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Read Caryl Philips, A Distant Shore, mostly because I'd heard it reviewed.
Not because the reviews were good -
or bad-
but because one guy, an old reactionary, said he didn't recognise the England it presented. I read it to see if I recognised it.

It's about an African asylum seeker, a racist murder, and a variety of white British responses which span from active racism to somplacency to active compassion - for want of a better phrase...

At first I didn't believe the scenario... it seemed too harsh - though the exact incident has happened in villages in Britain.
But in the end it was very true.

The fact that the known reactionary didn't recognise it seems to indicate to me that maybe he didn't finish the book
or he's kidding himself, capable of high levels of doublethink or selective consciousness... or maybe he does live in an alternative universe.

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