O Sinners

A grieving Brooklyn journalist investigates a California religious community in the searching latest from Cuffy (Dances). Faruq Zaidi, an atheist, faced persecution while growing up in a Muslim household in the wake of 9/11. Now, feeling adrift after his devout father’s death from a heart attack, he takes an assignment to report on a spiritual group known as the nameless after a documentary film made them a subject of controversy. Upon arrival at the nameless’s headquarters, a remote location on the Northern California coast, he’s intrigued by its members’ total devotion to their enigmatic leader, Odo, an aging Black Vietnam War veteran, and his 18 Utterances (“Get Hipped to Oneness,” “Love Freely”). After Faruq partakes in the group’s guided meditation sessions, which resurface painful memories of his mother’s death when he was 12, he extends his stay beyond the initially planned six weeks. Cuffy alternates Faruq’s narrative with pages of the documentary script, which focuses on a confrontation between the nameless and a Christian fundamentalist group, and gradually explores whether there’s a nefarious side to Odo’s peaceful 1960s vibe. A third story thread features flashbacks to a young Odo’s tour in Vietnam, where he and three other Black soldiers endure racist taunts from their white sergeant. Cuffy wrangles a great deal of material into a satisfying narrative of history repeating across generations. This leaves readers with plenty to chew on. (Mar.)