Product Description

From one of our most admired fiction writers: the searing story of breakdown and recovery in the life of one man and of a society moving from one idea of itself to another.
 
Keith—born in England in the early 1960s to immigrant West Indian parents but primarily raised by his white stepmother—is a social worker heading a Race Equality unit in London whose life has come undone. He is separated from his wife of twenty years, kept at arm’s length by his teenage son, estranged from his father, and accused of harassment by a coworker. And beneath it all, he has a desperate feeling that his work—even in fact his life—is no longer relevant.
 
Deeply moving in its portrayal of the vagaries of family love and bold in its scrutiny of the personal politics of race, this is Caryl Phillips’s most powerful novel yet.

Customer Reviews (3)

A Tedious and Self-Conscious Novel With No Payoff
I had rather high expectations for this novel and author when I began reading In The Falling Snow.But when I finished, I felt as though I had gotten nothing in return for my time, money and enthusiasm.

My three major gripes with the book are the poor character development, the stiff and self-conscious prose Phillips employs, and the boring, meandering plot that leads nowhere and seems to get lost within itself.

Our protagonist, Keith, is a disaffected, middle-aged and black divorcee who is struggling to come to terms with his adulterous lifestyle, dead-end job and wayward teenaged son.This is where the novel begins, this is where the novel ends, and everything in the middle feels like stagnant filler meant to extend this rather superficial portrait of middle-class life into something resembling a novel.

On top of this, there are numerous contrived references to Facebook, iPods and web surfing that feel forced, as though Phillips is struggling stay hip or relevant.

As I mentioned, this was my first exposure to Caryl Phillips' work.I had heard great things about his novels, and may revisit his earlier writings at some point.But after reading In The Following Snow I am no longer particularly eager to do so.

"Today's teenagers no longer respect any boundaries"
This deep, dark story resonates with familial love, exposing the deep heart of racism and a cultural identity that is especially poignant in today`s United Kingdom. A somewhat cynical mistrustful soul. Keith Gordon has reached a time and a place that is forcing him to question his life so far. The son of West Indian immigrants, with a teenage son, Keith works as a policy officer cum social worker for a local government agency that specializes in developing assimilation and equality programs for London's immigrant and women's communities. But Keith has had a bit of a problem finding his feet of late. His professional life has become an administrative nightmare, especially since the merging of his department with "Disability and Women's Affairs" and he feels that it's longer possible to go back to his flat early and work on his book on the history of jazz. He's also been having an affair with Yvette. a young research assistant, who likes to take charge, with an enthusiasm that is almost theatrical.

Even as Keith must cope with a familiar entanglement of female feelings of guilt and vulnerability, his ex-wife Annabelle has been leaving him urgent messages about his teenage son Laurie, and the problems he's experiencing at school as Annabelle is convinced that he's fallen in with what she likes to call the wrong set. While Annabelle insists that their 17 year old son is growing increasingly "bolshy" on her, it is unclear what Annabelle expects him to do about it. After all, Laurie seems somewhat indifferent to the idea of spending any time with his father. Since their separation thee years ago, Annabelle has made it her business to carefully construct a steely façade around her emotions as a way of distancing herself from Keith. He now lives alone in a small flat in Wilton Road, wracked with guilt and still not sure what he told Annabelle about sleeping with another coworker at an office retreat: "it was nothing encounter, semi-drunken, and not pleasurable in the least."

As Keith relates his past and disillusionment with his life so far, the journey that has brought him to this place and time, Phillips attempts to paint a portrait of the profound changes Keith has experienced and how he has come to be in this fractured state. Pages of detailed description blend together, creating memory - that of the animosity of Annabelle's parents who live deep in the heart of Wiltshire, a world that her husband and who had helped her escape from, especially her father, a cruel quasi-racist military man "who hides behind the civilized gentility of tea." But Keith also battles with his memories ofBrenda the woman who would have been sympathetic to the recent decisions and mistakes he'd made in his life, and of Earl his father, who came to England in the 1960's. Earl is like his son, an unpredictable man who does battle with his demons a one time "sons of Empire, just one the men who came to this country to make a life better for themselves."

Temporarily cut loose from his moorings, and beyond the occasional fits and spurts of attention that he pays to his book, Keith becomes obsessed with Danuta, a recent Polish immigrant who is learning English but is more content to fall rapid into an angry silence. And then an incident at work where the entire correspondence including his appreciation of Yvette's attentiveness in bed is sent to everybody in his department changes everything for Keith. Honed in on all fronts Keith, filled with cynicism, questions the futility of his dreams and the danger of delusion. Keith is complex and real, but he's also frustratingly shortsighted, especially when he finds it hard to keep his cool. Set against the gloomy and silent streets of West London with the early winter gusts, a city that has made peace with the Pound shops and Somali run internet cafes, this beautifully nuanced and provocative story abounds with a silent and simmering racial tension. Keith remains a man on the edge has he desperately tries to reach out to his son and his father in his journey of painful self-discovery. Mike Leonard September 09.

super timely look at racial identification
Keith Gordon's parents came from the West Indies settling in England where he was born in the early 1960s.He was raised by his white stepmother and is therefore comfortable with both races.Keith married a white Annabelle, whose family excommunicated her due to her marrying him but after two decades together they have been separated for two years now.

Recently Annabelle has become increasingly worried about their seventeen year old son Laurie who will not talk to his father as if his dad is at fault for the teen being biracial.At work Keith heads the London unit of Race Equality, but the social worker is under investigation as a subordinate has accused him of harassment; not that it matters much anymore as he has begin to conclude his work is meaningless.Filled with despondency while pondering is that all there is, Keith even considers what to do about his estrangement with his West Indies' dad.

