Abstract
With The Man Who Changed Colors, Bill Fletcher has written a worthy follow-up to his 2018 debut novel, The Man Who Fell from the Sky. Fletcher hardly needs an introduction; he is a prolific writer and this journal has published several of his pieces. For those who are unfamiliar with either novel, some background is necessary. The main protagonist is David Gomes, an intrepid reporter for the Cape & Islands Gazette, a scrappy newspaper published in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Another through line is the region's Cape Verdean community (including David and his family) and its involvement with their homeland's diaspora.
The death of a Cape Verdean immigrant worker at a Quincy, Massachusetts, shipyard sets the plot into motion. David, always on the lookout for workplace stories, is tipped off by a doctor who is sympathetic to the workers. During his shoe-leather investigation, he encounters an intriguing cast of characters. It's worth noting that Fletcher worked as a welder at a shipyard in Massachusetts for three years in the late 1970s. The Man Who Changed Colors isn’t an autobiographical novel, but Fletcher's experiences undoubtedly inform it. As Fletcher writes in his 2012 book, They’re Bankrupting Us!, in 1978 he fell twenty feet while working at the shipyard, and one of his co-workers was killed in a similar accident the previous week. “Putting [down] extra planking to prevent dangerous falls was seen as unnecessary,” he recalls.
The novel's subplots reflect more contemporary influences. The Cape & Islands Gazette has to deal with declining advertising revenue and then merges with another paper that doesn’t share the same interest in social justice issues as David and his editor, Jacqueline. Today, newspapers in many communities don’t have the resources to cover basic news, that is if they even have a newspaper. As commentators have observed, the demise of local newspapers can diminish civic life. We see a precursor of this as David's dogged pursuit of the truth is deterred by the insecurity of his newspaper, not to mention several attempts that are made on his life while he asks questions about the shipyard death.
The Man Who Changed Colors is an adventure with anti-fascist sensibilities. This is most apparent in David's relationship with the Irish immigrant shipyard worker, Eddie O’Hare. They bond over drinks, finding common ground with each other, and O’Hare later comes to David's aid at a perilous moment. Women play significant roles in this story, too. Pamela, David's spouse, demands equality in their relationship when it is tested by long distance and his refusal to give up the story. A graduate student of African-American and Wampanoag ancestry at Boston University, she is David's intellectual equal, and helps solve the mystery confronting them. Jacqueline, David's ex-girlfriend, and editor, is no shrinking violet either. Fletcher's depictions of interracial solidarity and women with agency are stark contrasts to the rugged, white male characters that populate crime and Western fiction.
By making the region's Cape Verdean community a focal point of this story, Fletcher highlights a group that is underrepresented in literature. David and his family are of Cape Verdean ancestry and are heavily involved with its diaspora. The Cape Verdeans in the book are proud of their heritage and still speak Kriolu and Portuguese. This positive assertion of ethnic pride and solidarity stands in sharp relief to a racist white organization that turns up in David's investigation. Here, Fletcher taps into history, particularly the white ethnic revival of the 1970s that arose in response to the Civil Rights Movement and figured prominently in the era's white backlash.
The Man Who Changed Colors is a fun, fast-moving read that general readers will enjoy. It would make a good addition to courses in 1970s U.S. history and literature as well as classes in working-class fiction. Bill Fletcher has created an exciting story and characters without resorting to clichés and formulae that are so prominent in many cultural depictions of working-class life.