Black Card : a novel

A humorous and thought-provoking novel about race and identity

The unnamed narrator of this book is a 21-year-old café barista/college dropout/punk rock musician living in Richmond, Virginia. He is also a mixed-raced young man (African-American father and white mother) who finds himself constantly navigating the difficult waters of the expectations (and prejudices) placed upon him by others. When he becomes a suspect in a crime, his life becomes even more complicated.

(The “black card” of the title is an actual laminated and elaborately decorated card bestowed upon, and taken away from, our narrator by his friend and mentor Lucius, who has his own secret that is slowly revealed through the book. The narrator struggles to re-establish his “blackness” and regain his “black card” from Lucius).

There is plenty of sly humor interwoven in the social commentary of Black Card. Music fans will also enjoy the descriptions of unglamorous tours in beat-up vans and dank, beer-soaked punk shows in the backyards, back rooms, and basements of Richmond.

This is an often funny and thought-provoking novel.