I’ve read a few of his books, and although he’s not the most refined of writers, one thing that Caryl Phillips can do is tell a story. This story is one of two people, both lonely and exist largely outside the mainstream of society. One is a retired teacher and the other an African refugee.Stylistically, the book's sections jump between the perspectives of the two main characters, and the story is relayed in a non-linear, broken fashion, so the reader is often caught on the back foot in terms of the narrative. This isn’t too frustrating, although the emerging fact that one of the central characters – who increasingly narrates in the first person – is unreliable, throws in a bit of a twist.Most novels of this kind would construct their story around the relationships between the two characters. This one is a little different, as it is largely built around the lack of a relationship between the two main characters. Much of the interest – and indeed the novel’s central theme – is around the concept of isolation, and the fact that two – ‘Soloman’ and Dorothy – are desperately isolated, yet convention and manners compel them to maintain the formality of distance between each other, despite their interest and intentions.In Solomon, Phillips has constructed a character that has shut down much of his emotional repertoire after his experience of civil war and hardship. For very different reasons, Dorothy’s life has led her down a path of emotional disengagement, isolation and mental illness.Part of the real craft of this book is how the most brutal aspect of the novel is actually loneliness. Despite the terrible things that he has seen, loneliness that was the thing that Solomon notices most in England:"It is strange, but nobody is looking at anybody else, and it would appear that not only are these people all strangers to one another, but they seem determined to make sure that this situation will remain unchanged."Moreover, any one way that we might know someone is bound to be erroneous; in the sense that identities are interlaced assemblages of experiences, often traumatic, that defy a single, settled view; especially when survival often requires leaving them behind.I think that I enjoyed – which is the wrong word entirely, but I can’t think of a better one – this novel so much because of the way that it breaks down the distinction between the ‘placed’ and the ‘displaced’. It explores (without seeming trite or forced), our sense of security and – if you’re lucky enough to have had one – about safely ‘belonging’.Phillips seems to say, whether we know it or not, that ‘we are all adrift’. What is more, this aimlessness is not a product of ‘race’, ‘nationality’ or ‘geography’, but of the human condition itself. Please, do not read this book if you're looking for a light, upbeat little pick-me-up. However, if you’re up for an emotional wrench and a thoughtful mediation on alienation in modern society, this is the book for you!
"England has changed. These days it's difficult to tell who's from round here and who's not. Who belongs and who's a stranger. It's disturbing. It doesn't feel right."Dorothy, a retired schoolteacher. She sounds like a bigot. Especially when just two pages later she says she retired when the grammar school where she taught music went comprehensive. "I was suddenly asked to teach whoever came into the school-we all were. Difficult kids I don't mind, but I draw the line at yobs." Oh but Dorothy, Dorothy. What's wrong Dorothy? Something is off-kilter, skewed. Aren't you the one who does not belong? There are grains of gritty sand in the smooth honey of your story. You call this 'our village', but you only moved here three months ago. This idyllic English village is a nightmare. This doctor you're seeing, what kind of complaint do you have? Your narrative is unsettling, disturbing; nothing fits. You are the stranger. You are a stranger to yourself. You tell a story, but there is a discord, there are wrong notes. It does not belong to you. You do not belong here. When and where did you part company from yourself? Solomon does not belong here either. He is not allowed to belong. He would like to. He tries, tender green shoots slowly unfurl. They are blasted, poisoned.Gabriel has had his life cut. The end. Violent brutality, the horror of his family savagely murdered in front of his eyes. But he survives, he has to survive, there is nothing else for him to do. An appalling journey brings him to England as an illegal, where he will be safe. Won't he? This is not a country at war. Asylum. Gabriel becomes Solomon, like in the bible. He is a man burdened with hidden history. He needs to share it, if he doesn't then he has only the one year since he came to England. A one year old man walks over to Dorothy's door and knocks. She's a respectable woman. She might listen. Out there is a cruel place. And it's all out there.Everywhere.Asylum.Masterful. Controlled. Uncanny. Compassionate. Bleak. Moving.
What do You think about A Distant Shore (2005)?
This book tells the story of two people whose lives follow very different paths but ultimately intersect. One an African illegal immigrant to Britain and the other a middle class sheltered English divorcee. One decends into madness and the other losses their life, so its far from a happy fairy tale. But the author is a skilled story teller and the book is populated with believable characters of all sorts with many engaging subplots and background stories. I found the Africans story a bit more compelling of the two perhaps because the St Kitts born author who now resides in England may have had a more natural affinity for the struggles of a recent immigrant. But the English womans familial struggles were also richly detailed. A very good book that examines the unitended consequences of sometimes violent culture clash.
—William
I thought this book was decent, it is told from two different perspectives a white school teacher and a black immigrant to the United Kingdom. However, I understand that Phillips was attempting to illustrate the struggle the African protagonist had in fleeing to UK from Africa. At the same time though, I thought the African man's story could have been written better.Overall though, I thought it was an interesting book, I don't know a lot about the UK race relations but this book does a good job exploring it.
—Andrew
I found this book good to start but then it really lost it's way. The story started a little backwards, as it starts close to the present day telling you about the relationship between the two main characters, then went on later to give you a more in depth background to them.Solomon had a really harrowing life, and was caught up in war in his home country in Africa, and experienced some really tough times in his life. It was amazing he turned out so nice!The book really lost it's way, and I didn't get the final section at all. I felt I had to finish it though as it was this months Hartwell WI book club read.Why can;t we choose a book without murder and mistreatment in for our book club for a change??
—Weebly
