NEVER FAR FROM HOME

What makes this appealing rags-to-riches memoir so unusual is that the author is not a celebrity or star athlete. He’s an attorney for Microsoft.

However, that doesn’t make Jackson’s journey—from the public housing projects of Manhattan to launching his own entertainment law firm to his current role as associate general counsel for Microsoft—any less impressive. The author’s storytelling is measured and remarkably evenhanded, whether he is relating how he convinced LL Cool J’s grandmother that he should represent the rapper or explaining how he put his career ahead of his family, hurting his marriage. Though he occasionally skimps on personal details, Jackson is passionate and engaging in his discussions of racial relations and diversity. “Diversity happens mostly at the recruitment and hiring stage, and it is crucial; but it is, in many ways, merely a prerequisite for the intensely hard work of inclusion,” he writes about feeling so lonely as a Black man at Microsoft that he nearly quit. “I’m sure that, if pressed, most of my colleagues would have strongly denied any racist tendencies whatsoever and defaulted to Hey, I got my life, and Bruce has his life.” Jackson’s story clearly shows why his life is so different from the lives of his White counterparts. Professors questioned his abilities because of his race and background. Police arrested him because of a glitch with his car insurance, and when he told his Microsoft co-workers about the experience, they didn’t believe him. “My world is different than your world once we leave this place,” he tells them. “That’s what some of you don’t understand; hopefully you understand it now.” By sharing his life story in this way, the author will open the eyes of some people while letting others feel seen for the first time.

Jackson’s well-crafted American success story is the kind of aspirational, warts-and-all tale that truly inspires.