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A State of Independence
When Bertram Francis returns to his native St. Kitts after a twenty-year sojourn in England, the mangy, flamboyant island that greets him is astonishingly unchanged. Yet time and the bitternes of his island-bound family and friends have made him a stranger among familiar faces and landsmarks. A State of Independence recounts the first three days of Bertram's inauspicious homecoming, which coincides with the island's liberation from British rule.
- GenresFictionLiterary Fiction
160 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1986
1 person is currently reading
112 people want to read
About the author
Caryl Phillips
52 books215 followers Caryl Phillips was born in St.Kitts and came to Britain at the age of four months. He grew up in Leeds, and studied English Literature at Oxford University.
He began writing for the theatre and his plays include Strange Fruit (1980), Where There is Darkness (1982) and The Shelter (1983). He won the BBC Giles Cooper Award for Best Radio Play of the year with The Wasted Years (1984). He has written many dramas and documentaries for radio and television, including, in 1996, the three-hour film of his own novel The Final Passage. He wrote the screenplay for the film Playing Away (1986) and his screenplay for the Merchant Ivory adaptation of V.S.Naipaul's The Mystic Masseur (2001) won the Silver Ombu for best screenplay at the Mar Del Plata film festival in Argentina.
His novels are: The Final Passage (1985), A State of Independence (1986), Higher Ground (1989), Cambridge (1991), Crossing the River (1993), The Nature of Blood (1997), A Distant Shore (2003), Dancing in the Dark (2005), In the Falling Snow (2009), The Lost Child (2015), A View of the Empire at Sunset (2018) and Another Man in the Street (2025). His non-fiction: The European Tribe (1987), The Atlantic Sound (2000), A New World Order (2001), Foreigners (2007), and Colour Me English (2011). He is the editor of two anthologies: Extravagant Strangers: A Literature of Belonging (1997) and The Right Set: An Anthology of Writing on Tennis (1999). His work has been translated into over a dozen languages.
He was named Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year in 1992 and was on the 1993 Granta list of Best of Young British Writers. His literary awards include the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a British Council Fellowship, a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, and Britain's oldest literary award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, for Crossing the River which was also shortlisted for the 1993 Booker Prize. A Distant Shore was longlisted for the 2003 Booker Prize, and won the 2004 Commonwealth Writers Prize; Dancing in the Dark won the 2006 PEN/Beyond the Margins Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of the Arts, and recipient of the 2013 Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Award for Excellence.
He has taught at universities in Ghana, Sweden, Singapore, Barbados, India, and the United States, and in 1999 was the University of the West Indies Humanities Scholar of the Year. In 2002-3 he was a Fellow at the Centre for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Formerly Henry R. Luce Professor of Migration and Social Order at Columbia University, he is presently Professor of English at Yale University. He is an Honorary Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford University.
A regular contributor to The Guardian and The New Republic, his most recent book is, Another Man in the Street.
(taken from carylphillips.com official web site)
He began writing for the theatre and his plays include Strange Fruit (1980), Where There is Darkness (1982) and The Shelter (1983). He won the BBC Giles Cooper Award for Best Radio Play of the year with The Wasted Years (1984). He has written many dramas and documentaries for radio and television, including, in 1996, the three-hour film of his own novel The Final Passage. He wrote the screenplay for the film Playing Away (1986) and his screenplay for the Merchant Ivory adaptation of V.S.Naipaul's The Mystic Masseur (2001) won the Silver Ombu for best screenplay at the Mar Del Plata film festival in Argentina.
His novels are: The Final Passage (1985), A State of Independence (1986), Higher Ground (1989), Cambridge (1991), Crossing the River (1993), The Nature of Blood (1997), A Distant Shore (2003), Dancing in the Dark (2005), In the Falling Snow (2009), The Lost Child (2015), A View of the Empire at Sunset (2018) and Another Man in the Street (2025). His non-fiction: The European Tribe (1987), The Atlantic Sound (2000), A New World Order (2001), Foreigners (2007), and Colour Me English (2011). He is the editor of two anthologies: Extravagant Strangers: A Literature of Belonging (1997) and The Right Set: An Anthology of Writing on Tennis (1999). His work has been translated into over a dozen languages.
