this book is simple: A black lawyer is doing everything he can to climb the ranks in his law firm, trying to do what he can to make his young son's life easier, both now and in the future. But the intricacies of what he's doing, what he's trying to do, and the hoops he's willing to jump through are what elevate this book to flat-out amazing.

Set in a future where black Americans are not-exactly-forced to live in fenced-off projects and where it's possible (but VERY expensive) to surgically erase blackness through "demelanization" and plastic surgery, our unnamed protagonist must, in turn, become a stereotype and a token POC to "earn" a promotion that will allow his son to get the procedure that will remove a growing dark birthmark from his lighter-skinned face — despite his white wife's protestations.

No matter how many ways I try to type and retype a description of this book, I realize that I'm never going to capture the power of it. All I can say is that, by setting this book in the future, Maurice Carlos Ruffin manages to illustrate the world we live in today better than just about any book I've ever read. This book is incredible, and I'll be shocked if it isn't taught, discussed, and dissected alongside Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man in the future.