We Cast a Shadow A Novel

The audiobook of We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin, performed by Dion Graham, was been part of my artist experience for the first half of this year. Every time I painted, I had it on in the background. As I listened to it in chunks over such a long period of time, my impressions of this speculative fiction, near future satire might seem disjointed. The narrator, a black father who works as a lawyer at a mostly white law firm, wants to save up enough to "fix" his son's birthmark. Nigel, born light skinned has over the course of his childhood growing patches of darker skin that have been spreading as he ages. There is a plastic surgery treatment, demelanization, that lightens people's skin at a cellular level. Although if the area is injured, the new skin grows back at its original shade. http://pussreboots.com/blog/2019/comm... 669999 - marginalized wildlands labyrinth ... not the ending I was expecting but still as satisfying listen.

3.5 rounded up...because I’m white? A dad strives to make partner at a prestigious, mostly white male law firm so he can afford the anti-melanin treatments he feels are necessary to give his bi-racial son “every advantage.” He also secretly buys expensive whiteners for his son to apply to a birthmark, much against his son’s and (white) wife’s preferences. The subject is race and it is uncomfortable, especially as the law firm and political climate keep demanding more from the dad. The story runs aground and adrift in places, and the ending feels a bit forced. But it’s nevertheless a powerful novel and a worthwhile read.