This is a super timely look at racial identification in a changing world as the EEO question of which race you belong to seems obsolete with the increasing number of bi-racial people.Keith is a terrific character who deliberates over his identity as a second generation Englishman who stands out in the snow white stereotype picture of his countrymen.His third generation offspring feels alienated and resentful even as his dad reflects who he is and is that all there is in life.

Harriet Klausner
... Read more

Product Description
The Africa of his ancestry, the Caribbean of his birth, the Britain of his upbringing, and the United States where he now lives are the focal points of award-winning writer Caryl Phillips’ profound inquiry into evolving notions of home, identity, and belonging in an increasingly international society.
At once deeply reflective and coolly prescient, A New World Order charts the psychological frontiers of our ever-changing world. Through personal and literary encounters, Phillips probes the meaning of cultural dislocation, measuring the distinguishing features of our identities–geographic, racial, national, religious–against the amalgamating effects of globalization. In the work of writers such as V. S. Naipaul, James Baldwin, and Zadie Smith, cultural figures such as Steven Spielberg, Linton Kwesi Johnson, and Marvin Gaye, and in his own experiences, Phillips detects the erosion of cultural boundaries and amasses startling and poignant insights on whether there can be an answer anymore to the question “Where are you from?” The result is an illuminating–and powerfully relevant–account of identity from an exceedingly perceptive citizen of the world. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

New World Writer
Phillips is the next thing, all right, right up there with the most exciting young intellectual novelists, very much like Coetzee, but black and lacking Coetzee's Eurocentric sensibility. The perspective is that of an Englishman from the colonies, a bit like Orwell, Naipaul, or Lessing. Phillips is, in fact, a Caribbean author, with African roots and an education rooted in the fields of Eton. He is a gentlemen scholar, an amateur, if you will, and not an academic. In this regard he reminds one of Sontag or Vidal, perhaps even of Camus. Unlike Sontag and Coetzee, however, his center of gravity is post-colonial rather than central European. He doesn't reveal an affinity for Kafka, as much as for American jazz and an affection for Marvin Gaye. He is very good, however, on major literary figures such as James Baldwin, Gordimer, and Derek Walcott. Clearly, he is drawn to African -American lit and culture, but this collection's greatest contribution may be in his appreciations of lesser known figures such as Glissant, James, and Chamoiseau. He is well-read, witty, even erudite, but he can be tough and penetrating, harsh, but never mean. His dissection of V. S. Naipaul is hard-going but persuasive.These are well-written essays, a fine collection of pieces from a versatile, generous writer who loves literature. ... Read more

Product Description
One of England's most widely acclaimed young novelists adopts two eerily convincing narrative voices and juxtaposes their stories to devastating effect in this mesmerizing portrait of slavery. Cambridge is a devoutly Christian slave in the West Indies whose sense of justice is both profound and self-destructive, while Emily is a morally-blind, genteel Englishwoman. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A powerful and disturbing book
This is a powerful and disturbing historical novel about the days of slavery in the west indies, not long before slavery was finally abolished. The prose is beautifully crafted and takes you right into the period. The book is easy to read, but for most readers it will not be a particularly satisfying or enjoyable book (as you can see from other reviews) because no main character is particularly sympathetic or easy to identify with. Rather this book gives you a look at a period of history where no one comes out particularly well. However, it evokes the period and attitudes sharply, and is a clear reminder that while we have a ways to go in race relations, we have made some substantial progress.

good, but then it fails
The narrative of Emily Cartwright is marvelous. I found myself easily believing I was reading an account written by a young woman in the 18th century, with matter of fact observations on race and men consistent with that time. The language is a delight to read, but as I was pleasantly carried along I began to wonder where the story was going. When a character using the occult entered the story, I had hope of the plot thickening but, alas, it didn't. Part II, which seemed very contrived and rushed, was disappointing.

Unrealistic...
I felt that this book was unrealistic. What I feel Phillips tried to do was put modern-day morals in an old-fashioned tale. It was deffinetly as if he tried to make a story about what went on during a time of uncertainty about the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of slaves. It was almost as if Phillips tried to add a "Scarlet Letter" appeal to the book, In the beginning the novel was well written and understandable and I thought would lead to a good novel, however around 100 it got unreadable. you could not understand what Phillips was doing with the novel. This book was unrealistic and that is my main problem with it. how it is such an unbelievable plot it is ridiculous to read.

Well worked, thought provoking and historic
I enjoyed Cambridge.The story is told from multiple perspectives which would explain the open ending. Who's version is the truth?How are their interpretations of events determined by their different cultural backgrounds?How do these multiple versions of a history comment upon the historical representation of actual Caribbean and African colonization?The characters are complex and contradictory - likeable and detestable all at once.One gets a glimpse into colonial life, attitudes and beliefs - not just one sided but as they probably were, complex, multiple, and contradictory. Caryl Phillips has done his research, the prose is authentic for the time, his work is based upon historical evidence (there is a recent dissertation that describes his historical influences).A good and well worth read.

