The European Tribe

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The European Tribe
Faber and Faber
Publication date
1987
Media typePrint

The European Tribe is the first book of essays by

Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Characterised by Andrea Lee in The New York Times as "part travelogue, part cri de coeur",[1] the collection chronicles the author's journey through multiracial Europe of the 1980s, "guided by a moral compass rather than a map" and "seeking personal definition within the parameters of growing up black in Europe".[2] Maya Jaggi of The Guardian has called it "a coolly indignant dissection of the 'sickness in Europe's soul'".[3]

According to a review in

Tocqueville's classic [Democracy in America
], and may well become a classic of cultural exploration itself. ...Phillips' true theme in his travels everywhere is the global disenfranchisement of black people at a time when 'America has conquered Europe economically, politically, and culturally.' In 1831, Tocqueville wrote of Americans: 'The taste for superiority crops up everywhere.' A century and a half later, Phillips sees Europe in decline, America, 'the Frankenstein that Europe created risen from the slab,' and right-wing extremism becoming increasingly the solution to unemployment, hopelessness, and disillusionment in Western Europe.

The European Tribe, comprised partly of personal odyssey, partly of political indictment, is too important a book to be ignored."[5]

The European Tribe was awarded the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize in 1987.[6]

References

  1. ^ Andrea Lee, "Into the White Continent" (review), The New York Times, 9 August 1987.
  2. ^ The European Tribe at Caryl Phillips website.
  3. ^ Maya Jaggi, "Rites of passage", The Guardian, 3 November 2001.
  4. ^ "The European Tribe by Caryl Phillips" (review), The Caribbean Writer, Volume 2, 1988.
  5. ^ Charles R.Johnson, "The European Tribe by Caryl Phillips" (review), Los Angeles Times, 19 July 1987.
  6. ^ "Awards", Caryl Phillips website.

External links

Reviews

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