Kincaid, Jamaica

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Kincaid's Mad as Hell, and She's Not Going to Take it Anymore
The lovely tourists
A Small Mind Writes A Small Place
An island paradise
It is a Small place

A Small Place
Jamaica Kincaid
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0374527075

Book Description

A brilliant look at colonialism and its effects in Antigua--by the author of Annie John

"If you go to Antigua as a tourist, this is what you will see. If you come by aeroplane, you will land at the V. C. Bird International Airport. Vere Cornwall (V. C.) Bird is the Prime Minister of Antigua. You may be the sort of tourist who would wonder why a Prime Minister would want an airport named after him--why not a school, why not a hospital, why not some great public monument. You are a tourist and you have not yet seen . . ."

So begins Jamaica Kincaid's expansive essay, which shows us what we have not yet seen of the ten-by-twelve-mile island in the British West Indies where she grew up.

Lyrical, sardonic, and forthright by turns, in a Swiftian mode, A Small Place cannot help but amplify our vision of one small place and all that it signifies.

Customer Reviews:

Kincaid's Mad as Hell, and She's Not Going to Take it Anymore.......2007-01-11

Published in 1988 Kincaid's "A Small Place" is an unflinchingly angry portrayal of post-colonial, post-slavery life on the island of Antigua. To put it simply: Kincaid is as mad as hell, and she's not going to take it anymore. If you're white and can shelve your defensiveness for a moment this book is actually really enjoyable, it's written in first person and directed at "you," the British colonizer and/or the fat white tourist. Kincaid's sense of humor is wonderfully dark, and there are a lot of moments of humor if you keep an open mind. Still, at the heart of the matter is the story of Antigua's decay, left to rot by the British colonizers, with a population that doesn't vote openly corrupt officials out of office. She openly points out the irony of the celebration of emancipation alongside the valorization of the Hotel Training School, which teaches the residents of the island to be servants. In the end Kincaid concludes that no one is to blame, that after slavery the masters are no longer evil and the slaves are no longer "noble," but that everyone is merely human. She problematizes the matter, but offers no solutions, which might irritate those concrete sequentials among us. Also, she refers to Columbus, and the explorers in general, so adored in American culture, as "human rubbish" on multiple occasions. You might not agree with Kincaid, but this is one topic someone should be angry about, and her unapologetic narrative is about as honest as you can get.

The lovely tourists.......2006-05-01

I had to read this book for a Multicultural Literature class at my Uni, and, far from being informative, all it did was fill with me a contempt of my own. I am not a racist by any means, but when confronted with such a bitter, snide voice as the one Kincaid displays, I find myself unconsciously getting defensive. When she says, "you are a tourist; you are ugly," I find myself saying, "Fine, I'll keep my money and let you trade with seashells and beads." Kincaid is a master of the self-fulfilling prophecy: she says Antiguans are so oppressed and so downtrodden and so angry, and rather than doing anything to help it, she's exacerbating it by using such a bitter, over-the-top voice.

Other reviewers have stated that the vision of Antigua portrayed is a warped and extremely limited one, biased by Kincaid's apparent small mindedness, and I must confess that I'm glad to hear that. To think that the entire island is solely occupied by bitter people who imagine themselves to be ex-slaves would make me steer clear of the area any time I go on vacation.

Because, yes, I am a tourist. And no, being a tourist does not automatically make anyone ugly, despite what Kincaid's bitter rant might say.

A Small Mind Writes A Small Place.......2006-03-04

A major failing of this essay, which claims to be non-fiction, is Kincaid's sole reliance on her own memories of Antigua. As an eye-witness, Kincaid has the chance to provide a unique perspective on the issues of slavery, corruption, tourism, colonialism, and SIDS (small island developing states). Yet, she ruins this chance, in my opinion, with her complete disregard of any perspective other than her own.

A Small Place presents a biased and incomplete account of many of the issues facing Antigua and other islands in the Caribbean. Some of Kincaid's criticisms are certainly valid; however, others have been blown completely out of proportion. If one really wishes to know the history of Antigua and to understand the lingering consequences of colonialism, I suggest looking elsewhere.

What this book lacks in factual information, it does not make up for with a strong emotional appeal. Kincaid's story line is incomplete and unengaging. She repeatedly wanders from topic to topic and back again, giving no sense of what is most important or relevant. Additionally, whatever sympathy she may gain from the Western reader is repeatedly lost with her hateful generalizations.

I am sorry that I have to write such a negative review of this book. I believe that it is important for people in the West to understand the plight of developing countries, especially SIDS. However, I do not believe that A Small Place is at all helpful in promoting this dialogue.

It is important to understand the past. And I can sympathize with Kincaid's intense hatred of those who have and continue to oppress "her people". However, I think this text is short-sighted in its desire for change. After repeatedly criticizing tourists for their greed and laziness, does she really expect them to want to understand Antiguan society? I see the hatred and dualism expressed in A Small Place as a major obstacle in achieving a better tomorrow.

An island paradise.......2005-02-05

Antigua, an awe-inspiring vacation spot for Europeans and North Americans, takes on a different aura when discussed by native Jamaica Kincaid. Ms. Kincaid describes how the Antiguans feel about the tourists who visit: ugly people. Ugly because they invaded, then brought slaves to work for them so they could become rich while ignoring the needs of those who made them wealthy. Ugly because of what they've done to the island and the people who live there. Jamaica talks about the corrupt government and the hand that North Americans, British, Syrians and Lebanese play in that corruption. She describes how England paved the roads the Queen of England would travel when she visited, but left everything else in poor condition. Ms. Kincaid also mentions the drug dealers that the government ignores and those who build ugly condos for the wealthy and rent business space to the government who should be building their own space.

In a very few pages, Jamaica Kincaid says what a lot of former slaves would like to say but are perhaps too politically correct to utter. She does the job for us. Ms. Kincaid does not mince her words when it comes to what the British Empire did to the people of Antigua and the world for that matter. Frequently, I found myself wanting to stand up and cheer as I read her words of disgust and anger. While Ms. Kincaid is specifically speaking of Antigua, her words describe the slave trade and the destruction and poverty left in the wake of it no matter what country. It is well worth reading - more than once.

Reviewed by alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

It is a Small place .......2004-09-21

In "A Small Place", Kincaid leads the western reader through Antigua, while invoking feelings of guilt. Kincaid draws the reader in by narrating through the reader's perspective. She does this to engulf the reader into the setting and workings of Antigua and its government, including it's abused cultural history. This is the style of narration that Kincaid uses in the first thirty-seven pages of the book, and is very effective in captivating the reader. I felt guilt and ignorance while reading through Kincaid's description of Antigua and the abuse it is subject to by a regressive white moderate. She passionately unveils the crimes and injustices that her people have suffered from. The read is passionate and truthful while forcefully shedding the ignorant presumptions of the reader about what a western reader would consider a "resort area." She skillfully illustrates how foreign landowners rob the economy and further suppress the Antiguan population. She combines the individual reader into a collaboration of his/her personal/cultural histories to make that individual feel responsible for his/her cultures actions. So not only do you read the book as yourself, but you read the essay as western cultures history. She doesn't stop there, but uncovers the evils committed by her own western placed government and calls into question the morality that the whole island revolves on. This is the reason the book has been banned in Antigua. Not only would the book have inflicted damage on commerce and tourism, but also it would have uncovered the committed evils of the persons in power there.
I thought the book was far from enjoyable, but an essential read that helped erase certain ignorance held by the western population. I would suggest the book to scholars and activists or anyone interested in the repercussions of cultural memory. All in all I enjoyed the read but wished that Kincaid had followed through with the "reader narrator" format, which she uses to pull the reader in but abandons after the thirty-seventh page.