He was named Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year in 1992 and was on the 1993 Granta list of Best of Young British Writers. His literary awards include the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a British Council Fellowship, a Lannan Foundation Fellowship, and Britain's oldest literary award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, for Crossing the River which was also shortlisted for the 1993 Booker Prize. A Distant Shore was longlisted for the 2003 Booker Prize, and won the 2004 Commonwealth Writers Prize; Dancing in the Dark won the 2006 PEN/Beyond the Margins Award. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and the Royal Society of the Arts, and recipient of the 2013 Anthony N. Sabga Caribbean Award for Excellence.
He has taught at universities in Ghana, Sweden, Singapore, Barbados, India, and the United States, and in 1999 was the University of the West Indies Humanities Scholar of the Year. In 2002-3 he was a Fellow at the Centre for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. Formerly Henry R. Luce Professor of Migration and Social Order at Columbia University, he is presently Professor of English at Yale University. He is an Honorary Fellow of The Queen's College, Oxford University.
A regular contributor to The Guardian and The New Republic, his most recent book is, Another Man in the Street.
(taken from carylphillips.com official web site)
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
October 8, 2022
I have a list of books in the “maybe” TBR category, which I keep away from GR, and this 1985 novel was on it for quite a while. I wasn’t sure it would be my type of thing, but in the event I was really impressed.
The lead character, Bertram Francis, grows up in the island of St. Kitts, and at age 19 wins a scholarship to study law in London. He leaves the island but never achieves his law degree, spending 20 aimless years in London. He eventually returns home in time for the independence celebrations for the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. I had assumed St. Kitts and Nevis would have gained independence in the sixties, but it seems this didn’t happen until 1983. As a news event it must have passed me by.
This is a short novel, 160 pages in the edition I read. Part of it features Bertram’s life immediately prior to leaving the island, but it is mainly focused on his return. Bertram has that half-belonging, half not-belonging feeling that comes to anyone who returns to their home after many years away, especially when that home is a rural area or a small town. His mother views him with contempt and his one-time best friend at school, Jackson Clayton, is now the island’s Deputy Prime Minister, a self-important and arrogant politician. His former teenage girlfriend, Patsy, is the only person who seems pleased to see him back. All the characters are really well-drawn. The novel consists largely of Bertram wandering about talking to people, but that’s not a criticism. I found it absorbing. I also loved the spoken dialogue, which the author delivers using Caribbean idiom.
There’s a definite theme in the book about how the island is culturally moving away from Britain and towards the United States. In the 1960s Bertram’s schoolfriends dream of playing cricket for the West Indies. When he returns the young men dream of playing for sports teams in America. At a bar he gets a bill made out in U.S. dollars, which he objects to. In another scene, Clayton mocks him for having left the island for London, telling him that Miami is the city that people in the Caribbean now look to.
Mainly though, the book is about whether Bartram is still an islander, or is he now more of a Londoner? We all have different tastes, but there was nothing I disliked about this novel. I thought it was excellent.
The lead character, Bertram Francis, grows up in the island of St. Kitts, and at age 19 wins a scholarship to study law in London. He leaves the island but never achieves his law degree, spending 20 aimless years in London. He eventually returns home in time for the independence celebrations for the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis. I had assumed St. Kitts and Nevis would have gained independence in the sixties, but it seems this didn’t happen until 1983. As a news event it must have passed me by.
This is a short novel, 160 pages in the edition I read. Part of it features Bertram’s life immediately prior to leaving the island, but it is mainly focused on his return. Bertram has that half-belonging, half not-belonging feeling that comes to anyone who returns to their home after many years away, especially when that home is a rural area or a small town. His mother views him with contempt and his one-time best friend at school, Jackson Clayton, is now the island’s Deputy Prime Minister, a self-important and arrogant politician. His former teenage girlfriend, Patsy, is the only person who seems pleased to see him back. All the characters are really well-drawn. The novel consists largely of Bertram wandering about talking to people, but that’s not a criticism. I found it absorbing. I also loved the spoken dialogue, which the author delivers using Caribbean idiom.
There’s a definite theme in the book about how the island is culturally moving away from Britain and towards the United States. In the 1960s Bertram’s schoolfriends dream of playing cricket for the West Indies. When he returns the young men dream of playing for sports teams in America. At a bar he gets a bill made out in U.S. dollars, which he objects to. In another scene, Clayton mocks him for having left the island for London, telling him that Miami is the city that people in the Caribbean now look to.
