CROSSING THE RIVER

By Caryl Phillips

St. Kitts-born British novelist Caryl Phillips is fully aware that few blacks have come to grips with the ravages of slavery in the American south. Even for those who have, there are stories that remain untold -- and which still hover on the horizon of history.

Phillips' fifth offering, Crossing The River, is the pinnacle of his drive to identify, understand and re-weave some curiously omitted threads of experience back into the quilt of black consciousness.

Instead of dwelling on the self-hate legacy of slavery Phillips explores the myriad relationships that were forged by it.

Shortlisted for the 1993 Booker Prize, Crossing The River is both gut-wrenching and uplifting as Phillips turns one-dimensional perceptions of black experience upside down.

It's a fearlessly honest, time-tripping epic that shies away from no taboo. Lovelorn letters from the 1800s reveal cross-generational love between a repatriated ex-slave and his former master.

In between, Phillips draws from eerie journal entries of an 18th-century slave ship captain and the hallucinatory thoughts of an aged, freedom-seeking slave precariously perched in the Wild West.

What comes forth is both repugnant and alluring as three distinct historical themes ingeniously embody 250 years of spiritual and existential toil.

The title's "crossing" begins with the confession of nameless father -- a would-be free man -- who is spiritually bound by economic shackles. In a moment of "desperate foolishness" he sells his and two sons into slavery, hurling them out into the diaspora.

They land with a resonant thud -- separated by thousands of miles and hundreds of years.

Baptized by the lyrical eloquence that seeps from all of Phillips' work, Crossing The River Is a soul-searching odyssey that bravely grapples with the many dilemmas of black identity through the ages.

--sigcino moyo

original publication: NOW