Average customer rating:

Lovely writing but not Kincaid's best
A Fine Line Between Love and Hate
A real study of life on a Caribbean Island -- A different review
Appalling novel and annoying main character
Burn it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Annie John: A Novel
Jamaica Kincaid
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0374525102

Amazon.com

Jamaica Kincaid beautifully delineates hatred and fear, because she knows they are often a step away from love and obsession. At the start of Annie John, her 10-year-old heroine is engulfed in family happiness and safety. Though Annie loves her father, she is all eyes for her mother. When she is almost 12, however, the idyll ends and she falls into deep disfavor. This inexplicable loss mars both lives, as each grows adept at public falsity and silent betrayal. The pattern is set, and extended: "And now I started a new series of betrayals of people and things I would have sworn only minutes before to die for." In front of Annie's father and the world, "We were politeness and kindness and love and laughter." Alone they are linked in loathing. Annie tries to imagine herself as someone in a book--an orphan or a girl with a wicked stepmother. The trouble is, she finds, those characters' lives always end happily. Luckily for us, though not perhaps for her alter ego, Kincaid is too truthful a writer to provide such a finale.

Book Description

Annie John is a haunting and provocative story of a young girl growing up on the island of Antigua. A classic coming-of-age story in the tradition of The Catcher in the Rye and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Kincaid’s novel focuses on a universal, tragic, and often comic theme: the loss of childhood. Annie’s voice—urgent, demanding to be heard—is one that will not soon be forgotten by readers.

An adored only child, Annie has until recently lived an idyllic life. She is inseparable from her beautiful mother, a powerful presence, who is the very center of the little girl’s existence. Loved and cherished, Annie grows and thrives within her mother’s benign shadow. Looking back on her childhood, she reflects, “It was in such a paradise that I lived.” When she turns twelve, however, Annie’s life changes, in ways that are often mysterious to her. She begins to question the cultural assumptions of her island world; at school she instinctively rebels against authority; and most frighteningly, her mother, seeing Annie as a “young lady,” ceases to be the source of unconditional adoration and takes on the new and unfamiliar guise of adversary. At the end of her school years, Annie decides to leave Antigua and her family, but not without a measure of sorrow, especially for the mother she once knew and never ceases to mourn. “For I could not be sure,” she reflects, “whether for the rest of my life I would be able to tell when it was really my mother and when it was really her shadow standing between me and the rest of the world."

Customer Reviews:

Lovely writing but not Kincaid's best.......2006-05-31

This novel has the same beautiful, flowing, sparkling language as LUCY, which I loved. The sentences are a joy to read (they reminded me a little of Thom Jones, with their relentless, driving, dialogue-free qualities). This is essentially a slice-of-life story about Annie's teenage years in the West Indies that ends with her leaving for England. Annie is an interesting and complex character and I admired the unquestioning way in which we are told about her falling in love (crush?) with Gwen and the Red Girl. There is a wonderfully female sensibility in this book, the kind that is confident enough to portray women in all their complexity, as bad and as good, as able to wish well and able to rejoice in other's pain. However, the mother-daughter relationship did not convince me. I felt as if the writer knew more about this relationship than the reader was being told and so when I came to the sentence `I no longer loved my mother,' I did not believe it because I had seen to reason for this. The mother changes as the daughter gets older and, even making room for normal teenage angst, there were parts of the narrative that seemed determined to have the mother and daughter estranged even if it was not organic to the rest of the narrative. Of course, this happens in real life all the time but the demands of fiction are different - the reader should not be expected to make assumptions from `real life.' Still, Jamaica Kincaid is a brilliant writer. Her language is superb and her story-telling, even if not best demonstrated here, is remarkable.

A Fine Line Between Love and Hate.......2006-05-21

At first, I was a bit wary about wanting to read this text as "Lucy" had not been one of my favorites. "Annie John" however, for being such a slim novel, was packed with the issues that result from teen angst in combination with the ever problematic relationship of a mother and daughter.
Annie and her mother start off with a wonderfully intimate relationship that Annie likens to "paradise" only to see it crumble as Annie matures into a sexual being, becoming TOO MUCH like her mother. It is at this time that Annie goes looking outside the home to replace the mother she now calls "serpent." Once expelled from paradise, Annie does what she can to spite her mother by thieving and hanging out with girls her mother disapproves of.
Like "Lucy," "Annie John" seems to have an evil side to her. She is angry and flawed as well as self-loathing and arrogant. In other words, she is turmoil personified. Her dark side is one reason I found this book so readable, but perhaps the most compelling thing about the novel is the mother/daughter relationship. Perhaps no one has figured out why such relationships are seemingly always fraught with intense animosity and competition, but Kincaid certainly relates the horrific reality of the fact quite convincingly.
While this story certainly contains no idealistic or happy ending, it is rich in psychology and what can only be deemed as troubling personal experience on the part of the author.
I recommend this one to any woman (or man)who ever experienced the fine line of love and hate with her own mother once upon a time.

A real study of life on a Caribbean Island -- A different review.......2006-05-04

This book reads like poetry. Ms Kincaid describes simple acts (such as doing laundry) with detail and with the perspective of a young girl. I tend to read an author's complete works. I have done so with Amy Tan and Paule Marshall. I was aware of Jamaica Kincaid but had never read her until Amy Tan named "Annie John" and "Lolita" as the 2 books which influenced her the most.
Ms Kincaid includes the small stuff which add up and leave the reader with the smell of Antiguan food cooking, and girls attending school wearing English-style uniforms.
This is a book that I will read and read again. I hope you enjoy it.

Appalling novel and annoying main character.......2006-04-12

I had to read Annie John for my English class and I can say that it is probablly one of the worst books I have read yet. Not only are the characters difficult to relate to, but the book is extremely dull and written as a comeing of age story. Basically, the book starts out with Annie, the protagonist a girl growing up in Antigua remembering how much her mother loved her when she was a young girl. Then, in the next few chapters, Annie describes herself as a 12 year old girl going to school and having an overpowering love for her friend Gwen. She has behavior problems and does some things that her mother seems shamed about and she further distances from her mother. The next couple chapters, she is an akward 15 yr. old in classes with older girls who are more developed then she is as she puts it and she dislikes this. At this time, her thoughts that her mother doesn't like her have escalated into her hating her mother and her thinking that her mother returns these same feelings. She doesn't love Gwen anymore and feels lonely. Finally, when she is 17 she leaves home and goes to train to become a nurse and oddly actually will miss her mother even though throughout the book (for the most part) she has shown strong resentment and hatred towards her mother....Anyway, this book was so extremelly horrible and I hope you don't ever read it. If you decide to read it or are forced to I pity you, because this book is trash and I don't see why anyone would publish it...BIG MISTAKE on their part.