Find a different book!
the following is a comment on Cambridge that is displayed on the first page. "Brilliant...(a) masterpiece (by) a profoundly talented novelist" - Village Voice I would beg to differ. I cannot eventhink of a place to begin describing my intense, deep hatred toward thebook Cambridge by Caryl Phillips.I think that it might have been morefun, and less painful to gnaw my arm off and beat myself with it. Ifound the story's characters confusing.I didn't even know the maincharacter's name until the Epilogue (page 177).The title character,Cambridge, didn't seem important enough to name the book after, and Ididn't understand his personality.Nor could I interpret what Stella's(another key character) intents were. I also thought that plot was filledwith gaps, and was never concluded.I finished the book with manyunresolved ends. The book reads as poetry. For example: "Istepped out into the night to breathe the delicious mildness of the air,and to refresh my spirit (46)."I found this not only difficult toread and distracting to the plot, or lack there of.More importantly thanthat, I don't think that anyone speaks like that, not even in the booksintended time period.This made the book unbelievable to me.Because Icould not read more than 20 pages at a time without falling asleep, Icouldn't get into the book.When Phillips used African American speechhabits they too were not believable.for example:"Misses, misses,you please to bye me a comb for me to tick in my head (Phillips 124)," When Phillips made a character talk, I thought it was awkward, and itbroke the mood of the paragraph.

I would Strongly suggest finding anotherbook.

Their Eyes Were Watchin God, by Zora Neale Hurston is a book that Iwould suggest for a better read on a similar topic. ... Read more

Product Description
In this fascinating inquiry into the African Diaspora, Caryl Phillips embarks on a soul-wrenching journey to the three major ports of the transatlantic slave trade.

Juxtaposing stories of the past with his own present-day experiences, Phillips combines his remarkable skills as a travel essayist with an astute understanding of history. From an West African businessman's interactions with white Methodists in nineteenth-century Liverpool to an eighteenth-century African minister's complicity in the selling of slaves to a fearless white judge's crusade for racial justice in 1940s Charleston, South Carolina, Phillips reveals the global the impact of being uprooted from one's home through resonant, powerful narratives.
Amazon.com Review
CarylPhillips has established himself as one of the supreme chroniclersof African dispossession and exile. In previous works such as The European Tribeand Crossing theRiver, he documents the ironies of post-colonialhistory. Phillips's latest book is perhaps best described as a"meditation," although it is also a fine and invigorating book. Thesubject of Phillips's broodings is that of displacement, diaspora,homelessness--all those things that ineluctably accompany anydescendant of West African slaves. Phillips himself was born inSt. Kitts, West Indies, in 1958, and so here he retraces the firsttransatlantic journey he made with his mother in the late 1950s, bybanana boat from the Caribbean to the gray shores of the MotherCountry. He visits three cities central to the slave trade: Liverpool,Elmina in Ghana, and Charleston. Finally in Israel, he finds acommunity of 2,000 African Americans who have lived in the Negevdesert for 30 years. Wholly absorbing, always surprising, brilliantlyobservant, sensitive to human tragedy but never pessimistic, Phillipswrites as beautifully as ever. "It is futile to walk into the face ofhistory. As futile as trying to keep the dust from one's eyes in thedesert." --Christopher Hart, Amazon.co.uk ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Complex interrogation of the middle passage
This is a remarkably complex and thought-provoking book.
It would be of interest to anyone who thinks about:
slavery/the middle passage, the limits (or failures) of Pan-Africanism, the power of the 'Exodus' myth in the Bible, and finally the invisible histories of urban space (i.e., of cities like Liverpool, UK and Charleston, SC).

The different destinations in the book -- Ghana, Liverpool, Charleston, even Israel -- all have some bearing to the middle passage. The argument of this book, if there is an argument, seems to be that the journeys "homeward" that many people of African descent invent for themselves are all in some way symptomatic of the original event of separation, the forcible departure constituted by captivity and the journey to the new world.

Amardeep Singh

Unexpected tone, aim and even subject matter. It's excellent
I picked this book up in the library probably because of its alluring cover image and title, I'll admit it. And I was prepared to even enjoy what I thought was coming: an intellectual travel book of the Paul Theroux ilk, with perhaps the added sarcasm and chip on the shoulder due any returing British colonial.

It was, however, immediately more interesting and engrossing than any of those books Mr. Theroux has written, and it had even more honesty than Maya Angelou's book about coming to Africa, "All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes." For a long time I was not sure if it was meant to be novel or not. It was acertainly a novel idea, to make such trips, one after the other, in the time that one would need to see the places one was visiting (although I get the feeling that he might have strayed further afield in Africa than he did. There is an element of depression at times that was perhaps strongest in Africa, that kept some of his questions from being asked, so that he decided to move on and end any meandering reflection.) He was always interested in takling to people of the places he visited, but not to justify or romanticize about some book-learned image of the place.He aims more to appreciate what the possibilities of the places he visits are now, and then more importantly, what people there feel their history to be.

It is almost as if he goes to visit a relative in each place, (although he never does this) and in the process was not recognised as a visitor or tourist (was not recognised as anything, perhaps, something that helped lend the novel air to the book, and an interesting element of his reflection. I guess it is based upon the narrator's (and author's, I suppose) African heritage, colonial experience, and English mother tongue, despite his never having lived in America, Britain, or Africa.)

