Our Take

Written by bestselling novelist and Yale Law professor Stephen L. Carter—former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall—Invisible represents a deeply personal reclamation project. Carter brings his fiction-honed storytelling skills to this meticulously researched biography, creating a narrative that reads with the propulsive energy of a legal thriller while maintaining scholarly rigor. The book earned starred reviews from Library Journal and Publishers Weekly, with Walter Isaacson calling it "riveting and moving." Carter brilliantly contextualizes Eunice's experiences within the broader landscape of American culture and politics, exploring the "darker nation's" struggle against systemic racism and sexism. The biography doesn't shy from complexity—Eunice could be imperious and aloof, her political conservatism put her at odds with the era's shifting racial dynamics, and her brother's Communist ties likely hindered her advancement. The courtroom sequences where Eunice devises the brothel raid strategy that finally trapped Luciano crackle with tension despite the known outcome. Nominated for a 2019 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, this book belongs alongside other essential works recovering lost Black women's history like Hidden Figures and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. For readers interested in American legal history, the Harlem Renaissance, organized crime, or simply stories of extraordinary resilience, Invisible offers both education and inspiration—proof that some voices, once silenced, can speak powerfully across generations.