In contrast to most first- and second-generation Caribbean writers, Caryl "Caz" Phillips has been singularly successful from early on in his writing career. Few Caribbean writers can claim as Phillips...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Barnes discusses the myth of resettlement in The Final Passage, concluding that Phillips "only partially illuminates its theme."
Homesickness is fabulous mag...
Read more
In the following essay, Sarvan and Marhama examine the representation of historical violence and its consequences in The Final Passage, A State of Independence, and Higher Ground.
Caryl Phillips wa...
Read more
In the following review, Jaggi finds Cambridge to be "a masterfully sustained, exquisitely crafted novel."
Caryl Phillips's first two novels skilfully probed the link between B...
Read more
In the following interview, Phillips discusses the genesis of Cambridge and comments on the different cultural influences at work in his writings.
I first met Caryl, or Caz as I've come to k...
Read more
In the following excerpt from an interview conducted in St. Kitts, West Indies, Phillips speaks to his identity as a writer, relates various literary and cultural influences in his work, and discusses...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Pierpont analyzes Cambridge in the context of Phillips's other works.
In the introduction to his play The Shelter, produced in 1983, when he was twenty-five, the Br...
Read more
In the following essay, O'Callaghan treats the intertextual aspects of Cambridge by examining the novel's relation to slave narratives and travel journals or diaries.
Post-modernism ...
Read more
In the following review, Reynolds likens the structure of Crossing the River to "a consciousness of the burdens of slavery."
Crossing the River, Caryl Phillips's fifth novel, r...
Read more
In the following review, Jaggi relates Phillips's own comments on Crossing the River.
Graham Greene once said childhood was the bank balance of the writer. For Caryl Phillips, the source goe...
Read more
In the following review, Burroway considers Crossing the River "a brilliant coherent vision" and "a book with an agenda."
"The past is never dead," William...
Read more
In the following interview, Phillips talks about his literary success and his responsibilities as a writer.
Taken to England at the "portable" age of 12 weeks from St. Kitts, one of t...
Read more
In the following review, Montrose finds little to fault in The Final Passage, noting that Phillips "has clear potential as a novelist."
Caryl Phillips's first novel [The Final ...
Read more
In the following review, Griffin gives a favorable assessment of Crossing the River, concluding that "the book's final pages [are surely among the most powerful and beautiful pages writt...
Read more
In the following review, Maja-Pearce pans A State of Independence, faulting its "appalling prose style and indifferent characterisation."
For some time now writing by 'black&#x...
Read more
In the following review, Eder finds "a singular freshness" in Phillips's characters in A State of Independence.
From the time he lands in St. Kitts, the Caribbean island he lef...
Read more
Below, Bery calls The European Tribe "an uneven, thin-textured book."
Caryl Phillips's novel A State of Independence deals with the dilemma of a man who goes back to the Caribb...
Read more
In the following review, Lee suggests that the essays in The European Tribe are too brief for "sustained analysis" since Phillips's focus is too broad.
Part travelogue, part cr...
Read more
In the following review, Rubin determines that The European Tribe "is a significant book, but an uneven one."
"As a first-generation migrant, I came to Britain at the portable ...
Read more
In the following review, Lively complains that the theme of oppression in Higher Ground "sticks out too much."
One of the most damaging ways in which to draw and quarter a novel is by...
Read more
In the following review, Smith laments the lack of "a vision of transformation" in Higher Ground.
Caryl Phillips's novel Higher Ground recounts a tragically familiar tale three...
Read more
Caryl Phillips
Critical Review by Hugh Barnes