I recomend this book as history and even as a novel. I Guess it is a new sort of book for this age, frank and real and yet also curiously fictitious. It is hard to put down. I look forward to reading it again. ... Read more

Product Description
Dorothy is a retired schoolteacher who has recently moved to a housing estate in a small village. Solomon is a night-watchman, an immigrant from an unnamed country in Africa. Each is desperate for love. And yet each harbors secrets that may make attaining it impossible.
With breathtaking assurance and compassion, Caryl Phillips retraces the paths that lead Dorothy and Solomon to their meeting point: her failed marriage and ruinous obsession with a younger man, the horrors he witnessed as a soldier in his disintegrating native land, and the cruelty he encounters as a stranger in his new one. Intimate and panoramic, measured and shattering, A Distant Shore charts the oceanic expanses that separate people from their homes, their hearts, and their selves. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

The story of two isolated individuals and a country in transition
The author has put his heart and soul into this work and his sincerity shines through every page. It is a story of two desolate individuals - a ship-wrecked, middle-aged Englishwoman and a polite and private young African man - who have arrived in the same bland English village at the same time but via different routes in life. They are both there to `lick their wounds'. It is also the story of a country, the `broken Britain' of political rhetoric, a country in transition, trying to adjust to social upheaval, an experience to which it is barely accustomed.
Dorothy has wasted much of her adult life on a loveless marriage and then followed up this failure with two ill-advised affairs, one of which has ended her career. Now, in desolation, she has isolated herself in a smart cul-de-sac in a new development in the town of her birth. Her neighbour, Solomon, is the local handyman who passes the days doing odd jobs and washing his car. Solomon is African, unusual in this particular neighbourhood, and an attribute which makes him both conspicuous and unwelcome. To Dorothy he is a polite and friendly man and a friendship based on mutual respect develops between them. But Solomon is reticent to discuss his past. Not the author, though, as Solomon's story unfolds in all its harrowing detail. This novel reminds us (indigenous Europeans) graphically that many migrants come to Europe from corrupt and lawless lands with the hope of rebuilding shattered lives. As distant relatives (by virtue of being human), the least they can expect is a smile and a greeting.
A Distant Shore is lucidly written, nicely paced and is very sympathetic towards the plight of its suffering protagonists. However, though I recognise within the pages the drab uniformity and casual rudeness of modern England I am less convinced by the remorseless hostility and arbitrary brutality depicted. That said, Caryl Phillips's compassionate work is highly recommended, but be warned that it is relentlessly sombre and pessimistic.

A Distant Shore
I got this book for a class, and I wasn't pleasantly surprised with how quickly it arrived.

Extremely well written but not a picker-upper.
A remarkable story, superbly told. It started off as a slow moving, melancholy, depressing story about a retired teacher - Dorothy Jones - whose only friend, if you can call him that, is Solomon the black neighbour, who drives her to her doctor's appointments. However, by the end of the story I had to give kudos to the author, who definitely pulled off a masterpiece.
The author is especially great at descriptions and incidentals- the portrayal of some cultural differences as well as sad commentary on the state of womankind as depicted by Dorothy.

This is any life, a retrospective
The work warmed me, massaged my frontal lobes by the third chapter.I was intrigued by the way the book was drawn, prettier than flashback.The story plays like an accordian, folding in on itself, each part touching the others by the book's end.

The characters develop in hunking displaced quarters that beg the reader to forage her heart for compassion.This is how we live and grow, it says -- one scene at a time, life event by life event.

And haven't we all?Would any of us recognize our 40 year-old selves if our life movie were played for us at 14? Unlikely, but the view from there to here is dramatic, and Phillips has drawn that line back to a distant shore.

Haunting Story
This was a deeply moving story. The struggle of Solomon and how he came to England haunts the mind. While Dorothy and her story haunts the spirit. This was a powerful drama. The end left me in tears and full of sorrow. A story not easily forgotten.
Reviewed by:
Dawnny
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Product Description

Conversations with Caryl Phillips collects nineteen interviews conducted over more than two decades on both sides of the Atlantic and in the Caribbean. While Phillips (b. 1958) admittedly tends to hide behind his characters in his fiction, he is completely forthcoming in his interviews, where he describes in detail the personal experiences of migration and dislocation that inspired his writing.

He shares ideas about his aesthetics, in particular his noted use of a fractured, polyphonic form. These exchanges demonstrate Phillips's knowledge about the contemporary world of politics and of writing while revealing his engaging humor, his sharp intelligence, and his deep commitment to the overarching aims of his work. ... Read more

Product Description
In a vastly ambitious and intensely moving novel, the author of Cambridge creates a many-tongued chorus of the African diaspora in the complex and riveting story of a desperate father who sells his three children into slavery. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

not horrible
though it was my original impulse to do so, i felt bad giving this book 2 stars because i was able to read it pretty well all the way through, and i was kept somewhat interested in what was going to happen next, and i liked the overall idea of the book - to explore some of the less obvious aspects of the impact of slavery. however, when considering the 4 topics chosen for this book, there seems no obvious reason as to why they were chosen. they are not connected in any way other than they involve descendents of slaves, and they dont seem to be of any other objective importance. within that, there are some innovative storytelling techniques, such as the story of the ship being told through the daily log, but then there are the parts where the captain is writing love letters, which seems to have nothing to do with the story other than to show him as having two different aspects to his personality, and to explore the way in which the writer is able to emulate an 18th century writing style. however, there is nothing dramatically important about those letters. we dont get to know the captain in enough contexts in order to care much about his love life - especially one so mushy. similarly, there is no real reason that the former slave master visits liberia, and there are no real character traits explored. after reading the book, im left thinking: "liberia was interesting." "there were black pioneers?" "slave ships sucked." "it must have been hard to have an interracial relationship in the 40s." and not much else. not much else is given, other than a writing style that is true to the time periods it discusses.

