Review: Cajun Chameleon by Jimmie Martinez

Jax Badeaux slowly finds his way through the complexities of racism while growing up in New Orleans in the Sixties and Seventies. A self-described poor Cajun, he doesn’t expect to amount to much more than his drunken father or beleaguered but loving mother. Yet change begins with his friendship with a young man, Mike Guidry, who suddenly has the race laws labeling him black instead of white.

Cajun Chameleon: Reflections of a Recovering Racist tackles weighty issues with a light, straightforward touch. When best friend Mike suddenly can’t attend the same junior high school as Jax because he lacks a birth certificate proving he’s white, Jax starts down the path of changing his ideas about race. Jax is thoughtful but slow to evolve; as a poor white southerner, he’s got his own problems at home. Middle- and upper-class whites look down on him, so Jax’s change is slow, sometimes stalled, but always present.

Author Jimmie Martinez weaves this theme through an engaging story that takes Jax from junior high through college and into the work world. The majority of whites around him disdain his nascent belief in equality, but he abandons his preconceived notions, burying his favorite hat sporting a confederate flag, and breaking free from his racist friends and acquaintances.

Writing a novel around race from the perspective of a poor, white boy in the South takes a deft hand. There are many potential pitfalls with such a delicate subject, but Martinez tells a difficult story with smart, good writing. Each encounter by Jax with the all-pervasive racism in the Deep South rings true. Martinez could have easily resorted to stereotypes to round out his story, but each character possesses a unique perspective that allows a nuanced story to unfold.

The novel doesn’t preach but also doesn’t pull punches. There are nasty episodes – fights, name-calling and societal failures that are all too familiar, even now. America keeps turning corners, only to find more roadblocks in the quest for equality. The life-long struggle to treat people with respect that Jax undergoes is a familiar one to anyone trying to live a decent life with all members of any community.

Intertwined with Jax’s growing, enlightened views on race is a mini Horatio Alger story, where Jax perseveres – sometimes willingly, sometimes through coercion – to keep improving his own life. Martinez movingly writes of the stops and starts of becoming an adult, of a disadvantaged youth moving toward success in a quintessentially New Orleans manner, so the novel tells a compelling coming of age story within its narrative about race.

On the whole, Cajun Chameleon is a strong offering, but it does meander toward the end, perhaps taking a bit too long to wrap the story up. However, even those ending scenes are engagingly and provocatively written, as we find Jax deep in the underbelly of Bourbon Street, trying to make a difference. The postscript that leaps ahead is a nice touch, one that readers will appreciate as Martinez closes the book on Jax and his poignant journey.