Summary

Told from the first-person perspective of an unnamed narrator, Ruffin’s novel opens to a costume party, held by the law firm Seasons, Ustis & Malveaux. Speaking to the reader, the narrator, one of only three black associates at the large firm, insists that his name is unimportant and only identifies himself as “a phantom, a figment” (3) before relaying the events that took place that night. Observing his black colleagues’ costumes —- a prisoner and a waiter — the narrator realized he had unwittingly been placed into competition. Encouraged by his boss, Octavia Whitmore, the narrator switched costumes and reentered as a Zulu chief, flapping around “as though on fire” (12) while the shareholders “laughed and imitated by movements” (12).

In Chapter 2, the narrator described the gentrified neighborhood where he lived with his wife Penny and their 11-year-old son Nigel. Because of the narrator’s presence, the...