Sinking hopeful roots into difficult soil
The beauty of the language and the sweep of the narrative make this novel a moving and powerful experience for the reader.Caryl Phillips explores the abandonment and misery of slavery without indicting any of the participants above the rest.In fact, the prologue begins the story with the guilty voice of the father who sells his children to a white slaver out of "a desperate foolishness" when his crops fail. The reader follows the sin and suffering of all of the participants in the slave trade, black and white, and the virtuosity of Caryl Phillips use of language makes the journey both emotional and memorable.

A wonderful premise, but...
I think this book has amazing potential- the plot lines are intriguing, and the characters are interesting- but it falls far short of what I anticipated.Phillips' prose simply does not draw the reader in.Instead, it is dry and boring, and it becomes incredibly difficult to get through the long, uninteresting passages to find the good parts.While I think that many readers will enjoy this book because of the powerful plot line, it seemed to me as though the book relied too much on plot and not enough on quality writing.

"First person narratives told from varied points of view"
This book was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1993, Britain's equivalent to the Pulitzer. Phillips was born in the West Indies but raised in England, and the book is a series of first person narratives and stories told from a variety of points of view: an African father who sells his children into slavery, a freed slave in the South, an African-American GI in World War II. It moves from 1830s to 1960s in a sweeping look at the African Diaspora caused by slavery.

These are human stories not race stories
Eventhough the book is composed by four different unrelated stories, of a black evaegelist in Liberia, a black woman heading for a new life in California during the pilgrimage of the XIX century, the Captain of a slaves trading vessel, and a G.I in England during the II World War; for me there is a phrase that encompass most of the sadness and despair that goes with a life that other persons have damaged and limited due to the shade of your skin and not because of your actions and omissions.

"The young evangelist preached with all his might, but Marta could not find solace in religion, and was unable to sympathize with the sufferings of the sun of God when set against her own private misery". ... Read more

Product Description
A searing new novel that reimagines the remarkable, tragic, little-known life of Bert Williams (1874—1922), the first black entertainer in the United States to reach the highest levels of fame and fortune.

Even as an eleven-year-old child living in Southern California in the late 1800s–his family had recently emigrated from the Bahamas–Bert Williams understood that he had to “learn the role that America had set aside for him.” At the age of twenty-two, after years of struggling for success on the stage, he made the radical decision to do his own “impersonation of a negro”: he donned blackface makeup and played the “coon” as a character. Behind this mask, he became a Broadway headliner, starring in the Ziegfeld Follies for eight years and leading his own musical theater company–as influential a comedian as Chaplin, Laurel and Hardy, and W. C. Fields.
Williams was a man of great intelligence, elegance, and dignity, but the barriers he broke down onstage continued to bear heavily on his personal life, and the contradictions between the man he was and the character he played were increasingly irreconcilable for him. W. C. Fields called him “the funniest man I ever saw, and the saddest man I ever knew,” and it is this dichotomy at Williams’s core that Caryl Phillips illuminates in a richly nuanced, brilliantly written narrative.

The story of a single life, Dancing in the Dark is also a novel about the tragedies of race and identity, and the perils of self-invention, that have long plagued American culture. Powerfully emotional and moving, it is Caryl Phillips’s most accomplished novel yet.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Trite and unoriginal
I was looking for Mary Higgins Clark and came up upon this Mary Jane Clark book and thought I'ld give it a try.What a mistake! I found the book unbelievably trite and unoriginal.The story features quite a few girls in one small town who all have eating disorders and cut themselves. After meeting the rest of the characters in the town, I wanted to cut my own wrists!The protagonist was entirely one dimensional. The parents of the teen who was first kidnapped were pathetically weak rendering the whole relationship with the daughter impossibly plodding and unrealistic. The woman one of the kidnap victims babysits for is so boring and selfish that I found myself rooting for the husband to leave her! The author writes as if she is trying to tell us how much she knows about the news business without making it interesting or integrating it into the story therefore sounding altogether preachy without an ounce of vitality. The red herrings were obvious, the ending unsatisfying and the book was altogether an unpleasant read. I would definetely not recommend this book.

well done but one dimensional
Stylistically, this novelization of the life of comedian Bert Williams is a tour de force with its daring use of internal dialog and the mutliple points of view. The language is precise and intimate, although it occasionally lapses into the purple zone.

This book opens up the old discussion that is always debated in historical fiction: how true does it need to be? Phillips does an excellent job in describing the passive nature of Williams, and the fear he (and other Blacks) must have had about whites in that era.

Phillips, however, does a poor job in explaining Williams' need to perform, as well as other aspects of his personality that made him the most successful Black performer of his era.

Additionally, Phillips makes several errors in fact. He makes a theme through the novel on how Williams' proper father disapproved of his career. In reality, his father, a pool hall owner, was very impressed by his successful son. Another theme of the novel, of Williams drinking alone in solitude, is also wrong. Williams was a heavy drinker but always drank with friends and colleagues.

I enjoyed it with some reservations
I'm a Bert Williams fanatic. I have all of the current cds of his 80 surviving recordings and DVDs of his surviving films "Fish" and "Natural Born Gambler", as well as having read all three of his other biographies. So I eagerly awaited this fictionalization of his life.

Caryl Philips did a lot of research on Bert Williams and his partner George Walker and it shows. A lot of this stuff is close to the fact. I especially loved the sololoquies that he has some of the major characters exhorting in the book, such as Bert's wife Lottie's expression of her love for Bert, George Walker's feelings on his partner's thoughts, and Betr's final meditation on his father. Phillips has a beautiful way with the King's English and wonderfully articulates the innermost feelings of his characters.