Mainly though, the book is about whether Bartram is still an islander, or is he now more of a Londoner? We all have different tastes, but there was nothing I disliked about this novel. I thought it was excellent.
December 15, 2020
Although his hopes to study law in England on the scholarship he won didn't work out, Bertram Francis was able to set aside a few dollars during 20 years of getting by there. Realizing that he's never going to succeed or belong, he's decided to return home to the Caribbean island of his birth as it approaches independence, and parlay his nest egg into a fresh start in life, with a boost from his childhood friend Jackson Clayton, now an important politician.
As soon as he's off the plane, he discovers he's uncomfortable in his skin, his shirts drenched in sweat from the heat he's no longer accustomed to. His encounters with family and old friends are as disconcerting as the sweltering weather, and his plans founder before he's even launched them. Hapless and clueless, he wanders among the independence day celebrations, a steady stream of cold beers sustaining him on his quest to set a course into the future.
It maybe doesn't sound like much, but I enjoyed reading this sophomore novel of St. Kitts-born Caryl Phillips for its vivid depiction of the island and the doings of its inhabitants.
As soon as he's off the plane, he discovers he's uncomfortable in his skin, his shirts drenched in sweat from the heat he's no longer accustomed to. His encounters with family and old friends are as disconcerting as the sweltering weather, and his plans founder before he's even launched them. Hapless and clueless, he wanders among the independence day celebrations, a steady stream of cold beers sustaining him on his quest to set a course into the future.
It maybe doesn't sound like much, but I enjoyed reading this sophomore novel of St. Kitts-born Caryl Phillips for its vivid depiction of the island and the doings of its inhabitants.
November 29, 2021
2.5 stars
Oddly, this is the second Caribbean novella I’ve read focusing on an indecisive and self-centered male protagonist returning to his home island after many years of study and work abroad, without communicating with those he left behind, in which he wanders about the island talking to people and in the process has to make some decisions about his future. This book is better than the other at least, and the vague sense of contempt for women is reduced though still present.
A State of Independence is set on an unnamed Caribbean island, which from the epigraphs appears to be the author’s home country of St. Kitts. Just as the country achieves political independence from the UK, Bertram, who left 20 years before on a scholarship, returns with a vague hope of restarting his life there. He finds, however, that after 20 years without communication, his mother no longer wants him around, and his former best friend—who has achieved political success in the meanwhile—isn’t interested in helping him professionally. The only warm reception comes from a former girlfriend, who it’s implied
For readers not connected to St. Kitts and Nevis, I suspect this novella would work best in a classroom environment. It’s relatively short and perfectly readable, though not particularly compelling; Bertram spends so much of it wandering about drinking beer that I can now tell you how much beer cost at various establishments around the island and at different points in Bertram’s life. The flashbacks to his young life are generally more interesting than the present-day focus. The story gives some sense of what the country was like at the time of independence in the 1980s, and the place descriptions are decent. The secondary characters are also reasonably interesting, and the most important ones get a decent amount of development for a short book.
Bertram himself is less so: he doesn’t seem to have ever cared deeply about anything or anyone. His emotional range is very shallow: he experiences surprise but not shock, disappointment but not grief. And at age 39, he doesn’t seem any more capable of understanding that his actions affect those who love him than he was at 19. All of this is quite unfortunate in a protagonist, and I waffled between thinking that he’s intentionally unsympathetic (the author does show the consequences of his actions on other people, after all) and questioning whether any real human has so little inner life.
At any rate, a good book for a challenge since it’s short and has a fair amount of dialogue, but not one I’m inclined to recommend.
Oddly, this is the second Caribbean novella I’ve read focusing on an indecisive and self-centered male protagonist returning to his home island after many years of study and work abroad, without communicating with those he left behind, in which he wanders about the island talking to people and in the process has to make some decisions about his future. This book is better than the other at least, and the vague sense of contempt for women is reduced though still present.
