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Books by Caryl Phillips
Crossing the River /
The Atlantic Sound
/
The State of Independence /
Cambridge /
The European Tribe
Extravagant Strangers /
The Nature of Blood /
Final Passage /
Dancing in the Dark /
Forigners /
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A
Conversation with Caryl Phillips
author of the novel
A Distant Shore
Q.
A Distant Shore is your seventh
novel, the latest addition to a body of work that Time Magazine
recently called "one of literature's great meditations on
race and identity." How does this novel further these
themes in your work?
Phillips: I think the more you write and publish, the
clearer it becomes just what your territory is. I'm more
concerned with "identity" than with "race."
The latter is just one component in the former, along with
religion, gender, nationality, class, etc. This is obviously a
novel about the challenged identity of two individuals, but it's
also a novel about English--or national--identity.
Q: Unlike your previous novels, A Distant Shore is set
in the present day. Did specific news events compel you to write
a contemporary novel?
Phillips: There was no specific news story, but one
couldn't help but be aware if the debate about asylum seekers in
Europe during the past few years. I noticed that a lot of the
pejorative language used to describe them was similar to that
applied to immigrants of my parents' generation. I've always
felt that I would write a contemporary novel when the right
subject-matter presented itself. And, of course, the right
characters. I am still deeply committed to the notion of
"history" being the fundamental window through which
we have to peer in order to see ourselves clearly.
Q. One of the book's main characters, an aging white
Englishwoman named Dorothy, seems lost in her own country, like
she doesn't know the rules anymore now that immigrants are so
much a part of her daily life. Why did you choose to give her
one of the major voices in the book?
Phillips: Well, she demanded attention. The complexity
of her life, and the corrosion that she was suffering, drew me
in. A supposedly quiet, almost anonymous, life, yet one filled
with drama and internal anguish. Like so many people out there.
Q. The other major perspective in the book is that of
Gabriel, a black African man who journeys to England to escape
horrors in his homeland. You've traveled to Sierra Leone,
officially the poorest nation in the world and also one of the
most violent in Africa. Is this character based on people you
met on that trip?
Phillips: No, I went to Sierra Leone after the book
was published in England I didn't base Gabriel's character,
background, or journey on any particular African country.
However, I did have in mind, Rwanda, Liberia, the Congo, and
Sierra Leone. I have traveled pretty extensively in sub-Saharan
Africa, but I've (wisely, I think) tried to avoid war-torn
zones. But one reads, listens, observes.
Q: Dorothy and Gabriel form an unlikely friendship.
What does their relationship signify about cultural shifts in
England?
Phillips: Well their friendship is tentative, full of
anxiety, riddled with doubt, self-doubt, and conducted under the
full and judgmental scrutiny of people who are quick to condemn.
This being the case, I don't think there has been much cultural
shift in England. People continue to be upright about
miscegenation of all kinds--sexual, religious, class
"transgressions" are still frowned upon. It's still
hard to be friendly to the "other" in many parts of
England.
Q: The book is structured chronologically backwards so
that readers learn immediately of Dorothy and Gabriel's
friendship, and are then taken back in time to learn how their
very different lives came to intersect. Why did you decide to
use this format?
Phillips: It just seemed to be the best way to tell
the story. I wanted to give out the idea that this cautious
friendship was actually forged by degrees; painful degrees, as
two people from very different backgrounds tip-toed towards each
other.
Q: Early on the story, Gabriel is murdered by a group
of white teenagers after he settles in their town. Why did you
choose to end his life this way?
Phillips: There is still a lot of racial violence in
English life--both officially and unofficially. The statistics
for racially-motivated murder--or hate crimes--in England are
shameful. It seems to me quite likely that a man such as
Gabriel, in a village such as the one described in the book,
might conceivably meet such a tragic end.
Q: You grew up in northern England, where you were one
of the few black people in a white working class town. Have you
been back to your hometown to see whether it has changed?
Phillips: I've been back to Leeds many times. The city
has changed enormously. It's now economically buoyant,
confident, and even trendy. there's a lot of nightlife, the club
scene is good, and there is great shopping. The place is
buzzing. however, the part of Leeds where I grew up is still
struggling with social problems, including racism. There are
still few non-white faces, and those that walk the streets are
subjected to much abuse. So, like most cities, the place has a
public face and a private face. the public face is certainly
rosier than it was when I was a boy, but the private face
is just as sinister.
Q: Films like Bend It Like Beckham and East
Is East show an England where kids mix among different
cultures more easily. Is this the case?
Phillips: Well, both films didn't shy away from an
albeit tentative exploration of racial problems. However, London
(the setting for Bend It Like Beckham) is not a city that
you can use as a barometer for the rest of England. (It's
similar here in New York--i.e., it's difficult to make any
judgments about the USA based on NYC.) Kids in the inner-city
areas do mix more readily than those from rural or suburban
backgrounds, but the vast majority of England is not "inner
city." And even in the inner-city one still sees many
problems.
Q: Would these films even have been made when your
parents came to England from the West Indies four decades ago?
Phillips: No, they would not have been made. Nobody
was interested in the story of people who were
"foreign" in that most obvious way--i.e., racially
different. These "new" films are about people who are
curiosities, i.e., British and "foreign." The fact
that these youngsters are both participating in, AND standing
apart from, British life makes them objects of curiosity. Their
parents--my parents--were always configured by the politicians
and the media as a "problem that might one day go away.
Q: After you graduated from Oxford, you met the writer
James Baldwin, who greatly influenced your life. Tell us about
your friendship with him. What writer would have the same impact
on a young black man today?
Phillips: I was very lucky to get to know a writer as
generous as James Baldwin. He was
the first writer i knew, and I watched him "handle"
the pressure of being a public figure. It's not something I
would wish upon any writer! I very quickly understood how
important it is to guard one's privacy and keep focused on the
work. I understood that the literary world is subject to the
vagaries of fashion, the poison of money and celebrity, and all
of it means nothing when set against the legacy of the work. I'm
not sure who would serve such a role in Britain today. There are
young women like Zadie Smith who I'm sure are encouraging a new
generation to think of literature as an option.
Q: You've written about the recent 40th
anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I
Have a Dream" Speech. What is the significance of this
anniversary to you?
Phillips: The anniversary reminds one of how far we've
fallen in such a short space of time. From the eloquence of that
speech to a president who debases his office with utterances
such as "Bring them on." Language is vital and
precious. It dignifies us.
Q: In addition to books, you've written plays, movies
(Merchant-Ivory's The Mystic Masseur) TV dramas and radio
scripts. Are you working on a film project now?
Phillips: I'm not very good at talking about what I'm
working on. I am doing a film for the BBC, but who knows if it
will come to fruition.
Q: You constantly travel around the globe, have ties
in England, St. Kitts, and New York. Getting to your own issues
of identity, who do you root for during the Olympics?
Phillips: I root for individual athletes. I'm very
suspicious of nationalism of all kinds, including sporting
nationalism. However, when it comes to team sports, i suppose I
still have a soft spot for England. It's where I grew up and
went to school. But I've lived in the United states for nearly
fourteen years, and I feel increasingly a part of this society.
I can see how I've changed and grown here, and I'm happy to have
had this opportunity. Source:
A Distant Shore "Knopf Q & A" -- Alfred A. Knopf, New
York, 212-782-9000,
A Distant Shore
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updated 22 October 2007 |