However, while I'm aware that this is somewhat fictionalized and some artistic license is inevitable, some things are too far off the mark. First of all, Bert and Lottie DID adopt the latter's three neices as their own children, contrary to the book (one of them spoke fondly of Bert in a 1946 interview in Negro Digest), and the scene where Aida Overton Walker (George Walker's Widow) makes an explicit, drunken pass to Bert and suggests that her husband was sleepign with Berty's wife is a bit off the mark. Yeah, it spices up the story, but considering that these were real people, it gives me some pause.

But that aside, I would suggest the reader familiarize themselves with Bert Williams via his nonfiction bios and his recordings as it would help in fully understanding this story. That said, be prepared for an interesting read.

Dancing in a Dark, Dark World
"Dancing in the Dark" is a biographical novel of Bert Williams, the black entertainer who performed in vaudeville in the early part of the 20th century.He was one of the finest dancers and comedians of all times and eventually became the first black person to perform with the Ziegfield Follies. In his act, Williams played the slouching Jonah man, the careless, unlucky black for whicheverything goes wrong - a sort of "sad sack" character.To be acceptable to white audiences he has to play the shiftless, coon.Unfortunately, it was one of the only ways that white Americans would accpet a black on stage at the time.When Williams tried other roles, he failed. To perform his act, Williams had to blacken his face with burnt cork to coverhis his light complexion and his racial pride.

Caryl Phillips uses a style of writing that allows several voices to speak:Williams, his wife Lotties, his long time partner George Walker and also Walker's wife, Ada who eventually becomes Aida.(And one wonders if the change of names is a play on the opera of the same name that is alleged to be an improper characterization of a black woman.)Although the style allows the reader to get the perspective of various characters, there were times that I was confused and had to take a second look to make sure that I knew who was speaking.While this style of writing may be pleasing to some readers, I felt it distracted from the story. Williams story is one that should be told, but Phillips makes it difficult to hear.

The subplot regarding George Walker, Williams long time partner, and the relationship between the two makes for interesting analysis.Walker is the more business oriented partner and demonstrates more apparent racial pride, but is also a womanizer, often risking his career and that of Williams with his frequent liasons, espcially with a white female.But all the while his loyal wife stays with him.

Lottie has conflicts over her hair and it is not until Madam C. J. Walker develops hair products for women that she is able to deal with it.Like her husband, who uses burnt cork to cover his face, she uses hats to cover her hair.Is Phillips trying to say that like her husband, Lotties is unable to accept her image as a black woman?Is she in conflict because she does not have "good hair" like her sister, a sister who comes to a tragic end.

Willliams conflict is over his desire to be an entertainer. But his only option is to appear in black face. He desperately wants to entertain and he is excellent at his trade, however, society forces him to perform a role that demeans the image of black Americans. Was it his obligation to give up his trade for the greater good of the image of AfricanAmericans? That is what he is faced with when black leaders confront him. It is interesting that Williams is a native of the Bahamas who does not experience realy racism untl he comes to America at age ll. One also wonders if Williams would have had a better life if he had folowed his dreams and stayed in Europe, where he has major successes, like many black expatriates have done over the years. Phillips uses the symbolism of ocean voyages, on which Phillips suffers, as an analogy of this crossing over.

One also wonders if Phillips is trying to say that all of the characters are subconsciously unable to accept their blackness but spend their life trying to accept the world as best they can. Is there an analogy here between Williams performing in black face and the resulting conficts and tradegies in his life and Michael Jackson who had changed his image to appear in white face?

Philllips innuendoes about Willaims sexaulity is also interesting.While Walker's sexaul promiscuity leads to his death from syphilis, Williams life of non sexual relaltions with his wife, leads to a tragic life for both of them.Or does Williams have syphillis also and does not want to infect his wife?The reader does not know. This is just one of the dark sides of this very dark novel.Is it his conflict over color or his conflicts over homosexuality that causes Williams to spend most of his off stage life in dark bars with a bottle?

While I enjoyed the book, I felt that there could have been additional character development, especialy about Williams' youth.Also his relationship with his father, a proud black man who only goes to see his son perform one time.He is so replused that he can never undertake it again.

The subject of Bert Williams is ripe for further investigation and analysis.While Phillips scratches the surface and raise interesting issues he merely perks the readers interest.It many ways he fails to get at the real character of Bert Williams. He portrayal of the dark side of Williams life is so dark, that perhaps we miss the real man.

Enriching
"Dancing in the Dark" is a fictionalize portrayal of the life of Bert Williams, an early twentieth century vaudeville and Broadway performer.Mr. Williams immigrates to America from the West Indies at an early age and takes to the stage in an effort to sharpen his talents and support himself.It isn't long before Mr. Williams learns that there is only role that the American audience is interested in seeing a black man play - ragged, dumb, high-stepping comedic "darkie".Early in Mr. Williams' performance career he meets George Walker, a starving street performer, and the two decide to team up and perform with medicine shows.Soon the two form their own company producing and staring in shows that play on Broadway and in Europe. As the success of Williams & Walker builds, the partners differ on the direction in which their performance company should move.Walker is forward thinking and would like for their shows to portray blacks, accurately, as the multifaceted, dignified people he knows them to be.Williams can't seem to move from the blackened faced idiot character that the white audience revels in observing.