A State of Independence is set on an unnamed Caribbean island, which from the epigraphs appears to be the author’s home country of St. Kitts. Just as the country achieves political independence from the UK, Bertram, who left 20 years before on a scholarship, returns with a vague hope of restarting his life there. He finds, however, that after 20 years without communication, his mother no longer wants him around, and his former best friend—who has achieved political success in the meanwhile—isn’t interested in helping him professionally. The only warm reception comes from a former girlfriend, who it’s implied
For readers not connected to St. Kitts and Nevis, I suspect this novella would work best in a classroom environment. It’s relatively short and perfectly readable, though not particularly compelling; Bertram spends so much of it wandering about drinking beer that I can now tell you how much beer cost at various establishments around the island and at different points in Bertram’s life. The flashbacks to his young life are generally more interesting than the present-day focus. The story gives some sense of what the country was like at the time of independence in the 1980s, and the place descriptions are decent. The secondary characters are also reasonably interesting, and the most important ones get a decent amount of development for a short book.
Bertram himself is less so: he doesn’t seem to have ever cared deeply about anything or anyone. His emotional range is very shallow: he experiences surprise but not shock, disappointment but not grief. And at age 39, he doesn’t seem any more capable of understanding that his actions affect those who love him than he was at 19. All of this is quite unfortunate in a protagonist, and I waffled between thinking that he’s intentionally unsympathetic (the author does show the consequences of his actions on other people, after all) and questioning whether any real human has so little inner life.
At any rate, a good book for a challenge since it’s short and has a fair amount of dialogue, but not one I’m inclined to recommend.
July 13, 2018
COUNTRY: ST. KITTS AND NEVIS
After winning a scholarship to study law in England, Bertram Francis leaves the Caribbean island where he grew up. Twenty years later, after having squandered his opportunity, Bertram returns to the island, which has just declared its independence from Great Britain. Bertram reconnects with his family and childhood friends, but also faces their resentment and feelings of abandonment as he tries to discover how he can renew his life on the island.
I found myself really disliking Bertram – he is indecisive and completely lacks self-awareness. He’s the kind of character who, instead of making conscious choices, believes that things just happen to him. It’s ironic, because he comprehends that he must study in order to win the scholarship, for example, so he studies and then he succeeds. But he loses motivation and all of a sudden twenty years have passed. Repeatedly in the book, he makes the effort to do something, but then he sits down to rest, and the next thing he knows, he’s waking up and he has lost the opportunity to do what he had intended. Even at the end of the book, when he has realized (sort of) how he has failed the people around him, and he seems ready to make a change, his state of mind is that he “wondered if later this same day he should ask…how he might...” He can’t seem to make a decision, and he flounders. He doesn’t know what to do, so he half-asses everything, and it’s infuriating! He’s not a particularly sympathetic character to me, but he’s certainly well-written and consistent.
This book is short, and it is also a quick read. Bertram’s story nicely mirrors the political situation on the island, and the reader is left with the sense that despite their newfound independence, both Bertram and his island will never really be able to manage entirely on their own.
After winning a scholarship to study law in England, Bertram Francis leaves the Caribbean island where he grew up. Twenty years later, after having squandered his opportunity, Bertram returns to the island, which has just declared its independence from Great Britain. Bertram reconnects with his family and childhood friends, but also faces their resentment and feelings of abandonment as he tries to discover how he can renew his life on the island.
I found myself really disliking Bertram – he is indecisive and completely lacks self-awareness. He’s the kind of character who, instead of making conscious choices, believes that things just happen to him. It’s ironic, because he comprehends that he must study in order to win the scholarship, for example, so he studies and then he succeeds. But he loses motivation and all of a sudden twenty years have passed. Repeatedly in the book, he makes the effort to do something, but then he sits down to rest, and the next thing he knows, he’s waking up and he has lost the opportunity to do what he had intended. Even at the end of the book, when he has realized (sort of) how he has failed the people around him, and he seems ready to make a change, his state of mind is that he “wondered if later this same day he should ask…how he might...” He can’t seem to make a decision, and he flounders. He doesn’t know what to do, so he half-asses everything, and it’s infuriating! He’s not a particularly sympathetic character to me, but he’s certainly well-written and consistent.
This book is short, and it is also a quick read. Bertram’s story nicely mirrors the political situation on the island, and the reader is left with the sense that despite their newfound independence, both Bertram and his island will never really be able to manage entirely on their own.
November 30, 2024
Bertram is a waste man. And yet Caryl Phillips is able to conjure some pity on his behalf - has dreams but lazy, clueless about obvious facts and self-absorbed. In some ways, he seems to reflect a nation at the precipice of Independence but is also an outsider.
