In O Sinners! there are two men who play the key roles. One is Faruq, a young man raised by an observant Muslim father and, until her death in a car accident, a mother who was less observant. Faruq writes for an online site but he needs a break shortly after his father dies. His grief is overwhelming and his guilt is as well: Faruq’s relationship with his father was complex, because Faruq is an atheist, but he never told his father. Faruq’s cousin, ever loyal, knew and had his back and has his back at all times. Faruq lived with his father in a New York Brownstone he now inherited. This means they prayed together and observed holidays and religious practices consistently. Faruq believes his father made his mother’s life too hard by choosing not to learn about depression/mental health issues and because his father recognized she was not a devout Muslim. He yelled at her for her deficiencies, worsening her depression. So his feelings about his father include pain around not being able to be himself with him, his mother not being able to be herself with him how this caused them tremendous pain.
Odo is the head of a large, nationally known movement called, the Nameless. He is African American and he is a Vietnam Vet, having served in the late 1960s. He and his followers have created a large community among the redwoods. It is a sophisticated town with a variety of small industries. It is common for Odo’s followers to be educated and wealthy. Many donate what they have to the Nameless.
Odo experienced a lot in the frontlines in Vietnam. We know about his time in Vietnam through stories of days here and there while he was serving there. But try as I could, I kept failing to figure out which soldier from the close knit group of African American men, each with a nickname and a story to tell was Odo. It was a relief and I thank the author for giving us enough information to eventually figure it out.
Faruq’s editor suggests he spend six weeks embedded with the Nameless and put together an article about them. There are contentions as to just what they are: a cult? a religious group or religious cult? a secret and possibly dangerous movement? Faruq, does manage to get an invitation to the Forbidden City and audiences with Odo. Odo does not live lavishly, cars are shared, golf carts are used to get around the property. As to “religion,” there are 18 utterances everyone masters that represent a kind of doctrine/creed/philosophy to live by, but they are not explicitly a religion. Faruq uses his in the Forbidden City to interact with members. He takes his morning runs and has some sort of mystical experiences. He stays far longer than intended. This is of serious concerns to the New York Aunties who wish to get him married off to a good Muslim woman.
Before they moved to their the Forbidden City, the Nameless tried to establish themselves in a rural area in Texas near a small town largely made up of people who always knew each other and who largely attended the same church. When a local girl who is 18, i.e., an adult, joined the Nameless and then claimed Odo was the father of her unborn child, the town goes crazy, lawsuits are filed, words that cannot be forgotten are hurled. So, the Nameless leave Texas. But both sides participated in a documentary about the period that these events occurred. We know this because parts of the script are in the novel.
The Nameless has an Instagram page. We know this because some of the photographs are described in the novel. And it helps Faruq understand how the Nameless choose to present themselves to the world.
And so, in this nonlinear novel, we meet Faruq in the present time in New York, trying to set boundaries with his Muslim aunties but continually having them make copies of his new keys so they can do things in his house. He is smart, bilingual, well regarded professionally for a person still near the beginning of his work as a journalist. But, he lacks a sense of self and is therefore not confident.
We meet Bigger, a young man who ends up in Vietnam in 1969 because he ran out of money he wants to finish college. He ends up being accepted by a group of men who mentor him, name him Bigger an look after him. The Vietnam segments of the book beautifully tell the stories of Black men drafted to fight that war, how they interact in both negative and positive ways with the White soldiers, and each section that tells a story of a day or a few days lets us know various the men individually, although the portraits do not run too deep.
As Faruq works in the Forbidden City, he watches — again — the documentary, “NERO,” to get a feel for his subjects during that time and to understand others’ perspectives about the Nameless. He interviews Odo, but not always to his satisfaction, because Odo is also trying to work on or help Faruq. He will only interact with Faruq, as opposed to responding to questions. Faruq must give too. He regularly checks the Instagram page, which shows some of the highlights of day to day life. He traverses through the community where people are uniformly friendly to him, all have work to do and they are doing it. Eventually, he is assigned a rather lovely job himself. But I dare not spoil that.
Faruq is constantly conflicted about the Nameless. sometimes experiencing amazing understanding of himself and how he fits into the world, but always trying and generally succeeding in maintaining his emotional and intellectual distance. Still, this is a coming of age story — about Faruq and a reflection on Odo’s post-Vietnam coming of age that led him into his present role.
I was really moved by this novel and the complexities it raises about people who are not interested in conforming to their culture or live conventional lives, and who have been very thoughtful about this. The language the Nameless members use include lots of inside cult like words and the practices seem cult like. A lot of people give all of their possessions to the community. And yet, Odo seems to see this as communal living with deep principles and always non coercive. I don’t think our author, Cuffy tells us the answers. She gives us the questions to ask and then, generally, has an objective but vulnerable journalist ask them.
The writing is lovely. It takes a while to get used to the script for the documentary being offered up in script form intermittently. You don’t have to read all the directions. Just find where a person answers a question in a longer paragraph. Then it will not be an issue. The characters we are meant to know are well developed, with lots of interesting extras included to fill out the scenes and give us the information we need. I appreciated the way this book was structured and the way the subject gets addressed from every possible perspective. It is one of those books tat never bored me. I did not want it to end.
They Called me Bookworm 