Burn it!!!!!!!!!!!!!.......2006-04-11

It was torture for me to read this book and then have to discuss it. Of course, the only point of interest was whether or not Annie was a lesbian!

To sum up, life sucks, her mother has abandoned her since their relationship has evolved since she became a young adult (why can't we take baths like we used to!!!), life sucks, girls gone wild scene, and life sucks!

Average customer rating:

The autobiography of "EVERY" Caribbean mother.
Zowie! Kincaid sucks readers in again
Mixed feelings..
Incredible
Beautifully written.

Autobiography of My Mother
Jamaica Kincaid
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0452274664

Amazon.com

"My mother died at the moment I was born, and so for my whole life there was nothing standing between myself and eternity," writes Jamaica Kincaid in this disturbing, compelling novel set on the island of Dominica. Born to a doomed Carib woman and a Scottish African policeman of increasing swagger and wealth, narrator Xuela spends a lifetime unanchored by family or love. She disdains the web of small and big lies that link others, allowing only pungent, earthy sensuality--a mix of blood and dirt and sex--to move her. Even answering its siren call, though, Xuela never loses sight of the sharp loss that launched her into the world and the doors through which she will take her leave.

Customer Reviews:

The autobiography of "EVERY" Caribbean mother........2006-09-06

Jamaica Kincaid's work always provokes sentiment for me. As a fellow Caribbean native, she describes some deep darks truths about people. . .truths that are consistent only among Caribs as they are influenced by thier social and cultural norms.In this novel, the mother's character, at parts, seemed much like my own mother: Having a dream of a better existence, but having it crushed by a woman whose dreams have also been diminished. And thus, a vicious cycle within a society of women who never seem to truly live; instead, only exist to raise other crushed little girls to yield even more unfulfilled woman.

Don't look for any made-up or whimsical fantasies here. You will find yourself precisely where little secrets lie. . .in places you will only visit by way of Kincaid's chariot.

Zowie! Kincaid sucks readers in again.......2003-05-03

Autobiography of My Mother is a powerful, mesmerizing, and other-worldy tale of Xuela, a woman of Dominica, West Indies, who is a worthy subject for Kincaid's musical cadences and rapturous prose. Boy, can this woman write - and she infuses all her prose with the lilting voices of her compatriots. There's no way to read her work aloud without finding yourself lapsing into the patois, sing-songy style of speech that comes thru so clearly in her writing. This book is a painful tale, the recounting of a difficult life without much love shown to the girl as she grows from motherless infant to strong and bitter young woman who aborts her pregnancy and remains defiant the rest of her life. Raised motherless herself, she determines never to mother others. Taken on a metaphorical level, the woman's story could be the story of Dominica, torn by suffering, racism, power, and the unbreakable bonds that bind them together.
Powerful writing on so, so many levels.

Mixed feelings.........2003-02-18

My feelings are very mixed about this book. There is no doubt that Kincaid has the ability to weave together beautiful and thoughtful moments. However, I had a difficult time staying interested in the book.

I understand the book to be written in the style of the characters history, experiences and misfortunes . A child raised without love, who grows into a woman without the ability to love. Life without love becomes a life filled with philosophical insight on human behavior, love and death.

Overall, the main character's inability to rise above an emotional flat line kept me disconnected, which prevents me from recommending this book with too much enthusiasm. I didn't feel that the character's description of the events matched her bleak emotional landscape.

Incredible.......2002-10-25

This is my favorite of Jamaica Kincaid's, which of course is saying a lot. It is simply amazing. More complex and involved than her usual writing, it is a "hard" read, but definitely worth it. Also, if you ever have a chance to hear her read, it is amazing, and you will never read her in the same way again.

Beautifully written........2002-08-31

Kincaid shows that she's a talented author. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MY MOTHER is beautifully written. It's not about her mother at all, but about the search for knowledge about this woman that she never met. And thereby a search into herself (well, into the character's self). It's quiet. She even describes ugliness quietly. "I long to meet the thing greater than I am, the thing to which I can submit." I was able to sink into it as I read it, but the book didn't stay with me after I was done.

The Best American Travel Writing 2005 (The Best American Series)

Average customer rating:

I Want My Money Back
Glad I'm not there
What would be so bad about uplifting, humourous writing?
Essays Highlight the Dark Underbelly of Travel

The Best American Travel Writing 2005 (The Best American Series)

Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Best American Travel Writing 2003 (The Best American Series)

ASIN: 061836952X

Book Description

Edited by the renowned novelist and travel writer Jamaica Kincaid, this year's collection reflects the wandering spirit and ever-present quest for adventure of the seasonedand not so seasonedtraveler. Contributors include Tom Bissell, Ian Frazier, Simon Winchester, Murad Kalam, and others.

Customer Reviews:

I Want My Money Back.......2006-12-01

I was very excited to get this book, because I was under the impression that I was going to get to read some amazing writing. Well, it must be so amazing that it's over my head, because I was bored to tears. "A Really Big Lunch" is probably the most boring story I have ever read. The author spends his entire article detailing a gigantic feast he indulges in down to the tiniest detail. Unless you're a foodie or gourmand, it would have been better as photography. "My Thai Girlfriends" is about an American lecher sitting around doing nothing in Thailand, and it only makes me sorry that Thailand had to suffer through the author's presence. The only funny and/or interesting story in the book is "Trying to Like India." I don't think I've ever laughed as hard as I did reading that one. But one story doesn't make up for the fact that the rest of the book is garbage. Skip this one.

Glad I'm not there.......2006-03-01

Travel has become so much easier that it has made travel writing harder. Travel writers used to feed the imagination by tales of exotic places the reader could only dream of seeing, reached after long and arduous journeys. Simon Winchester's piece about Ascension Island and Ben Ryder Howe on the Darien Gap are the closest to being in that old-fashioned genre in this book. These days we can jet to Timbuctu or Samarkand and stay at the Holiday Inn.
To make up for the lack of difficulty getting there, some places are so dangerous that accounts of them provide vicarious excitement. Madison Smart Bell in Haiti and Robert Young Felton on the NorthWest Frontier are in this category. A lesser degree of this is to make the destination sound so unpleasant that we feel good not being there. Seth Stevenson does this brilliantly about India. He should negotiate with the Indian Tourist Board to get bribed to keep quiet. Others to make you happy you stayed home are Peter Hessler (helping a sick child in China) and Murad Kalam on the Haj.
Another gimmick is to stretch the definition of "travel writing". William Blundell, Ian Frazier, William Least Heat Moon, Pam Houston and John McPhee do not leave the United States. Bucky McMahon doesn't get anywhere. Frazier describes a trip from Montclair, New Jersey to Weehawken, New Jersey. No doubt this will intrigue Montclair residents who want to know what Weehawken is like. McPhee is wonderful at explaining complicated technology, and that's what he mostly does in his long piece about barges in the Mid-West. I always find reading McPhee rather hard work.

