''The European Tribe'' is the first book of essays by
Caryl Phillips
Caryl Phillips (born 13 March 1958) is a Kittitian-British novelist, playwright and essayist. Best known for his novels (for which he has won multiple awards), Phillips is often described as a Black Atlantic writer, since much of his fictional ...
, published in 1987 (in the UK by
Faber and Faber
Faber and Faber Limited, usually abbreviated to Faber, is an independent publishing house in London. Published authors and poets include T. S. Eliot (an early Faber editor and director), W. H. Auden, Margaret Storey, William Golding, Samuel B ...
and in the US by
Farrar, Straus & Giroux). Characterised by
Andrea Lee in ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' as "part travelogue, part cri de coeur", 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".
of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'' has called it "a coolly indignant dissection of the 'sickness in Europe's soul.
According to a review in ''
The Caribbean Writer
The University of the Virgin Islands (or UVI) is a public historically black land-grant university in the United States Virgin Islands.
History
UVI was founded as the College of the Virgin Islands on March 16, 1962. In 1986, it officially beca ...
'', "The topics of race, nationality and culture have loomed large in the consciousness of 20th century individuals, and they continue to attract literary writers of diverse sensibilities. Rarely, however, has the black writer attempted to grapple with such impassioned issues among Europeans; it is an enticing subject, for which Mr. Phillips would appear to be exceptionally equipped."
Charles R. Johnson
Charles Richard Johnson (born April 23, 1948) is a scholar and the author of novels, short stories, screen-and-teleplays, and essays, most often with a philosophical orientation. Johnson has directly addressed the issues of black life in Am ...
in the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' wrote:
"Novelist Caryl Phillips' brief, eye-opening book, ''The European Tribe,'' is one black man's answer to Tocqueville's classic 'Democracy in America''">Democracy_in_America.html" ;"title="'Democracy in America">'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."
''The European Tribe'' was awarded the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize in 1987.
"Awards"
Caryl Phillips website.
References
External links
at Caryl Phillips website.
Reviews
Charles R. Johnson
''Los Angeles Times'', 19 July 1987.
* Andrea Lee
''The New York Times'', 9 August 1987.
{{DEFAULTSORT:European Tribe, The
1987 non-fiction books
British travel books
English non-fiction books
Essay collections
Faber and Faber books