Phillips does an admirable job with "Dancing in the Dark" which for this reader serves as a cautionary tale of sorts, warning of the dangers inherent in allowing others to define you.Both Williams and Walker are fully realized characters struggling with internal conflicts frustrations that must certainly have plagued black performers during the vaudevillian era.Phillips explores the affects of Williams' corked face buffoonery on his relationships with others, especially his wife and father, while at the same time examining the slow destruction of a soul trapped by the limitations that others have placed upon it.Williams' success definitely came at a price.How can you maintain a healthy self image when you earn a living that propagates the most negative and humiliating stereotypes of your own race; entertaining the very people who insist on keeping those stereotypes and daft images at the forefront of American minds?

For me, the atmosphere of the novel is somewhat melancholy, although Phillips' prose deftly renders the professional and emotional conflicts central to the novel. The narrative approach, used to deliver the story did create a bit of distance for this reader (third person unknown to first person, was there an interviewer narrating at one point?).However; the author's use of newspaper and magazine reviews drafted in the language and style of the era contributed greatly to the novel's setting.Including song lyrics and playbill text also added to the feel of the period.Most importantly, I learned a little about a period that until this novel I've only had a surface understanding of.I recall a few years back actually seeing some old footage of a corked faced performance and being very embarrassed by it.After this read, I can fully appreciate the embarrassment that the performer might have felt as well.A very enriching read.Enjoy!
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From an acclaimed, award-winning novelist comes this brilliant hybrid of reportage, fiction, and historical fact: the stories of three black men whose tragic lives speak resoundingly to the problem of race in British society.

With his characteristic grace and forceful prose, Phillips describes the lives of three very different men: Francis Barber, “given” to the 18th-century writer Samuel Johnson, whose friendship with Johnson led to his wretched demise; Randolph Turpin, a boxing champion who ended his life in debt and decrepitude; and David Oluwale, a Nigerian stowaway who arrived in Leeds in 1949 and whose death at the hands of police twenty years later was a wake up call for the entire nation. As Phillips weaves together these three stories, he illuminates the complexities of race relations and social constraints with devastating results.


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Customer Reviews (3)

Disappointing
The book consists of three unconnected stories - that is, except for the theme of how black men were treated in Britain - told in what seemed to me a fairly clinical way, from the third person point of view.By not getting inside the head of the key person in each story, the author kept this reader at arms' length and made it difficult to become emotionally involved.
The author blends fiction and non-fiction but I thought that she could have made a better story had she stuck to one type of writing.

An important look at being a black man in England
My strongest overall impression of this work is the apparent deterioration in the treatment of black men in England between the first story (1700s) and the third and last story (mid to late 1900s). Phillips brings us the mostly tragic true (but embellished) stories of three black men from English history - Dr. Johnson's servant; a boxing champion; and an African immigrant. Dr. Johnson's servent seems to come to a tragic end mostly due to his own inability to find his way after his long-term employer's death. Turpin, the boxer, is much his own worst enemy, but is also "fed upon" by white and black hangers-on, and the white community which was his home failed to provide support or assistance once he was no longer a star. The African immigrant's story, however, is more like that of an American inner-city black - a story of closed doors, no opportunity, hopelessness, and police brutality, at a time when the idea that racial prejudice is inhumane was just beginning to be more generally accepted.

Overall, an interesting and fairly enjoyable read. Certainly educational. That combined with the importance of the subject matter make this a strongly recommended work.

The memoirist/reporter style is a bit dry for the long haul, but the structure and the subject matter provide plenty to keep the reader plugged in. The multiple voices in the last story, switching without much warning and often without clear identification, make it a bit difficult. But it does achieve the documentary feel that is apparently intended.

Stories of Black and White
Three historical figures, black or mixed-race, living at very different times in England, are the subject of Caryl Phillips's latest book. Two of them had come at a young age from the West Indies and West Africa respectively, the third was a son of an immigrant father and a white English mother. They have in common their belief that England is their home and their yearning to fit into the society of their time. All three marry into English families and raise families of their own. However, as a result of changing circumstances, they each end up in misery and hopelessness. In a merging of fictional reportage, memoir and description of historical facts, the author retraces their lives and the gradually more hostile environments leading to their unhappy end.

Francis Barber came to England as a young slave, gained his freedom and became the long time servant and companion of Samuel Johnson, the famous 18th century literary figure. Randolf Turpin turned into a national boxing hero around 1950, culminating in his briefly gaining the middleweight world championship. Finally, David Oluwale arrived in England in 1949 from his native Nigeria as a young stowaway and settled in the industrial region of Leeds. He became known as the first victim of racially motivated police brutality leading to his death in 1969.

Each story is self-contained - unconnected to the others. The links are the underlying themes of a black British subject's struggle to belong to "his" country.As an outsider in the "home" country, they must come to terms with a society that they inadequately understand and that is less than helpful in easing their adaptation and integration.

In attempting to place the stories in their true context, Phillips applies a different narration style to each tale. Barber's story is told in the voice of an 18th century gentleman journalist and his stilted language makes this story deliberately awkward and irritating reading. The narrator professes his liberal views, claiming to correct the general poor regard people have for Barber following his master's death. His stated empathy with his subject does not hide the deeply felt prejudices against blacks of the time. Turpin's anonymous biographer shows more sympathy for the man and the challenges he faced and goes into great detail describing them. Brought up in very modest circumstances by his widowed mother, "Randy" followed his brothers into a boxing career. His surprise rise to fame and title, brought sudden wealth to a young man, completely unprepared for a life of luxury and the management of his affairs. His numerous sudden "friends" exploited his generosity and kindness. His aggressive side, which led him into boxing in the first place, was particularly evident in his treatment of his women. The fame and fortunes, however, were short-lived and the poverty and misery that followed eventually broke him, despite the loving support of his young family.