What would be so bad about uplifting, humourous writing?.......2005-12-21

I'm sorry. I haven't even completed the book. And,in fact, I may not complete it. There's too much to read to subject myself to such negativity. So, the search for stories for this book was for "rare pieces that weren't 'aggressively positive'; or that 'underline my sense of my displacement.'
Give me a break!
This is travel writing! "A Walk in the Woods" still stands out as my all-time favorite piece of travel writing. Please don't misunderstand - I read copious amounts of non-fiction, and sadly, the majority of that writing isn't positive - it's more investigative, historical material or the author has an ax to grind - as in Al Franken's latest book.
But, what's wrong with picking up something to read that will provide a sense of joy or enlighenment? I don't care to read about how brutal Haiti's existence has been - I get quite enough of reality thru the Jim Lehrer Newshour.
Don't waste your money if you're hoping for something light - that's for sure.

Essays Highlight the Dark Underbelly of Travel.......2005-12-20

This year's editor Jamaica Kincaid has done an excellent job of choosing essays that, more than chronicle exotic journeys, speak about the perplexities of the human condition as her selections are often scabrous, sardonic, and emphasize the dangers and follies that roil beneath the surface of a travel itinerary. Here are some highlights:

1. "War Wounds" by Tom Bissell. A son and father, a Vietnam vet, travel through the father's war trajectory forty years later as Bissell explores what it means to be the son of a "war wounded" father.

2. "My Florida" by William E. Blundell. Famous for his book The Art of Feature Writing, Blundell has written my favorite essay in the collection. This is a gem of style, pungent, sarcastic, and wise. Blundell describes Florida as a place of grotesque indulgence for those geriatrics who decided to retire into a life of philistinism, tackiness, and decadence. A hilarious essay that would make Mark Twain proud.

3. "A Really Big Lunch" by Jim Harrison. Novelist Jim Harrison proves to also be a rather unapologetic gourmand who describes with hilarity his glutton quests with fellow sensualists. Almost as funny as "My Florida."

4. "My Kindergarten" by Peter Hessler. Set in rural China, this is a sad but inspiring essay about a peasant family struggling to overcome a mentally-handicapped family member and a child with a near deadly blood disease. Hessler shows how peasants, held in contempt, and urban citizens, given proper medical care, are treated differently by the government.

5. "My Thai Girlfriends" by Tom Ireland. An American living in Thailand, Ireland can't convince anyone that he is not a tomcat American embarking on a salacious quest in spite of his demure lifestyle.

6. "If It Doesn't Kill You First" by Murad Kalam. A recent convert to Islam and novelist, Kalam chronicles his pilgrimage to Mecca and shows his struggle to navigate through excruciating ritual, fanatics, and Muslims who, like him, are sincere but scared living in a post 9/11 world.

7. "Into the Land of Bin Laden" by Robert Young Pelton. The author shows how difficult it is to track Bin Laden in the no-man's land region of Taliban sympathizers and tribalists who afford great loyalty to the el Qaeda leader. He goes deep in the mountains of the Pakistan border and risks his life to tell his tale.

Average customer rating:

alluring, seductive, and entertaining
Enlightening
Where's the story?
A Complicated Work
Jamica Kincaid, a story of family and loss

My Brother
Jamaica Kincaid
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0374525625

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Compassion only occasionally lightens the grim tone of Jamaica Kincaid's searing account of her younger brother Devon's 1996 death from AIDS. As in novels such as Annie John, Kincaid is ruthlessly honest about her ambivalence toward the impoverished Caribbean nation from which she fled, her restrictive family, and the culture that imprisoned Devon. That honesty, which includes chilling detachment from her brother's suffering, is sometimes alienating. But art has its own justifications. The bitter clarity of Kincaid's prose and the tangled, undeniably human feelings it lucidly dissects are justification enough.

Book Description

Jamaica Kincaid's incantatory, poetic, and often shockingly frank recounting of her brother Devon Drew's life is also the story of her family on the island of Antigua, a constellation centered on the powerful, sometimes threatening figure of the writer's mother. Kincaid's unblinking record of a life that ed too early speaks volumes about the difficult truths at the heart of all families.

Customer Reviews:

alluring, seductive, and entertaining.......2007-04-16

I'd only ever read a short short story of Jamaica Kincaid's (that I wasn't too impressed by) before picking up this memoir. I enjoyed her memoir thoroughly. Wonderfully crafted and skillfully written, this rendition of her memories surrounding the life and death of her brother in Antigua, Jamaica, are emotionally moving, to say the least. I'm not giving much away by revealing that her brother dies of AIDS, something that is revealed in the first few pages, so I'm okay to say that this story of a sister and family's grappling with the immiment death manages to handle the AIDS story with beauty, poise, and compelling writing.

She highlights the stigma that surrounded anyone who contracted the disease. Were they a drug user? A philanderer? A homosexual? What kind of lifestyle does that person live that allowed them to contract such a deadly disease? Those are the questions people in Jamaica, and elsewhere, thought and asked themselves at the time, and even today. The sick were labelled, ostricized, deemed outcast, and refused help. A sad plight, indeed.

Simply put, Kincaid has a simple way with language that turns up on the page as alluring, seductive, and entertaining.

-- Reviewed by Jonathan Stephens

Enlightening.......2002-08-29

I first read Jamaica Kincaid's work in "Talk Stories", and I loved it.

I discovered this book (My Brother) when reading the book "Writing as a Way of Healing" by Louise DeSalvo. I was curious about Jamaica's life and her writing style intrigued me.

Through her writing, Jamaica brings beauty to even the most difficult of life's experiences. She writes, "That sun, that sun. On the last day of our visit its rays seemed as pointed and unfriendly as an enemy's well-aimed spear."(p.73)

Her writing is honest and balanced between expressing the hard aspects and the kindness within her family life. This book is mostly about her brother dying of AIDS, a very difficult subject matter to read. I also enjoyed reading about how she became a writer, and what it means to her to be a writer.

This book also tells about life in Antigua, which I was especially interested in learning about. The next book I will read by Jamaica is "A Small Place", to learn more about life in Antigua.

Where's the story?.......2002-06-28

Normally a fan of Jamaica Kincaid, this book was terribly disappointing. Kincaid tells the story of her brother's battle with AIDS . . . well, sort of tells it anyway.

This book tells the reader surprisingly little about any story. Kincaid, wrapped up in age-old animosity toward her mother does not tell the story of her brother's fight with a deadly disease, or the story of her brother's death, or the story of her brother's life, or even her own story of how she dealt with all of this--all of which would have been fascinating stories had they been told. Kincaid's feelings toward her mother seem not quite unfounded to the reader but certainly a bit mysterious. There is deep conflict between the author and her mother but as readers we have only two or three explanations for the mother/daughter difficulty. If this were only mentioned in passing we could overlook this flaw, however, Kincaid is extremely hung up on the issue and the ill feelings toward her mother cloud the true story of the book (whatever that may be).

Kincaid's style, usually quite interesting, was lacking in this book. Her wandering, redundant sentences build her excessively long and redundant paragraphs, which are full of distracting and also redundant parenthetical comments.

However, the book is not without a few strong points. There are some good detailed descriptions--particularly of her brother's physical condition and of specific places. Kincaid also does a fine job of describing her various feelings when she realizes toward the end of the book that she knew her brother even less than she had previously thought (and she never claimed to know much about him to begin with).

