Higher Ground

After reading Caryl Phillip's "The Nature of Blood," a more than competent novel on racism and antisemitism, I bought his "Higher Ground."Although this book does not shed any more light on the dynamic of hate, it is so amazingly real in its portrayl of the day-to-day anguish of hate that it is almost too difficult to read. Divided into three voices (a black slave-trade facilitator, a militant black convict and a Jewish-Polish Holocaust survivor), the stories are harrowing, image-provocking and even if you don't particularly like the characters you understand them from inside. I felt that the author imparted a rare gift in this regard.An important author with something to say and unlike many writing today, a perspective wider than his own personal experience. Highly recommended.