In the third story, the author takes a very different narrative approach. The case of David Oluwale is a mosaic of a multitude of voices - time witnesses, each giving their own personal view and perspective on the man and his life in Leeds. They include a young girl, a social worker, another Nigerian immigrant, a doctor and, of course, the police. Nobody knows him well enough, yet the views vary from "quiet, educated, well-dressed and polite" to "unkempt, violent, sub-normal and savage". It is up to the reader to draw their own picture. Interleaved with the David's personal story, Phillips, who was born in Leeds, goes into disproportionate length and detail about the city's history through the ages and its role in the industrial revolution in Britain.While it adds some context to the narrative, it does divert the reader's attention away from the primary topic of the story. David's death led to a trial against two police officers known to have pursued and haunted him consistently. The tragedy of a life, started with great hope and idealism, ends after numerous periods in police custody, years in a mental institution and finally living on the street.

Phillips presents his readers with detailed portraits of the three men and their circumstances. While their stories are colourful, in describing them from the perspective of contemporary, yet outside observers, he sidesteps any discussion of the inner turmoil his subjects must have experienced. At a general level, his narrative expose problems of racial integration that have relevance today, yet he avoids specifics, except for the last case. In many ways, David's story is the most moving of the three, yet also devastating in its implications for the society at the time and since. Overall, the author remains in a grey zone between fact and fiction. The details of Turpin's story appear to be a factual account of his life without many creative elements beyond it. It is also unclear, for example, whether the statements by witnesses at the trial after David's death refer to actual quotes or imagined comments to fit the author's interpretation of David's profile. Phillips doesn't provide any sources or references to further reading on the three individuals. In the case of David, that could be seen as a serious omission as the research by Kester Aspden was well underway Nationality: Wog: The Hounding of David Oluwale.[Friederike Knabe]
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Helen Thomas examines the ways in which Caribbean/British novelist and playwright, Caryl Phillips responds both creatively and critically to the psychological effects of cultural dispersal, racism and economic colonial exploitation in particularly in Higher Ground(1989) his panoramic account of the black diaspora which spans 200 years and moves between Africa, The USA and Britain. ... Read more

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As nineteen-year-old Leila surveys her island home from the ship that will carry her, her husband, and baby to England, she contemplates the Caribbean life of the 1950s that is chaotic, hand-to-mouth, and offers no way but out. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A joy to read
This book can touch the heart of anyone especially female, who hasmigrated.Caribbean authors are definately showing their stuff to theworld. Thank you, C. Phillips ... Read more

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From stately lawns and gentlemen players to Andre Agassi and Venus Williams: 65 great writings on tennis that chronicle the transformation of the sport.

Since its inception, tennis has embraced traditions more patrician than plebeian. But times--and teAmazon.com Review
Divided into nine sections ("The Great Match," "The OldGuard," etc.), The Right Set moves easily down the line throughtime and culturally across court from the noblesse oblige of whiteflannels on green lawns to the smoldering tempers of Jimmy Connors,John McEnroe, and Venus Williams. In between, James Thurbervolleys a smashing winner with his courtside observations of SuzanneLenglen and Helen Wills; Ted Tingling waxes movingly on Bill Tilden;Grace Liechenstein celebrates Billie Jean King; and Arthur Ashedeftly takes apart his most formidable opponent--skin color--in "TheBurden of Race." John McPhee's superb Levels of the Game--abook-length report on a match between the fluid Ashe and themechanical Clark Graebner at Forest Hills--is happily excerptedtwice.

If the pieces themselves range from the sparklingly witty(see MartinAmis's "Tennis Personalities," positively radioactive withobservations like "Laver, Rosewall, Ashe: these were dynamic andexemplary figures; they didn't need 'personality' because they hadcharacter") to the curiously quaint (check out Wills's 1928 essay onetiquette), editor Phillips doesn't let his anthology cohere as a unitbecause he doesn't get in there and rally with it: first, hisintroduction is less sure-footed than Sampras on clay; second, heprovides no context for the individual pieces or the writers whopenned them. Which is too bad, because he's assembled a collection oftennis nonfiction that offers both power and touch--and an awful lotof memorable prose. --Jeff Silverman ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

If you like tennis, you'll love "The Right Set"
"The Right Set" is the tennis equivalent of "The Best Sports Stories" annual series except that it contains 44 great pieces written in the past 75 years.
My favorites are "Ladies of the Evening" by Martina Navratilova, "Tennis Personalities" by Martin Amis, "The Davis Cup" by Arthur Ashe, "Tilden: The American Mountain" by Ted Tinling, and "Becker" by Gordon Burn.
Since virtually every great player and important issue are
covered, I suggest you read a story or two a day to extend your reading pleasure.
If you like tennis, you'll love this treasure of a book.

Witty contemporary overview of Tennis icons
My wife loves for and lives for tennis. That's why, when I give her this book for her birthday in three weeks, she will have an even better insight into the soul of her well-known tennis heroes and heroines. Thiscompilation is a bright, insightful commentary of the state to Tennistoday; its nine sections involve description of virtually all facets of thegame, including tradition, history, personalities, etc. I know of no otherrecent publication that one can read and leave with the smug satisfactionthat comes with "expert-level" knowledge. You may not exactlyqualilfy for being a ref at Wimbledon after reading The Right Set, but youwill feel as if you could. ... Read more