The European tribe / Caryl Phillips.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Phillips, Caryl

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Race relations.

Europe--Description and travel.

Europe.

Phillips, Caryl--Travel--Europe.

Phillips, Caryl.

Travel.

Europe--Race relations.

Physical Description:

ix, 133 pages ; 21 cm

Edition:

First Vintage Books edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Vintage Books, 2000.

Summary:

In this richly descriptive and haunting narrative, Caryl Phillips chronicles a journey through modern-day Europe, his quest guided by a moral compass rather than a map. Seeking personal definition within the parameters of growing up black in Europe, he discovers that the natural loneliness and confusion inherent in long journeys collides with the bigotry of the "European Tribe" -- a global community of whites caught up in an unyielding, Eurocentric history.

Phillips deftly illustrates the scenes and characters he encounters, in places like poverty-stricken Casablanca, racy Costa del Sol, and peaceful Provence where he muses with writer James Baldwin over dinner about the state of the human spirit. He explores Venice through the Shakespearean outcast Othello, and views Amsterdam through the eyes of young Anne Frank. And he ultimately discovers that "Europe is blinded by her past, and does not understand the high price of her churches, art galleries, and history as the prison from which Europeans speak".

ISBN:

0375707042

OCLC:

42641635