The city of which Mr. MacInnes writes [in City of Spades] is London and the Spades are its Coloured inhabitants…. Mr. MacInnes tells his story through his two principal characters, Montgomery Pew, a genially irresponsible young man who has drifted briefly into the job of Assistant Welfare Officer at the Colonial Office, and Johnny Macdonald Fortune, his earliest client, a newly arrived student from Lagos of compelling charm and magnificent physique. The technical difficulties of constructing a story to be told by two narrators and the occasional irritations are well compensated for. The method enables us to see the Spade as he appears to himself and to a sympathetic Jumble [white man (i.e. John Bull)] at one and the same time. The converse, though true, is not so important because Spades are not so interested in Jumbles or so ready to bear with their unfamiliar processes of thought and emotion. The author is the last man to peddle an easy panacea for the problems arising from the contact of the two races. The theme of his book is that the difference of character, of mentality, of social code is far deeper than most men of good will would like to think. He loves the Spades and obviously prefers their cheerful, courteous fecklessness to the drab prudence of the Jumbles. But he is too candid not to admit the misery and degradation attendant on hemp-smoking, gambling and sexual promiscuity.
The honesty with which Mr. MacInnes states the social problems of London's Coloured population must not be allowed to obscure the fact that he has written not a sociological treatise but a first-rate novel, exciting, entertaining and often moving. People and places are observed with sharpness and economy. Few writers seem equally at home in a Soho nightclub or a court of law but Mr. MacInnes never lets a doubt creep into the reader's mind. So convincing is he that even his account of police brutality and corruption sounds unpleasantly authentic. In Johnny Macdonald Fortune, generous, caddish, affectionate and selfish, the author has achieved a truly heroic figure. Montgomery Pew, one feels, would be much more at home in one of Mr. Anthony Powell's novels, but he makes an admirable foil. There is not a dull line in the book.
This is a free excerpt of 377 words. There are 418 words (approx.
1 page at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our MacInnes, Colin 1914–1976: Critical Essay by The Times Literary Supplement Access Pass.
