City of Spades is MacInnes's third novel, but his first good one. His To the Victors the Spoils was about the European war and, unfortunately, contrived to communicate the boredom of war in a way that the author did not perhaps intend. His next, June in her Spring, a touching, but slight, account of young love blighted in philistine Australia, reads, although it was published second, like the classic first novel of adolescent agony. Consequently, when City of Spades appeared, one greeted it with a double pleasure; that of reading a good book and that of seeing a talent one had previously believed in, without adequate evidence, come to fruition. (p. 23)
City of Spades is a beautifully worked out analysis of the racial conflict and its apparent insolubility. There are things that strike one as unsatisfactory on rereading the book in 1969, such as the inevitably dated references to monsters from the past, like Dr. Malan. MacInnes has, I think, an unfortunate tendency to give his characters facetious names: the wicked policeman, Inspector Purity, and the slightly shyster lawyer, Mr. Zuss Amor. But these are minor points. What makes this novel most readable is, apart from its stylistic felicity, the creation of London's Negro subculture…. MacInnes is highly expert about African food, clubs, landlords. But City of Spades, were it merely a sociological tract or a black (in terms of both color and art) documentary would be a bore. MacInnes has turned his considerable gifts of observation into a highly intelligent, witty and enjoyable book….
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