Black is the Color by John Brunner

Pyramid Books 1969

Cover artist: Jeff Jones

John Brunner (1934-1995) was a UK author known primarily for science fiction even though he dabbled in Spy fiction, poetry, the occult and sleaze (pseudonym- Henry Crosstrees & Ellis Quick). He is most famous for his novel Stand on Zanzibar about the future dangers of an overpopulated world. I get the impression Brunner was into the swinging 60s movement including the correlating social and political opinions of the time. He was a leading member of the National Council for the Abolition of Nuclear Tests. And after reading this book, I would also throw in he was adamantly against racism.

The basic premise: Mark Hanwell is back in his hometown of London after a working trip from Spain. He wants to track down Lousia, a lounge singer lady he’s fond of who had written him a couple letters in Spain but eventually stopped writing. He stumbles into a segregated all-black jazz club in Soho. Barrett, the guitar player performer who isn’t a fan of segregation lets him in. While inside Mark aurally witnesses a Voodoo session. He makes a joke about it on the way out. Eventually he locates Lousia. Now at his home he finds his door unlocked, trickbags hidden in his apartment and his hairbrush missing. It seems Mark has rubbed the club members the wrong way but is that all there is to it? South African politics, racial tension, espionage, and conspiracies all fall on Mark’s head, and they seem to have something to do with that Voodoo club he so innocently stumbled into.

Black is the Color is written in a first-person narrative style with the main character Mark communicating like a mix between Mickey Spillane and Jack Kerouac. The Beat slang and poetic fragment prose in this at the beginning made my head hurt. I had no idea what he was talking about half the time. After the first twenty pages I had to stop, get mentally prepared and start the book over. But once I relaxed my mind and came at it like reading a Kerouac book I could fill in the gaps. I was also validated in my opinion because William S Burroughs is name dropped in the beginning. Brunner was 35 in 1969 which would make him old enough to be around for the Beats in the 50s and then still with it enough to be hip to the hippies in the 60s so it makes sense.

Mark works for a successful writer named Hairy Harry who never actually appears in the book. I also never understood exactly what it is Mark did for him. Harry sends him to Spain to talk to people and do research? Harry does bankroll Mark’s existence. It was very much like Magnum PI. Robin Masters pays for Magnum’s living expenses while Magnum doesn’t really do anything for Robin who also never actually appears in the show.

The Mark character has a loner drifter persona. Yeah, he wants to find Lousia and does (it’s not a spoiler it’s in the very beginning) but as much as he’s eager to help her in her woes and considers marriage he also is ready to walk away the second she might be interested in someone else. This dude doesn’t know what he wants. Likewise, the Lousia character has just left an abusive relationship and is floating around aimlessly crashing at Mark’s apartment and working part time. They equally take turns moving the story forward, being vulnerable, knowledgeable, heroic and reckless.

While searching for Louisa, Mark goes to a bar she might be working at. It turns out it’s a black only club and his little white girlfriend definitely doesn’t work there. He’s met with animosity at first but the jazz guitar playing Bennet comes out and invites Mark in. A big bad African voodoo priest walks in. Everyone in the club jumps up and heads to the backroom for some chanting and voodoo stuff. Mark has learned of voodoo on his travels. He mocks it on the way out. Randomly find Louisa at another bar. She just left her white South African boyfriend. He was into heavy dom/sub stuff, mentally and physically, and she was not a willing participant. Back at Mark’s apartment trickbags with gooferdust are found. Mark is pissed and goes back to talk to Barrett at a different nightclub. Barrett worries for Mark’s safety. Bad voodoo club guys show up. Action ensues.

As Mark investigates and fends off the voodoo guys it is revealed that it’s more than just black magic. South African apartheid and racial dominance is at the forefront. All of the players in the story relate back to this central theme. This isn’t just some London underground hip beat jazz voodoo crossover, there is a political and sociological subtext. This book turns into an espionage thriller halfway through and doesn’t leave the voodoo behind.

This checked so many boxes for me, it’s almost unbelievable. Also, it was a nice change of pace to read a spy book that didn’t have anything to do with the Cold War. This book was just incredibly fun and exciting, and I might have even learned something. Heads up this is lefty porn. I only say that because I’ve called books righty porn so it’s only fair.

Book conspiracy: There is a writer character in Black is the Color named Hairy Harry. Brunner was most known for writing science fiction. Twelve years his senior and his science fiction author contemporary was US writer, Harry Harrison. Their stories appeared together when they were first starting out in the August 1958 issue of Fantastic Fiction. Harrison wrote a book in 1966 centered around a futuristic overpopulated world called Make Room! Make Room! Which was made into the excellent movie Soylent Green. In 1968 Brunner published a book about an overpopulated futuristic world called Stand on Zanzibar. There is no way these guys didn’t know each other.

In the book, the character Mark is always throwing out big words and saying Harry would be proud of his new vocabulary. I couldn’t help but see this as some cheeky remark aimed at Harry Harrison who at one point was an editor for a sci-fi anthology that Brunner was in. Did Harrison send him notes about vocabulary? Is this some inside joke between the two or is Brunner taking shots? After reading Harry Harrison’s Deathworld trilogy and seeing how absolutely pompous and egotistical the man was I’d surmise that this was Brunner’s not so subtle way of mocking Harrison.