CITY OF SPADES

by Colin MacInnes ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 26, 1958

An English import, this reflects the life of the Coloured Colonials in London, and through the alternate stories of Johnny MacDonald Fortune and his ""Jumble"" (John Bull) friend, Montgomery Pew, as each mirrors his feelings about the other and the worlds they inhabit. From Lago, Nigeria, Johnny has come to study meteorology and, in reporting to Pew, a very new and unorthodox Assistant Welfare Officer, catches Pew's interest. Through Johnny, Pew enters the world of exotic strangers, the gang leaders, the dope peddlers, the voodoo followers, the ballet dancers, thieves and ponces, and through his encounters in the City of Spaces becomes involved in the events that pursue Johnny. Attracting women, Johnny is faced with Muriel, her sister Dorothy, and Theodora Pace of BBC; is tried for living off a prostitute and give a ""not guilty"" verdict through Theodora's testimony. Jailed for peddling hemp, it is his sister, come to London to study nursing, who persuades him to go home. Intensifying the ways in which Spade and Jumble see the ""whole world utterly differently"", the knowledge that they can never meet and the elements in their attraction for each other, this is a social problem in brisk and sharp terms which is also a novel of bright and incisive perception. The special audience for this will admire its many fine qualities.

Pub Date: May 26, 1958

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Macmillan

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1958

Categories: FICTION