That was fairly good. It starts off well, told from the point of view of two main characters, a nigerian student in london for a year of study and a newly appointed colonial welfare officer.
The coloured community of 1950s london is a pretty unique setting. As well as nigerians you have gambians, people from trinidad and other caribbean islands, and a number of americans usually visitors, GIs or showbiz types.

However after the initial setup things become a bit episodic or sporadic might be a better descriptor. With its variety of characters it reminds me a lot of [a:Evelyn Waugh|11315|Evelyn Waugh|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1357463949p2/11315.jpg], except not funny, then again i don't usually find his stuff all that funny either :P .
Like Waughs novels, by the end there arn't really any likable characters or over-arcing plot, its more just a series of incidents.
The main nigerian character probably comes off the worst until you remember he's 18, which pretty conclusively explains if not entirely excuses his actions ;) .
The book is about race but not really racism. Its surprisingly light on the racism for 1950s but mostly because there are only a few white characters and they're mostly of the very liberal type.

By the end the whole thing just feels a bit slight. Fun and interesting enough but a bit thin. ( )

"City of Spades" follows the lives and struggles of Montgomery Pew, a civil servant with the Immigration department and Johnny Fortune a recent migrant from Africa. Set in the mid-late 50s in London, and through the developing friendship between Fortune and Pew, the book exams the post war migration of people from the colonies, to the UK. Without fear or favour it looks at their difficulties fitting in to London culture, and the difficulties the British have adapting to them. MacInnes artfully switches between the point of view of Pew and Fortune, examining issues of racism, relationships, mixed race romance, mixed race children, differences between migrants from the African countries and the West Indies, and dealings with the law. The likeable and believable characters and scenarios make this a great read.

"City of Spades" by Colin MacInnes is one of cult classic London Trilogy series; the other two books being "Absolute Beginners" and "Mr Love and Justice". They are three separate, unrelated stories and can be read in any order. I loved everything about this book, and "City of Spades" has now risen to my favourite among the three. ( )

Colin MacInnes was a successful British author from a literary family, who published several well-known novels such as To the Victors the Spoils and Absolute Beginners.

During the 1950s, MacInnes wrote a number of novels situated in the milieu of black immigrants. These novels bear relations with the novels of Sam Selvon, for instance The Lonely Londoners (1956), and the early work of V.S. Naipaul, with whom MacInnes was acquainted. McacInnes "London trilogy, comprising of the three novels City of Spades (1957), Absolute Beginners (1959) and Mr Love & Justice (1960) was published during this period, at a time when racial discrimination and bisexuality were still largely tabu. MacInnes attraction to writing about these groups stemmed from his homosexual or bisexual orientation. As he was attracted to black men en women, he came into contact with their issues, including subjects such as urban poverty, matters of race, drugs, anarchy, and "decadence".

In City of Spades, Nigerian immigrant Johnny finds himself caught up in the new ethnic subculture in 50s London. The novel is very well written, and introduces many topics and issues now commonly associated with poor, immigrant populations. There is a brooding sense of homosexuality, as the white employee of the government office cannot really explain his interest in these black men he seeks friendship with, but the matter is settled as he enters into a sexual relationship with some of the black girls.

Current literary scholarship favours the prose of ethnic minority writers over the work of Britsih authors, regarding ethnic issues as more authentic. However, it seems Colin MacInnes' work should not be overlooked. ( )