Crossing the River

I was told to read this for my degree and it was my favourite book on my course this year. An incredible post-modern historical novel. This book makes you think long after you have finished the last page as it explores the atrocities and consequences of the slave trade and African diaspora over a few hundred years. It has changing narratives throughout which make for a thought provoking read. The idea behind the book, for me, is to show that the history of slavery, racism and it's consequences are not just isolated as black history, but shared history, mainstream history, worldwide history that everybody should acknowledge and understand so that we can move forward united in humanity.

A wonderful novel on many levels more specifically on the hypocrisy and utter insanity that is Christianity.Sadly this gets worse year by year with modern day Christians May and Trump reinforcing the vile biblical garbage used to justify slavery from the African trade in a modern setting.

An amazing read. Everyone should read it. An amazing story

All good!

Depressing, although I didn't read beyond halfway so maybe later becomes much better, but I doubt it.

Difficult to follow in places but worth persevering to understand some of the reality of slavery, racism and its consequences.

Caryl Phillips Commonwealth Writers' Prize-winning 'Crossing the river' is a beautifully written, thought-provoking and, at times, extremely moving work that dealing with experiences of the African diaspora over two and a half centuries. Although I have significant reservations about the content and structure of this work, I have no hesitation in strongly recommending this novel, particularly for the final and longest part titled 'Somewhere in England' which had me visibly (andself-consciously) gutted in full view of hundreds in a busy, open-plan coffee shop!!The novel consists of four chapters sandwiched within brief introductory and concluding passages. In the introductory section, a father sells his three children - Nash, Martha and Travis - into slavery. These children become the "broken off limbs of a tree" seeking to sink "hopeful roots into difficult soil in distant lands", the protagonists of three of the chapters, scattered in both place and time. The four chapters that follow are essentially three discrete short stories and a concluding novella: the only interlinking between these disparate stories is that the protagonists share names with the three children mentioned in the novel's opening which make it questionable whether this work has sufficient structural cohesion to be termed a novel.The first chapter relates the story of Nash Williams, a former slave returning to 'the pagan coast' of Africa, to 'civilise' and convert to Christianity natives away from Monrovia in Sierra Leone. Nash's story is told primarily through letters written in the 1830s and early 1840s to his American (white) father. These letters are beautifully written and, whilst they make pleasurable reading, I had difficulty believing that they could have been written by someone with the presumably limited educational opportunities of a former slave. Furthermore, I felt short-changed by Nash's story as there is insufficient plot or character development in what essentially is a fifty-page short story.The second chapter describes events in Martha's life as, in order to avoid being resold, she heads West towards California in search of her daughter, Eliza Mae. This very short story includes some harrowing descriptions of the effects of slavery on a family, although again I probably wanted to spend more time with Martha.The third chapter consists of the cabin log of a twenty-six year old captain of a slaving ship in the 1750s, interspersed with his letters home to his young wife. The young James Hamilton seems uncomfortable with his vocation and station, passed down from a brutal father who died a violent death. The journals and letters provide evidence of the general harshness of life for slaves and shipmates, as well as matter-of-fact reporting in the trading of human cargo - information which, whilst interesting, is probably part of the reader's general knowledge.The fourth section - a novella of over a hundred pages - is not merely the most successful section of the book, but amongst the most compelling and well-written stories that I've ever read. In short, diary-style entries ranging backwards and forwards primarily through the years of World War II, the reader is treated into the insights and humanity of Joyce, a reserved, socially-awkward and unhappily married young English lady who befriends an American GI, Travis. The diary notes capture Joyce's voice perfectly. This chapter has many interesting characters - not least Joyce herself - and is packed full of incident and emotion. Despite my reservations about the structure of this work and wishing that earlier chapters were more developed, this novel is highly recommended for the exceptional quality of writing, the serious issues that it raises and - above all - for its final chapter 'Somewhere in England'.

If you like non stop misery you'll love this.