My advice is to pass this book by and pick up one of Kincaid's novels, or--even better--get your hands on one of her short stories.

A Complicated Work.......2002-04-14

I'm still thinking through the issues raised in "My Brother" -- and I suspect that it will be one of those books which, though it feels a bit hollow as I read it, will turn out to haunt me in the future. Only time will tell. The most remarkable thing about it, I think, is the way that Kincaid refuses to valorize any of the characters she describes. The incredible ire towards her mother is the only emotion that feels puzzling, given the lack of context for it -- I kept waiting for a revelation there that never came. With this exception, however, Kincaid seems committed to presenting a balanced portrayal: she does not heroize the dead, nor does she portray herself as particularly wise or noble in the face of death. It is this commitment to a human, complex portrayal that makes the description unique.

I just want to add that I am only posting this to counteract what appears to be a long list of high school book reports that make up most of the "reviewing" on this page. ...

Jamica Kincaid, a story of family and loss.......2002-01-22

Jamaica Kincaid tells the story of her ill brother and his encounters with the virus HIV. The story has the title of My Brother by Jamaica Kincaid. The story is essentially written to save Jamaica's own life. Whenever there is a tragic happening in her family, she writes about to let her feelings out and she also tries to exclude herself from her family. She moves away from Antigua once she became old enough to do so. Jamaica goes through sever years without connection to her mother and her siblings. Jamaica struggles to find feelings for her sick and dying brother as he spends his last days in an old run down hospital in Antigua. Jamaica is only able to let her own feelings out in a comfortable manner to Dr. Prince Ramsey. Jamaica is unable to communicate with her own mother. This is due to Jamaica's feeling that her mother was only a mother at certain times. Jamaica is driven on the idea that her mother only wants to care for her children if they were sick or in need of caring. Any time other than that, Jamaica thinks she had a poor mother. Jamaica is pleased however with few things her mother did. When Jamaica was only fifteen years old, she was forced to look after her younger brother who was only age two. She decided to read her books all day long and decided that looking after her younger brother was not a number one priority. Jamaica realized at the end of her reading that her mother would be home soon so she tried to clean up the things she thought her mother would realize first. One of these things was her brothers diaper but Jamaica did not have enough time to change so once her mother found this out, she took all of Jamaica's books, took them outside, doused them with kerosene, and burned them all, every last book. Jamaica recalls this event as driving her to become a written to make up for all for all of the books that she had lost at a young age.
Throughout the book Jamaica conveys her struggle to find love for her dying brother, Devon Drew. She never was close at all to her younger brother and as her brother became more sick, Jamaica knew she need to do something to redeem her self for all of the years she was absent in the presence of her brother. On page 72, Jamaica and her mother have a conversation about bringing her brother the medicine that prolonged his life several months more. Her mother said to her that god would bless her richly for providing her brother with the medicine, AZT. Jamaica was not sure if what her mother said was true but she was really not concerned with gods or being richly blessed. Jamaica was constantly thinking about how her brother was sick and how much Antiguan society shunned HIV positive people. Even though her brother was feeling better from the AZT, Jamaica knew that eventually her brother would die. On January 19th, 1996, at the age of thirty-three, Devon Drew died.
At certain times throughout the story, Jamaica thinks that it is perhaps better if her brother would just die, but when Devon was no more, Jamaica did not know what to feel. At certain points throughout the story, Jamaica feels that Devon is becoming a burden to her, making fly from her home in Vermont to Antigua, every time her brother needed more AZT. On page 87 she states that it seemed that his dying was a good thing, she was relieved when her brother finally did die. She says " when that moment came, the moment I knew he was no longer alive, I didn't know what to think, I didn't know how to feel" I think that this sentence conveys the struggle Jamaica has internally about her brothers illness and about how she felt about him when he was alive. During the story Jamaica also remembers the death of her father. She got word of his death right around Christmas time and she felt increasingly depressed. On page 119 Jamaica says " In the letter telling me that my father is (that is, the man who was not really my father but whom played I thought of as my father, and the man who had filled that role in my life) had died, my mother said his death left them impoverished, that she had been unable to pay for his burial, and the only charitable of others allowed him to have an ordinary burial, not an extraordinary burial of a pauper, with its anonymous grave and which no proper mourners attend". Throughout the second half of the book, Jamaica demonstrates her increasing anger toward her father and her brother. She becomes very angered at the thought of anyone dying and she keeps feeling that she really did not care about the loss of her father, only how to try and make up for the lost time with her brother, who in retrospect never really seemed to love Jamaica as a sister, just perhaps someone who provided him life with more AZT. Jamaica has difficulty dealing with all of the tragic experiences that has happened to her family, that is why one could feel that Jamaica isolated herself from her family. She feels that at certain times throughout the book she feels that perhaps she is to blame for being in the absence of her ill brother.
One could feel that Jamaica Kincaid does represent a hero but in defined terms. At times the only reason she is able to provide her brother with AZT is because she has had a better life than the rest of her family and she also has more money than the rest of her family. She tries her hardest to find love for her brother, even though she really cannot relate to any of his problems. She buys him temporary relief with the AZT medicine, but she knows that is not enough to make up for all of the lost years she had been without her brother. One might not necessarily think that Jamaica wanted to reconnect with her brother and the rest of her family, one might think that she just wanted to see him again before he died. While visiting her brother the experiences Jamaica had with her mother did make her more stressed out and more prone to mental and physical breakdowns. One could say that Jamaica did triumph all of the death and stress that was associated with her mother and the rest of her family.
One cold imagine that this story is heartfelt at times and a very good read. Some parts of the story were somewhat confusing when Jamaica puts things like my father (not my father but my brother's father) in parentheses. It seems as though she does want a mother and father but at times is seems as though Jamaica knows that maybe they do not want to be parents to her. This book is touching on several levels and anyone who has family members who are sick can relate to this book. This book was moving and really from the heart (of Jamaica Kincaid). One could feel that this book could be given to almost anyone and that person would be moved emotionally as well as physically. This book tells the story of hardship and death a young girl inspired to write her feelings in order to save her own life. Jamaica was inspired by the acts of her mother burning the few items she truly loved in live. Her books. She is familiar with the act of saving herself, so when she found out her brother was sick and dying. She started to write she knew that was the only was to understand his sickness, and she also began to write so she would not die with him. This book was amazing and is truly one of the best works of all times. It deals with emotion and real life situations. One feels that anyone who wants to learn the story of a girl who overcame the impoverished life of her family and the way Jamaica tried to save her own brother even when she could not relate to him, and she did with grace and inner strength that is unprecedented and amazing. She tried to keep a smile on her face and have a strong heart through it all.

