ANOTHER MAN IN THE STREET

A novel about the immigrant experience from an author known for his interrogations of colonialism.

Novelist, playwright, and essayist Phillips was born on St. Kitts, but he grew up in a predominantly white community in the United Kingdom. In his work, he explores the impact of British imperialism and the lives of Black people trying to find their way in a society that sees them as “other.” Here, Phillips presents Victor Johnson—the son of a sugar cane farmer—who emigrates from the Caribbean to England in the 1960s with the hope of becoming a journalist. To put this another way, Victor is a Black man trying to escape the limitations of colonialism by emigrating to the country that, through its imperial interventions, made his home a place he feels the need to escape. The narrative begins with Victor narrating his journey on a ship bound for England. When he reappears, he’s a handyman called Lucky in a shabby Notting Hill pub, and we see him through the eyes of another character—a white character. This shift in point of view is powerful in that it gives readers a sense of the context in which Victor is trying to remake himself. At the same time, a narrative that was already slow grinds to a near halt as Phillips describes the social universe of this pub in a way that does not serve the story. This is early on, and it sets the pace for the rest of the novel. Victor will eventually become a journalist. He will do his best to document the Thatcher years as a Black immigrant. But getting from the 1960s to the ’80s includes a lot of digressions into other character’s lives, and none of these characters emerges as terribly compelling—including Victor.

No book this short should feel so slow.