Crossing the River

Rating:
Summary: BLACK BOOK LOVER 2004
Review: AS THE NEW YEAR IS UPON US, I OFFICIALLY OFFER YOU MY LIST OF THE 10 BEST BOOKS THAT I'VE READ IN 2004. THIS IS OUT OF ABOUT 84 BOOKS THAT I'VE READ THIS YEAR. EVERY SINGLE BOOK ON THIS LIST IS A MASTERPIECE WORTH BUYING. YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED WITH GREAT LITERATURE LIKE THE FOLLOWING:

"THE DARKEST CHILD"--Delores Phillips

The finest, most dramatic debut I've read in years. Top notch and gut-wrenching. This is by far the best book of 2004.

"BRICK LANE"--Monica Ali

Superb entry into a world foreign yet all too familiar. Flawless, beautiful writing.

"HOTTENTOT VENUS"--Barbara Chase Riboud

A True Story. Which makes this book all the more shocking and tragic. By now you've heard of the kidnapped and dehumanized South African woman paraded in the 1800's Europe as a "freak" because of her huge posterior and the apron over her genitals. Chase Riboud chronicles the tale perfectly and makes it far more interesting than just history. The fact that "Sarah" was like a Pop Superstar of her day makes it all the more chilling in my opinion. A definite Must-Read.

"FLESH AND THE DEVIL"--Kola Boof

Totally original, unexpected black love story. Chock full of African history, U.S. black history, fantastic plot twists, pulsating sex, equally dazzling "lovemaking", brilliant observations about race, color and sexism and plenty of risk-taking by the sensational Sudanese-born Kola Boof, truly a NEW STAR in the "epic" sense. Fabulous!

"DOUGLASS' WOMEN"--Jewel Parker Rhodes

If ever a fictionalized story of a real person's life/real events makes you totally believe inch and detail of the fiction writer's imagination--this one is it!! Jewel Parker Rhodes is turning out to be one of our most ardent writers of historical fiction, her brevity and flair for honest human emotion making her just a little BETTER, in my opinion, than the queen of historical black fiction--Barbara Chase Riboud. You can't go wrong with "DOUGLASS' WOMEN", it's sensational.

"ERASURE"---Percival Everett

I know. I'm late reading this one. But it's classic, fantastic, the greatest book ever written about being a "black" writer today. SUPERB. 10 Stars.

"A DISTANT SHORE"--Caryl Phillips

Great novel about "human beings" ripped apart in their own world and then thrown together in new equally dreadful surroundings. A black man and a white woman are juxtaposed in England with terribly beautiful insight by the writer. It's a hard book to explain, except that it's about human beings finding their real true minds. Superb!!!! I give this one 10 stars.

"DRINKING COFFEE ELSEWHERE"--Z.Z. Packer

The breakout debut of the new Alice Walker and Toni Morrison rolled into one. Z.Z. Packer is outrageously talented and brilliant. These sparse, witty, intelligent, insightful short stories will bring you to tears, make you laugh and truly astonish you.

"THE KNOWN WORLD"--Edward P. Jones

This book starts off kind of "slow", but once you get into it, it's quite shocking, easily one of the most important stories told in a decade. Jones deserves all the accolades and awards he's received for this masterful masterpiece of the new century.

"LOVE"--Toni Morrison

Still the undisputable greatest writer writing. Toni Morrison offers up one of her very best novels, the most underrated and overlooked novel of the year. Absolutely meszmerizing, a bute.


Rating:
Summary: Desperately heartbreaking vignettes of the African diaspora
Review: Caryl Phillips' Booker Prize shortlisted "Crossing The River" (CTR) about the emergence of an African diaspora arising from the slave trade with the African colonies is a collection of seemingly unrelated vignettes spanning over 100 years which share the same emotional core. Each of the four segments making up CTR is a cry from the soul, which poignantly if not bitterly captures the essence of the cultural dislocation suffered by those sold to foreign lands. Some, like Nash in "Pagan Coast", imbibe the Christian values of their colonial masters but experience the pull of their native calling when they are set free and returned as missionaries. Others like Martha, from "West", suffer the misery, indignity and hopelessness that only chattels should know. Phillips isn't out to demonise the white man. He leaves it to us to judge. How do we doubt do-gooder Edward's sincerity in making Nash into a new man ? But then there is also skipper James Hamilton's indifference to the cruelty meted out to slaves in the title segment. The final segment "Somewhere in England" doesn't seem to belong but it does. The strong emotional resonance that these stories evoke is what binds them together. Phillips also displays his literary genius and stylistic versatility in using different styles for the different segments. His Conrad-influenced prose in "Pagan Coast" boasts some of the most beautiful and fluent writing ever. On "Somewhere in England", he comes across like a contemporary novelist using prose punctuated by thought fragments. "CTR" brings four separate but all desperately heartrending stories together. The names of the three children - 2 boys and a girl - sold to slavery by their father in an act of desperate foolishness and named Nash, Martha and Taylor, all make their appearances. They are the countless nameless who consititute the African diaspora today. CTR is a brilliantly constructed and devastatingly powerful piece of work. Nobody interested in serious literature should miss it !

Rating:
Summary: These are human stories not race stories
Review: 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".

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I love Phillips' writing style in this historical fiction. I read it ten years ago, and it is still one of my favorites that I lend out to friends with positive response.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: I love Phillips' writing style in this historical fiction. I read it ten years ago, and it is still one of my favorites that I lend out to friends with positive response.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful premise, but...
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: "First person narratives told from varied points of view"
Review: 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.