April 6, 2003

It isn’t often the case that Marvin Gaye and V.S Naipaul make an appearance in the pages of the same publication. Then again, it isn’t often that a piece of literature attempts to and succeeds, for the most part, in documenting and reflecting on the work and influence of such a diverse range of personalities as Caryl Phillips does in A New World Order: Selected Essays.

Phillips, born in St Kitts and based in London and New York, has previously written six novels and edited numerous anthologies. He is amongst the most respected of authors and commentators on cultural plurality and the immigrant experience in Britain. It is this theme which becomes the central plank on which this collection of essays is based. Phillips examines the works of cultural artists — a broad category encompassing mainly writers, but also musicians and film directors — and the influence it has had on global society and which it may continue to have.

All the people he has written about — Derek Walcott, C.L.R. James, V.S. Naipaul, Richard James to name just a few — are essentially outsiders or others in their communities. Whether it is blacks in America, Indians in the Caribbean, West Indians in the UK, they are all essentially viewed as outsiders. And this sentiment is prevalent in their works.

Divided into four sections, the book scans the literary and socio-cultural landscapes of the US, the Caribbean, Africa and Britain, all the while providing a dissection not only of pieces of work, but also relating it to his own experiences as an immigrant. Phillips reflects first on the novel that inspired him to start writing, Richard Wright’s groundbreaking and controversial The Native Son, a novel written in 1940, that captured the harsh, uncompromising reality of pre-1960s racism in the US. The novel won praise and criticism in almost equal measure and continues to do so today.

One of the biggest critics of the novel, James Baldwin, is also examined. Baldwin, like Wright, moved to the “less racially oppressive air of Europe”, and penned Giovanni’s Room. Although in no way as politically charged as Wright’s work, and in fact race-less, the novel nonetheless attracted much attention during the fifties for dealing with the subject of homosexuality.

However, the best essay in this enlightening first section is on Marvin Gaye. Phillips charts the troubled times of Gaye’s life, from his strict religious upbringing to his gospel singing days, through the highs of his all-too brief flirtation with music as a form of political activism (the classic ‘What’s goin’ on?’) right through to the lows of his drug abuse, bankruptcy, sexual frustrations, the descent into a love-machine caricature and his eventually tragic murder by his own father.

This section ends with a brief critique of Steven Spielberg and his rather dubious and superficial progression from an excellent chronicler of adventure tales and fantasy to a serious, critically-acclaimed director intent on examining issues such as the Jewish holocaust and the Amistad slave rebellion.

‘Africa’ surveys the works of three writers, Amandou Hampate Ba, Nadine Gordimer and J.M Coetzee. While the latter two tackle the multifarious issues arising from years of apartheid in South Africa, and in a sense tackle the more conventional legacies of African literature, it is the essay on Ba, which makes for very interesting reading. Ba’s novels betray a languid written style, rooted as they are in the great West African tradition of oral storytelling. Although his novels explore the colonizer/colonized relationship on the surface, the undercurrents are concerned more with the battle between the written (Western) and oral (African) traditions of storytelling.

Phillips then moves to scrutinize figures from his Caribbean background. He touchingly recalls a trip to St Kitts on the day the island ‘gained’ independence, then glides onto discuss the theme of a lost home that filtered through much of Derek Walcott’s poetry. He reserves most of his energy and passion for two literary giants who loom over most of the Caribbean — C.L.R. James and Naipaul.

Naipaul, in particular, comes in for a bewildering mix of scathing, at times vitriolic criticism for his personality more than anything, balanced out by a healthy appreciation of some of the man’s early works. Clearly, however, Naipaul’s innate dislike of Trinidad and its people and his less than cheery outlook on anything apart from himself, rankles with Phillips who doesn’t spare him. Yet, Phillips does admit to the man’s flair for writing and his evolution not just as a writer but also the progression of his novels from linear to more non-linear forms of writing.

The essay on James is an almost academic look at a multifaceted man, one who was equally comfortable discussing Trotsky and Marxism, as he was Hollywood, the rights of blacks and the intricacies of cricket.

Phillips concludes the book with a section devoted to the Caribbean experience in Britain. The highlights of the section are the chapters on Linton Kwesi Johnson and a history of Caribbean immigration to the UK. Johnson, an influential reggae artist/political activist and globetrotting Rastafarian, was heavily involved in the black social movements of the seventies in Britain. These movements manifested themselves in the riots of Toxteth and Brixton.

Phillips also provides his own review of Zadie Smith’s wildly successful, if slightly overrated, debut novel chronicling a new multicultural Britain, White Teeth. His last chapter, on Britain, how it has changed and its constant search to identify itself, in a way encapsulates the essence of this book.

Throughout each chapter and section, Phillips is searching for a meaning of what it is to feel at home somewhere, anywhere, for he has not had a home in the traditional sense of belonging. By reflecting upon the works of others in similar but not identical positions to himself, Phillips articulates this sense of emptiness, this sense of not belonging in a refreshing and well-thought out manner.

Like Britain itself, Phillips is perhaps identifiable only through his multicultural roots and the very difficulty in pigeonholing him (and Britain) into some rigid construct. The scope of issues and personalities that he has examined is staggering, and his intelligence shines through in his views on much of the work.

In addition, it is equally refreshing to view questions of identity and belonging through the eyes of non-Western narrators. Although, at times, one feels that some familiarity with some of the writers’ works - particularly those from the African continent - would have given greater depth to this book which also has a tendency to become pedantically academic, it is still a fascinating read.

A New World Order: Selected Essays
By Caryl Phillips
Available at Liberty Books (Pvt) Ltd, 3 Rafiq Plaza, M.R. Kayani Road, Saddar, Karachi
Tel: 021-5683026. 
Email: libooks@cyber.net.pk
Website: www.libertybooks.com
ISBN: 0-099-42817-2
309pp. Rs425

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