The European Tribe [Paperback]

Caryl Phillips (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2, 2000

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 jorneys 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, from Casablanca and Costa del Sol to Venice, Amsterdam, Oslo, and Moscow.  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."

In the afterword to the Vintage edition, Phillips revisits the Europe he knew as a young man and offers fresh observations.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

An Oxford graduate born in the West Indies, 29-year-old Phillips (A State of Independence has suffered from racial discrimination ever since first coming to London as a child. In these short notes on a year's international wanderings, he speculates on the problems of minority peoples living amongst "the European tribe," which has forced its languages and cultures on the world. In Casablanca, the poverty of the Moroccan people is at variance with his memories of the movie classic; in Venice, he reflects on Shakespeare's Shylock and Othello; on a Paris Metro platform his arm is grabbed by a young black man who has been pickpocketed by whites; and in Amsterdam, he visits the Anne Frank house. An Irish archbishop tells him that Flora Shaw, a Dubliner, gave Nigeria its name (after "Niger-area"). Foreign workers in West Germany "have no civil rights" and "do not officially exist." Customs officers in Norway hassle him at the airport. Phillips's findings are not especially new, but his eyes are sensitive and his pen is sharp. He deserves better editing. First serial to the New York Times Book Review.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

British novelist Phillips set out in 1984 to explore Europe. He began his journey in Morocco, Europe's closest southern neighbor, and subsequently traveled to Spain, southern France (where he met James Baldwin), Venice, Amsterdam, Poland, Norway, Moscow, and, finally, home to Britain. He was not seeking sights or museums or adventure; instead, Phillips's journey was one of personal exploration, an attempt to solve the question of what it means to be an exile and a minority in Europe (he is black). Phillips has little empathy with the cultural bravado of a Eurocentric past, and he ends his book with a powerful criticism of what he calls the "European tribe"the global community of white power brokers who have imposed their culture and language on their non-white neighbors of the Third World. A bit strident but recommended for larger collections. Laurence Hull, Cannon Memorial Library, Concord, N.C.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Vintage; 1st Vintage Books ed edition (May 2, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375707042
• ISBN-13: 978-0375707049
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.2 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,143,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Caryl Phillips is the author of numerous works of fiction and nonfiction. His novel A Distant Shore won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize, and his other awards include the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and lives in New York.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Europe through the eyes of a Black Englishman, September 21, 2000

By 

saskatoonguy (Saskatoon, Saskatchewan Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The European Tribe (Paperback)

Phillips' travels, which occurred before the fall of Communism, cover Morocco, Gibralter, Spain, France, Italy, Netherlands, Ireland, Germany, Poland, Norway, and the Soviet Union.

Any travel narrative needs a 'hook' or a theme, and Phillips' is to seek out things that he can particularly relate to, as an Englishman of Black descent. He identifies with the plight of European Jews, and in other countries he highlights encounters with local Blacks. He seems to be straining for material at times, and oddly, rarely goes out of his way to seek out the local Black community, instead relying on happenstance. Yet, as he points out, the results of the Caribbean diaspora are everywhere: Even in northern Norway, he encounters another emigrant from the English-speaking Caribbean. Norway is also the occasion where the author loses his temper due to one-too-many racist incidents, and the target of his eruption is, of all things, a Norwegian customs officer. Phillips is paranoid about the revival of fascism in Europe, but perhaps that's understandable as he recounts racist slights and insults (some quite shocking to this white reader) that occur during his travels, as well as from his life in the US and UK.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My Island Man, August 8, 2000

By 

J. Chapman (Maplewood, New Jersey United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The European Tribe (Paperback)

I stumbled across "European Tribe" and decided to read it not only because it was written by someone born in my island (St.Kitts & Nevis), but because it describes places that I long to visit. Caryl Phillips uses a thought provoking style to tell of his travel around the world. As I journeyed with him I enjoyed his vivid and frank language and also his analysis of the different cultures. I also appreciate Caryl Phillips' use and revelation of historical facts and theories to tell his story. I will recommend "European Tribe" to anyone interested in a black man's expereince with various cultures of the world.

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Thoughtful Analysis of European Culture, July 23, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The European Tribe (Paperback)

In his narrative, The European Tribe, Caryl Phillips writes about his experiences as a black British intellectual traveling mostly in Europe. He starts in Casablanca and works his way north visiting such places as Paris, Venice, and Amsterdam, finishing up in Russia before returning to England. This book was originally written in the early eighties, so Phillips is describing some places still behind the Iron Curtain. But this edition does include an afterword written in 1999. In his rational way, Phillips comments in the afterword, "Europeans are human beings. They are subject to the same insecurities, the same inability to forgive, the same prejudices, the same disturbing nationalism, the same cruelties, as any other people" (132). This is a good travelogue, but it is also an enlightening book for people whose main reading about the black experience has been from the viewpoint of African-Americans.