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Overview
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.Synopsis
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.
Library Journal
Bertram Francis left St. Kitts as a boy to study law in England. Now, 20 years later, he returns home, expecting a triumphant welcome from family and friends. But things quickly go awry: he sweats profusely in his English shirt and tie, feels cramped in his mother's tiny shack, discovers that the beer is much more potent than it used to be, and in general has a hard time convincing anyone that he's a native. What's worse, his mother is furious with him for never bothering to write, the ``best friend'' whom he hopes will find him a job denies that they were ever friends, and his former girlfriend seems to expect him to marry her. Phillips doesn't break any new ground in this short novel, and his prose style is competent but not exactly inspired. Suitable mainly for larger collections of Caribbean literature. Edward B. St. John, Loyola Marymount Univ. Lib., Los Angeles