The Dancing Face is one of a series of books that are part of Penguin’s Black Britain Writing Back series, selected and introduced by Bernadine Evaristo. Here, Alice Holmes reviews the novel.
The Dancing Face is available for purchase now here.
The Dancing Face by Mike Phillips is one of six books which are part of the Black Britain Writing Back series published by Penguin. This series has been selected and introduced by Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl Woman Other, and attempts to rediscover and celebrate pioneering books written by black writers who wrote about black Britain over the last century.
This thriller opens with the University lecturer, Gus, undertaking a strategic theft of The Dancing Face, a priceless Benin mask, from a British museum in order to raise awareness of the art stolen from Africa during the colonial period. Sick of futile demonstrations and vigils, he decides to take significant action in order to make an impact with something dramatic and unorthodox.
This mask is a catalyst for a series of events which soon become wildly out of control as the theft of the mask captures the attention of a variety of characters. Phillips explores through this fast-paced and engaging novel ideas about identity, sacrifice and possession.
Although initially slow and slightly difficult to get into, the plot soon picked up and became engaging. It successfully captured the attention of the reader and kept a high level of anticipation and suspense. I enjoyed the way Phillips explored the vast entanglement of characters through a third-person omniscient perspective. This enabled broader character development for those who became involved in the spiderweb of this theft and emphasised the confusion and the frantic atmosphere.
Introduced by Bernardine Everisto, she writes: “Any timeline of black British literary history worth its salt needs to include the oeuvre of Philips, and this novel exemplifies the best of his vigorous writing.”