Average customer rating:

Quite different (for a garden book)
Insufferable
the thickness of things
Tedious - Good Word
Skip it

My Garden (Book)
Jamaica Kincaid
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Essays | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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My Brother
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ASIN: 0374527768

Book Description

One of our finest writers on one of her greatest loves.Jamaica Kincaid's first garden in Vermont was a plot in the middle of her front lawn. There, to the consternation of more experienced friends, she planted only seeds of the flowers she liked best. In My Garden (Book): she gathers all she loves about gardening and plants, and examines it generously, passionately, and with sharp, idiosyncratic discrimination. Kincaid's affections are matched in intensity only by her dislikes. She loves spring and summer but cannot bring herself to love winter, for it hides the garden. She adores the rhododron Jane Grant, and appreciates ordinary Blue Lake string beans, but abhors the Asiatic lily. The sources of her inspiration -- seed catalogues, the gardener Gertrude Jekyll, gardens like Monet's at Giverny -- are subjected to intense scrutiny. She also examines the idea of the garden on Antigua, where she grew up. My Garden (Book): is an intimate, playful, and penetrating book on gardens, the plants that fill them, and the persons who tend them.

Customer Reviews:

Quite different (for a garden book).......2007-04-25

I found this book at a library book sale and bought it because of the subject (I enjoy garden writings immensely) and because of the loveliness of the book itself.
The first story about a wisteria that won't bloom at the proper time is the only story I didn't like. The author repeated the sentece "What to do?" so many times that it got on my last nerve. Her writing in that piece seemed to be the meanderings of her thoughts that she then attempted to give a heavy-handed poetic touch. I enjoyed the rest of the pieces.
This book is not typical of garden books and Jamaica Kincaid puts in bits and pieces of her life, touching on racial issues and gardener snobbery. Some sentences widen the eyes and make you read it again because it is so unexpected, tidbits that most other authors would self-censor. The author can come across as a bit offensive, particularly when branding various people "ugly", and I'm not sure if she would be a difficult person to know or a fun person to know - maybe both, but I definitely enjoyed her writings and am glad I didn't let her wisteria story deter me from reading the rest of the book.

Insufferable.......2004-08-18

I found this book insufferable, and didn't get to finish it. The contrived title should have tipped me off. Why isn't Amazon listing it correctly? It should be My Garden (Book):

For started, i don't really care for Jamaica Kincaid's writing style. She uses punctuation sparsely, and you go for what it seems like a mile with no period in sight. In the meantime, she has branched in a myriad of extra information, and after a while it gets to be too much to keep track of. This is not stream of consciousness writing, or at least not the good kind anyway.

What really did me in was the beginning of her anecdote titled "Reading":

"It was a day in late October and I had two thousand dollars' worth of heirloom bulbs to place in the ground [...]"

If that wasn't enough, then she continues:

"I do not like winter or anything that represents it ..."

What is she doing then living in Vermont?!

She came across as a malcontent human being who agonizes over insignificant stuff, like the exact month her wisterias bloom. She takes the joy out of gardening, and out of reading.

the thickness of things.......2004-06-07

"Oh, how I like the rush of things, the thickness of things . . ."

Oh, how I like Kincaid's My Garden (Book). I am halfway through it and realize I had better slow down, because I am not going to find another book on the garden I like nearly so much as this one, probably for a very long time. I've got a stack of other books, none so good, and I will use My Garden (Book) like a tiny slice of truffle among the more common and less delicious food on my plate. Rationing is the only option.

What I like about her (among the everything else I like about her) is that she doesn't like Asiatic Lilies because their colors remind her of a hallucinogenic drug she took once ever seven days for a year when she was young. This is the best sort of confession to make in a gardening book.

She also confesses to amassing large debts and threatening letters from creditors about her garden habit. She confesses to being a messy, careless person with a messy house. All these confessions endear her to me. The weaknesses balance the austere authority of her prose, which also endears her to me.

Her garden aesthetic - odd, overgrown, intense and personal, wild, even, endears her to me. I remember reading a bit of memoir in the New Yorker that involved her experiments with coffee enemas. This struck me as the strangest thing I had ever read (because perhaps I was still a teenager in Kansas and ready to be struck by things). Enemas? The reason for them escaped me, but with coffee none the less - or espresso? I paid careful attention to the byline of that piece, wanting to find more of this sort of writing.

Later, one of her essays was in a book I used as a graduate teaching assistant. When I saw her name, I took a sip of coffee.

I like Ms. Kincaid because she doesn't love the writing of Vita Sackville-West. She says that the best literary companion to Vita's gardens is the autobiography of Nina Simone. How could this not be love? The best companion to life is Nina Simone and gardening like Vita Sackville-West.

How could I not see bringing Ms. Kincaid a bouquet of flowers in exquisite yellows and sharing a cocktail in some overgrown, wild garden someday? How could I not tell everyone I know who enjoys the garden or good writing to pick up this book immediately and fall in love?

Tedious - Good Word.......2004-04-20

I couldn't finish this book, and usually I finish books too quickly. The reviewer who described her book/writing style as tedious wins the prize from me. I think I would have liked her piece if she wrote differently. But...

Skip it.......2003-05-30

Has this woman never heard of punctuation? Her sentences are so long you practically have to tie yourself in a knot to read them. This is a shame, because before I got turned off by the sentence length I had spotted some fresh ideas. I toiled on until I realized there was no depth of knowledge behind the ideas. There are lots of good, even great, books of garden essays out there. Don't waste your time on this one.

Average customer rating:

Beautiful and engaging.
Boring, Lame, Unstimulating
3 and a 1/2 stars
Jamaica Kincaid is Amazing
Yet another mindless book for the masses

Lucy: A Novel
Jamaica Kincaid
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0374527350

Book Description

The coming-of-age story of one of Jamaica Kincaid's most admired creations--newly available in paperback

Lucy, a teenage girl from the West Indies, comes to North America to work as an au pair for Lewis and Mariah and their four children. Lewis and Mariah are a thrice-blessed couple--handsome, rich, and seemingly happy. Yet, alomst at once, Lucy begins to notice cracks in their beautiful facade. With mingled anger and compassion, Lucy scrutinizes the assumptions and verities of her employers' world and compares them with the vivid realities of her native place. Lucy has no illusions about her own past, but neither is she prepared to be deceived about where she presently is.

At the same time that Lucy is coming to terms with Lewis's and Mariah's lives, she is also unravelling the mysteries of her own sexuality. Gradually a new person unfolds: passionate, forthright, and disarmingly honest. In Lucy, Jamaica Kincaid has created a startling new character possessed with adamantine clearsightedness and ferocious integrity--a captivating heroine for our time.

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful and engaging........2007-03-08

Kincaid's writing style is deceptively simple. There is more to Lucy than the adolescent malcontent, and layers of meaning thrive beneath every lyrical line. The cyclical nature of the story resists typical linear development - there IS character growth and plot development. 'Lucy' will be a boring read if you're a lazy reader: look deeper.

Boring, Lame, Unstimulating.......2007-03-07

Lucy, by Jamiaca Kincaid, was one of the most boring books that I have ever been subjected to. It made me want to cry, and not from tears. Rather, it was from the boredom and wasting away of life that I experienced while reading. Lucy is a depressed and somber character that fails to find happiness, because she is not searching for it. Depressing. I know.

