The Boston Globe said, "Crossing the River bears eloquently chastened testimony to the shattering of black lives."
Crossing the River is a story about three black people during different time periods and in different continents as they struggle with the separation from their native Africa.
Geographically, the river refers to the Atlantic Ocean, the main body of water that Africans had to cross when traveling to America.
The novel's opening is mostly the perspective of Nash, Martha, and Travis' "father" mixed with the thoughts of slave trader James Hamilton, which are expressed in italics.
Edward is horribly upset, and his grief is further drawn out when he realizes that his beloved Nash was not the holy Christian he thought him to be.
The chapter ends with Edward gaping at the hovel that was once Nash's residence while natives stare on, trying to understand the apparent momentary insanity of the shocked and aggrieved stranger.
The story then switches to Martha Randolph, an old woman who, after losing her husband and daughter at a slave auction, decides to run away from her owners in Kansas and seek freedom in California.
The final section is told through the eyes of Joyce, a white Englishwoman who falls in love with Travis, who is the "brother" of Nash and Martha.
Nash never would have become Edward's pet in America and never would have journeyed back to Africa to unsuccessfully fend off disease and later die.
The narrator at the beginning and end of the text, however, is still optimistic, reasoning that his children will still reach the other side of the river – their true home – if they are determined and willing to survive.
Nash became so delusional in Africa as a missionary that he was almost like a white slave driver himself, forcing the natives to work for him and scoffing at their ideas of religion and cultural practices.
They each deal with their newly found freedom in different ways: Nash agrees to go to Africa as one in few educated and freed black men.
Phillips seems to say that it's wrong to transplant people from their native country and then force a belief system on them that the so-called Christians do not even follow themselves.
[missing reference] Crossing the River has been translated into various languages and is internationally acclaimed for its portrayal of the realities of the African diaspora.
Black scholars and critics alike have raved at Caryl Phillips' deep insight into the struggles of Africans in one of the largest dislocations of people in history.
The quote is useful in connecting the entire African experience through the course of generations because it relates to a recent figure in black history.
Similar to the "I have a dream" speech, Uncle Tom's Cabin also strings together another aspect of the black historical perspective.
She first mentions her father who died in the Great War, which in part explains Joyce's mother's sadness and hostility throughout the text.
World War II, however, takes on a greater significance in the novel since it is actually occurring at the time that Joyce tells her narrative.
The text mentions Adolf Hitler, ration books, the Axis powers, Benito Mussolini, Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, blackout curtains, Jerry planes, and even a lack of basic hygiene products such as scented soap so that the reader gets the idea of what it was to actually live in that time period.