Another Man in the Street

A West Indian immigrant tries to make a name for himself as a London journalist in this flat offering from Phillips (The Lost Child). Victor, the son of a St. Kitts cane cutter, leaves his native Caribbean island in the 1960s for England, where “young girls seemed brassier, and their hemlines were going up.” Attempting to establish himself before bringing over his wife, Lorna, and their young child from St. Kitts, Victor finds employment first in a shoddy Notting Hill pub, then as a rent collector for Peter, a prosperous Jewish immigrant whose girlfriend, Ruth, he steals. He eventually starts writing for a broadsheet called the West Indian News, and after race riots shake England in the early 1980s, Victor seeks to capture what life is like for immigrants of color under the reign of Margaret Thatcher. The narrative alternates between Victor’s early years and late-career disappointments and also follows the fortunes of Lorna, Peter, and Ruth. Unfortunately, none of the characters are magnetic or fully drawn enough to hold the reader’s attention. This doesn’t reach the heights of this Phillips’s best work. Agent: Sarah Burnes, Gernert Co. (Jan.)