The more I let this book sinks into my brain, the more I marvel at how this mundane, almost wandering plot is truly a marvel. The author respects the reader, giving enough information and letting the reader come to their own conclusions. I needed help though as I missed the relevance of the initial epigraphs to provide a deeper context for this book.
But having read this book, I wonder how Kittians look on an outsider making comments about life in the period surrounding Independence.
An insightful and thoughtful read. I need to look for more books by Mr. Phillips.
The more I let this book sinks into my brain, the more I marvel at how this mundane, almost wandering plot is truly a marvel. The author respects the reader, giving enough information and letting the reader come to their own conclusions. I needed help though as I missed the relevance of the initial epigraphs to provide a deeper context for this book.
But having read this book, I wonder how Kittians look on an outsider making comments about life in the period surrounding Independence.
An insightful and thoughtful read. I need to look for more books by Mr. Phillips.
March 11, 2019
A State of Independence follows the return of Bertram Francis to St. Kitts, an island about to celebrate its independence from the UK, after 19 years in England. Bertram struggles to make St. Kitts his home again as he is now seen as a British outcast by the islanders, yet a mere local by the English colonizers. Bertram's story excellently parallels St. Kitts itself - like the island, Bertram is isolated and untethered to any one country as he is continually looking outside of him for a "home" to return to.
November 13, 2017
Metaphors abound in this story. Many are unusual, but readily understandable. The descriptions are canny and succinct. And the ending left me wanting for much more. It is a returning home story that reminds you that yes you can go back home. But you are also reminded that such a return holds bitter-sweet moments that you must either overcome and come to terms with. This is not the prodigal son trope, not by a long shot.
August 9, 2021
This could easily have been any Caribbean country: the similarities in the politics are mind-blowing. And perhaps Bertram is the typical West Indian who went abroad and lost his way. But one should never have to worry about going back home at least that's how he feels. He's not wrong, but it looks like everyone he left back home thinks he is. Their response leaves him cast adrift and struggling to figure where he fits in, much like his island and its new independence.
June 29, 2019
A solid read for my AtW challenge (St. Kitts), capturing the challenges of coming home.
January 14, 2016
This book was very enlightening, to say the least. There is a constant question of identity and also national belonging, in which our main character (Bertram Francis) experiences throughout this novel. It is an eye opener and shows the fluidity of where/what/how we consider ourselves in terms of our national identity. This man leaves his home and returns 20 years later only to realise that all has changed, and that he can no longer consider it his 'home' but neither can he consider England his home. He is stuck between nationalities and cultural independence. We watch this character as he becomes aware of the reality of his situation after having left England, and witness as he confronts the influences of change. I would recommend this book. It is an easy read, and it is quite a short novel only consisting of 158 pages. I read it in an afternoon!
September 21, 2014
Betram Francis returns home to St Kitt's after 20 years, for independence day.
He seems to expect people to be pleased to see him, to make a business using some savings and for some things to have changed. In fact everything and nothing has changed. Over the course of a couple of days he discovers all this and seems, perhaps with the assistance of a good few beers to come to peace with it all and where he's at.
He seems to expect people to be pleased to see him, to make a business using some savings and for some things to have changed. In fact everything and nothing has changed. Over the course of a couple of days he discovers all this and seems, perhaps with the assistance of a good few beers to come to peace with it all and where he's at.
August 29, 2015
That feeling of being lost and out of touch with one's sense of belonging. Had this book for 14 years, lost it and bought another. Finally finished it. An interesting read, not much happens as the main protagonist is lost in himself, the amount of time he drinks beer, I need to arrange for an AA meeting. I enjoyed it, at least I've been to St Kits mentally.
July 25, 2010
Phillips is a wordsmith. This little gem of a novel sparkles with sensory images. It transports the reader to St. Kitts--with all its colors, smells, tastes, and sounds. It imprints on the reader's mind the islanders' poverty and indomitable spirit on the eve of their independence from Britain.
January 21, 2016
Very short and a little rough around the edges, a solid little story about a sense of place and whether or not ‘home’ actually exists. Worth a look.
November 18, 2012
Incredible read. Characters are richly drawn out and the novel’s insights are tight and sharp.
September 2, 2014
Interesting slice-of-life in St. Kitts. Nothing really happens, though.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews