Customer Reviews

Foreigners

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Three historical figures, black or mixed-race, living at very different times in England, are the subject of Caryl Phillips's latest book. Two of them had come at a young age from the West Indies and West Africa respectively, the third was a son of an immigrant father and a white English mother. They have in common their belief that England is their home and their yearning to fit into the society of their time. All three marry into English families and raise families of their own. However, as a result of changing circumstances, they each end up in misery and hopelessness. In a merging of fictional reportage, memoir and description of historical facts, the author retraces their lives and the gradually more hostile environments leading to their unhappy end.

Francis Barber came to England as a young slave, gained his freedom and became the long time servant and companion of Samuel Johnson, the famous 18th century literary figure. Randolf Turpin turned into a national boxing hero around 1950, culminating in his briefly gaining the middleweight world championship. Finally, David Oluwale arrived in England in 1949 from his native Nigeria as a young stowaway and settled in the industrial region of Leeds. He became known as the first victim of racially motivated police brutality leading to his death in 1969.

Each story is self-contained - unconnected to the others. The links are the underlying themes of a black British subject's struggle to belong to "his" country. As an outsider in the "home" country, they must come to terms with a society that they inadequately understand and that is less than helpful in easing their adaptation and integration.

In attempting to place the stories in their true context, Phillips applies a different narration style to each tale. Barber's story is told in the voice of an 18th century gentleman journalist and his stilted language makes this story deliberately awkward and irritating reading. The narrator professes his liberal views, claiming to correct the general poor regard people have for Barber following his master's death. His stated empathy with his subject does not hide the deeply felt prejudices against blacks of the time. Turpin's anonymous biographer shows more sympathy for the man and the challenges he faced and goes into great detail describing them. Brought up in very modest circumstances by his widowed mother, "Randy" followed his brothers into a boxing career. His surprise rise to fame and title, brought sudden wealth to a young man, completely unprepared for a life of luxury and the management of his affairs. His numerous sudden "friends" exploited his generosity and kindness. His aggressive side, which led him into boxing in the first place, was particularly evident in his treatment of his women. The fame and fortunes, however, were short-lived and the poverty and misery that followed eventually broke him, despite the loving support of his young family.

In the third story, the author takes a very different narrative approach. The case of David Oluwale is a mosaic of a multitude of voices - time witnesses, each giving their own personal view and perspective on the man and his life in Leeds. They include a young girl, a social worker, another Nigerian immigrant, a doctor and, of course, the police. Nobody knows him well enough, yet the views vary from "quiet, educated, well-dressed and polite" to "unkempt, violent, sub-normal and savage". It is up to the reader to draw their own picture. Interleaved with the David's personal story, Phillips, who was born in Leeds, goes into disproportionate length and detail about the city's history through the ages and its role in the industrial revolution in Britain. While it adds some context to the narrative, it does divert the reader's attention away from the primary topic of the story. David's death led to a trial against two police officers known to have pursued and haunted him consistently. The tragedy of a life, started with great hope and idealism, ends after numerous periods in police custody, years in a mental institution and finally living on the street.

Phillips presents his readers with detailed portraits of the three men and their circumstances. While their stories are colourful, in describing them from the perspective of contemporary, yet outside observers, he sidesteps any discussion of the inner turmoil his subjects must have experienced. At a general level, his narrative expose problems of racial integration that have relevance today, yet he avoids specifics, except for the last case. In many ways, David's story is the most moving of the three, yet also devastating in its implications for the society at the time and since. Overall, the author remains in a grey zone between fact and fiction. The details of Turpin's story appear to be a factual account of his life without many creative elements beyond it. It is also unclear, for example, whether the statements by witnesses at the trial after David's death refer to actual quotes or imagined comments to fit the author's interpretation of David's profile. Phillips doesn't provide any sources or references to further reading on the three individuals. In the case of David, that could be seen as a serious omission as the research by Kester Aspden was well underway Nationality: Wog: The Hounding of David Oluwale. [Friederike Knabe]

Caryl Phillips writes with great power and beauty. Many of his books create a world in which the familiar becomes unfamiliar, as Phillips often writes from the point of view of new immigrants. Caryl Phillips latest work, "Foreigners: Three English Lives", combines three separate tales of black men in Great Britain. All three characters are based on actual individuals whose biographies are mixed by Philips with invented narration and moment.

The first novella concerns Francis Barber who found himself in an awkward place as both servant and friend to the 18th century English intellectual Dr. Johnson - who is best remembered as the originator of the dictionary. The second novella brings us up to the 1950's as we consider boxer Randy Turpin and his surprising defeat of the champion Sugar Ray Robinson for boxing's middleweight title in a fierce match in 1951. The third novella tracks, through multiple viewpoints and voices, the death of David Oluwale at the hands of the British police in 1968.

Caryl Phillips, by combining three disparate experiences of black men in Britain, forces us to break free from our stereotypes and look at Barber, Turpin and Oluwale as individuals. The three men are united by the color of their skin and the prejudices they experienced, but their separate and precious lives stand out as jewels on velvet. Highly recommended.

My strongest overall impression of this work is the apparent deterioration in the treatment of black men in England between the first story (1700s) and the third and last story (mid to late 1900s). Phillips brings us the mostly tragic true (but embellished) stories of three black men from English history - Dr. Johnson's servant; a boxing champion; and an African immigrant. Dr. Johnson's servent seems to come to a tragic end mostly due to his own inability to find his way after his long-term employer's death. Turpin, the boxer, is much his own worst enemy, but is also "fed upon" by white and black hangers-on, and the white community which was his home failed to provide support or assistance once he was no longer a star. The African immigrant's story, however, is more like that of an American inner-city black - a story of closed doors, no opportunity, hopelessness, and police brutality, at a time when the idea that racial prejudice is inhumane was just beginning to be more generally accepted.

Overall, an interesting and fairly enjoyable read. Certainly educational. That combined with the importance of the subject matter make this a strongly recommended work.

The memoirist/reporter style is a bit dry for the long haul, but the structure and the subject matter provide plenty to keep the reader plugged in. The multiple voices in the last story, switching without much warning and often without clear identification, make it a bit difficult. But it does achieve the documentary feel that is apparently intended.

The book consists of three unconnected stories - that is, except for the theme of how black men were treated in Britain - told in what seemed to me a fairly clinical way, from the third person point of view. By not getting inside the head of the key person in each story, the author kept this reader at arms' length and made it difficult to become emotionally involved.
The author blends fiction and non-fiction but I thought that she could have made a better story had she stuck to one type of writing.