3 and a 1/2 stars.......2005-09-22

One thing you should know before picking up this book is that the main character, Lucy, is an extremely f**ked up kid who, overall, is wholly unlikeable. That being said however, the book does have its strong points. Lucy is a girl from the West Indies who comes to North America as an au pair. Her journey through the book not only shows us some of the prejudices she must endure, but more ironically shows the extremes of her own prejudices.
I found a lot of the book to be seemingly hopeless and exasperating, but it is also an eye opener in the realm of the subjugated. There is also something of a ray of hope at the book's finish.
Lastly, this book is very much manifested from some of the author's own experiences as a native of Antigua and it would really do a reader good to read Jamaica Kincaid's easily readable yet extremely angry essay, "On Seeing England for the First Time," before delving into this book.
"Lucy" is short and worth the time it takes to finish as I believe the story is more defined by what is furtively omitted (yet alluded to) than what is actually displayed in black and white.

Jamaica Kincaid is Amazing.......2005-08-29

After reading "Annie John," I was excited to read another book by Jamaica Kincaid for a class on Immigration. Jamaica Kincaid's style is soothing and simplisticly poetic. I loved reading "Lucy" for this same style I saw in "Annie John." Kincaid is amazing because she is not afraid to explore the taboo or the sexual nature of adolescence in the full glory of its complexity. Reading "Lucy" leaves the reader feeling empowered and somewhat lucid, while enticing them to remember the secrets of their own young experimentational development.

Yet another mindless book for the masses.......2004-07-26

I wanted to love Jamaica Kincaid -- I really did. I first picked up Lucy expecting to love it because I had heard such wonderful things about Kincaid.

What a pathetic disappointment.

The novel drones on with no purpose and little plot. The writing is on the level of a pre-teen novel. In fact, had I read this when I was 13, it would have been incredible. Unfortunately, I'm not 13 anymore.

The overarching flaw in Lucy is that the reader has absolutely no reason to care about the title character. She hates her new home -- for no reason. She hates her old home -- for no reason. She hates everyone she meets -- for no reason. At least once in every section she mentions how she either hates something or how something doesn't meet her approval -- however, we are never given a reason for her disdain or her high standards. In fact, we are given the opposite -- we are continually reminded of how ignorant Lucy is by her incessant complaining and idiotic comments.

The character is supposed to be powerful and honest and courageous. In reality she is self-absorbed, ignorant, and dull.

I really did want to like this book. Unfortunately, it's the kind of novel that will be praised by people who don't know any better -- who praise books simply because Oprah liked them.

If you've got nothing better to read when you go to the beach one day, it's fine -- just don't expect to be impressed or empowered by it. It's nothing more than a dimestore rag.

Average customer rating:

Ordinary but also Extraordinary
Breathtaking Lyricism & Abstract Imagery
Love, sadness, and growing up in the Caribbean
A Genius Mind
Lovely

At the Bottom of the River
Jamaica Kincaid
Manufacturer: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

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Lucy: A Novel

ASIN: 0374527342

Book Description

Jamaica Kincaid's inspired, lyrical short stories

Reading Jamaica Kincaid is to plunge, gently, into another way of seeing both the physical world and its elusive inhabitants. Her voice is, by turns, naively whimsical and biblical in its assurance, and it speaks of what is partially remembered partly divined. The memories often concern a childhood in the Caribbean--family, manners, and landscape--as distilled and transformed by Kincaid's special style and vision.

Kincaid leads her readers to consider, as if for the first time, the powerful ties between mother and child; the beauty and destructiveness of nature; the gulf between the masculine and the feminine; the significance of familiar things--a house, a cup, a pen. Transfiguring our human form and our surroundings--shedding skin, darkening an afternoon, painting a perfect place--these stories tell us something we didn't know, in a way we hadn't expected.

Customer Reviews:

Ordinary but also Extraordinary.......2007-01-17

I got this book because it is one of the required books I need for my college class. When I began reading the book, I didn't like nor dislike the book because it is a strange book comparing to many books I have read so far in college and through out my life. This book consists of many ordinary stories such as our everyday life. For instance, "I am trying to read. The book is lying in my lap. I look around me, trying to find something on which to focus my eyes." Some of the stories are extraordinary or strange if you would want to consider them. For instance, "Now I am a girl, but one day I will marry a woman-a red-skin woman with black bramblebush hair and brown eyes, who wears skirts that are so big I can easily bury my head in them." or "I stood up on the edge of the basin and felt myself move. But what self? For I had no feet, or hands, or head, or heart-having once been there, were now stripped away, as if I had been dipped again and again, over and over, in a large vat filled with some precious elements and were now reduced to something I yet had no name for. I had no name for the thing I had become, so new was it to me, except that I did not exist in pain or pleasure, east or west or north or south, or up or down, or past or present or future, or real or not real." This book is a beautiful poem but from reading the book, it didn't teach me much but it does somewhat inspire me to write my own book. (If this what you call a book, I can write one also.)

Breathtaking Lyricism & Abstract Imagery.......2004-09-02

'At the Bottom of the River' is a lyrical collection of some of Jamaica Kincaid's most provocative writing. Although occasionally confounding in her use of abstract images and construction of abstruse and ethereal narratives, Kincaid's stories nevertheless contain breathtaking lyricism and innovative lines of poetic prose; her words seem to reverberate from the very recesses of metamorphic meaning.

This collection begins innocently enough with one of Kincaid's most impacting writings, Girl. Girl is one of the most severe but accurate depictions of the volatile intensity between mother and daughter. Fueled by a combination of love, fear, and partial loathing, a mother doles out a mantra of life lessons with equal parts concern and venom: "When buying cotton to make yourself a nice blouse, be sure that it doesn't have gum on it, because that way it won't hold up well after a wash. ... Always eat your food in such a way that it won't turn someone else's stomach; on Sundays try to walk like a lady and not like the (...) you are so bent on becoming." The essays that follow are sinewy with sexual, violent, and spiritual themes.

Kincaid's strength lies in her rage. One senses it above all in her amazing control over words, which, while extremely satisfying on the level of literary technique, also comes across as a refusal to be vulnerable and a reply to anyone who would try to keep her down.

Like a journal, 'At the Bottom of the River' matures in content as it proceeds. Kincaid's prose-poetry initially appears whimsical (she describes some pebbles as "not pebbly enough") and that's the mystique of her writing, how it almost capriciously masks cerebral contemplations on living, dying, and the struggle in-between.

Love, sadness, and growing up in the Caribbean.......2004-05-02

Jamaica Kincaid's AT THE BOTTOM OF THE RIVER is a study of voice and language that first brought the author recognition beyond the pages of literary journals. These ten stories, all but the last extremely short, are set in an intense Caribbean landscape where a girl comes of age in the shadow of her mother; they are hallucinatory, tense, and indirect, leaving much for the reader to interpret. For example, the first story, "Girl", is a monologue spoken by the mother giving advice ("this is how you set a table for dinner") interspersed with comments degrading the daughter. The two italicized, one-sentence responses from the daughter speak volumes about this complicated relationship. "What I Have Been Doing Lately" is a dream-like narrative that lists what the narrator is (probably not) doing and, in the process, illustrates the emotional state of someone so sad that she just wants to lie in bed. "At the Bottom of the River", the final, longest, and most traditional of the stories, implies the past and future of the narrator through visions seen "at the bottom of the river."

Kincaid's style combines the effect of the simple but perfect word with the lilt of Caribbean rhythms. On the surface, these stories are not difficult to read, but they can be challenging to understand for the reader accustomed to more traditional methods of storytelling. The collection is about as short as a book can get, and so the stories can be read in one sitting, back to back, although their absorption can take much longer.

A Genius Mind.......2004-04-06

At the Bottom of the River is a lovely rendition of a writer's mind, leisure, vision, appeal, hope, awareness and understanding. This project surpasses what the common reader readies for in the telling of a good story. Each sentence in this work is a story. I will write it again: Each sentence is a story with perfect images, "The branches were dead; a fly hung dead on the branches, its fragile body fluttering in the wind as if it were remnants of a beautiful gown." Ms. Kincaid's style throughout At the Bottom might put one in the mind of Gertrude Stein. The repetition. Certainly, however, Ms. Kincaid's project is her own, very distinctive genius. It takes us to a place that lacks anything hackneyed and it is shaped with qualities that peck at our curiousity. The book works in first person and third person never conveniently laying the story out as a consecutive. But there are characters; there is a central character to follow. The movement is chopped with these extraordinary, brilliant images beyond description and most every sentence leaves on the tongue the question of "who did that?" or "why?": "Someone is making a basket, someone is making a girl a dress or a boy a shirt, someone is making her husband a soup with cassava so that he can take it to the cane field tomorrow, someone is making his wife a beautiful mahogany chest, someone is sprinkling a colorless powder outside a closed door so that someone else's child will be stillborn." And so you get these incredible juxtapositions along side wholesome chops of fascinating imagery. We move through childhood, through relationships, through friendships, through parents and through self. And there is even dialogue for the reader who whines that there is no plot.

Ms. Kincaid writes this piece in a style that is deeply dense and in a way we are able to see, on the pages, a character's mind, discovery, understanding and wonder (no part of nature is left unturned). We are even privy to questions and philosophy and resignations about life and death. In this piece Ms. Kincaid gives new meaning to "the universal eye".

At the Bottom of the River is brilliant, genius! A must read!

Lovely.......2003-12-20

Kincaid's stories have a distinct voice and accent, which perpetuate the subversion of standard rules prescribed by centres of authority. She appropriates that authority, by indulging in a style of writing which is unique (the two page sentences) and the inversion of punctuation and syntax canons. Her plotless stories describe a state of being which is fractured, which has no beginning or an end, which is struggling to come to terms with its marginalized existence in terms of race, color, gender and economic status. Being an immigrant in USA, the nameless character's struggle for self-definition, identity, and a truncated and oppressed past transfigure powerfully in this collection. The sense of dislocation encountered in her journey to America, the traveling from the Carribean to a new country, a new culture and discourse in which she must chart her own path towards self-discovery, enlightenment out her 'blackness', the assertion of her 'girl'hood, can only be relocated in vague forms 'at the bottom of the river'.

Book Description

Welcome to Ian Frazier's New York, where every block is an event, and where the denizens are larger than life. Meet landlord extraordinaire Zvi Hugo Segal, and the man who scaled the World Trade Center. Learn the location of Manhattan's antipodes, and meander the length of Route 3 to New Jersey. Like his literary forebears Joseph Mitchell and A. J. Liebling, Frazier makes us fall in love with America's greatest city all over again.

Customer Reviews:

GONZO JOURNALISM LIVES!.......2006-03-04

Hunter Thompson may be gone, but personal journalism is alive and well as evidenced by this superlative collection of quirky,elegant pieces subtitled, "Adventures in the City". If Ian Frazier's book were a mystery, #1 would probably have posted a five-star review the day after it was published in November 2005. Since GONE TO NEW YORK is only a collection of casual essays, it has waited four months for its first customer review. Essays get no respect from Amazon customers -- or from Amazon either, for that matter. Amazon's entry for the book lists Jamaica Kincaid (who wrote the introduction) as the author, rather than Frazier.

Frazier, a displaced Ohioan, makes the reader see New York through his eyes: focusing on peculiar and interesting details that go unnoticed by visitor and native alike. The longest is a 35 page profile of Canal Street (where he lived during its gritty years) and its denizens. In the aftermath of 9-11 he interviews George Willig, who earned brief celebrity-hood in 1977 by climbing one of the twin towers. Frazier reports on the vintage graffiti on desks in the stacks of Butler Library. He writes twice about "Bags in Trees". In the first he simply describes the diversity of plastic bags and other items that adorn trees in Brooklyn. A decade latter he tells how he and a friend became obsessed with removing the arboreal litter and end up inventing and patenting an extension tool for removing it. My favorite in the collection is "Typewriter Man" about Martin Tytell, who still sevices manual typewriters.

Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya (Directions)

Average customer rating:

Jamaica Kincaid is not a travel writer!
I gave up on this book after 40 pages...you will, too!
Himalayan Adventure
A Difficult Trek
A Trip Of A Lifetime To Paradise.

Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya (Directions)
Jamaica Kincaid
Manufacturer: National Geographic
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0792265300
Release Date: 2005-01-01

Book Description

"This account of a walk I took while gathering the seeds of flowering plants in the foothills of the Himalayas has its origins in my love of the garden¨my love of feeling isolated, of imagining myself all alone in the world and everything unfamiliar, or the familiar being strange, my love of being afraid but at the same time not letting my fear stand in the way." So begins Jamaica Kincaid's adventure into the mountains of Nepal with a small group of botanists. After laborious training and preparation, the group leaves Kathmandu by small plane, into the Annapurna Valley to begin their trek. ("From inside the plane it always seemed to me as if we were about to collide with these sharp green peaks, I especially thought this would be true when I saw one of the pilots reading the newspaper, but Dan said that at the other times he'd flown in this part of the world the pilots always read the newspaper and it did not seem to affect the flight in a bad way.") The temperature was 96 degrees F. on arrival, and the little airport in Tumlingtar was awash in Maoists in camouflage fatigues. "What I was about to do, what I had in mind to do, what I planned for over a year to do, was still a mystery to me. I was on the edge of it though." The group sets off with a large retinue of sherpas and bearers, and Kincaid, in simple, richly detailed prose describes the landscape, the Nepalese villages, the passing trekkers and yak herds. Direct and opinionated ("We decided to call them [other trekkers] the Germans because we didn't like them from the look of them¨and Germans seem to be the one group of people left that cannot be liked because you feel like it."), Kincaid moves easily between closely observed, down-to-earth descriptions of the trek and larger musings, about gardens, nature, seed gathering, home, and family. Negotiations with the Maoists to pass through villages interject dramatic notes ("Dan and I became Canadians. Until then I would never have dreamt of calling myself anything other than American. But the Maoists had told Sunam [head sherpa] that President Powell had just been to Kathmandu and denounced them as terrorists and that had made them very angry with President Powell."). The group presses on, determined in its search for "beautiful plants native to the Himalayas but will grow happily in Vermont or somewhere like that." Eventually they reach a spectacular pass at 15,600 feet and start back. Down at the village of Donge they have another run-in with the Maoists. They "lectured us all through the afternoon into the setting sun, mentioning again the indignity of being called mere terrorists by President Powell of the United States." To lessen the tension, the sherpas produces some Chang, an alcohol made from millet, intoxicating everyone, Kincaid included. At the airport, the Maoists are threatening attack, but the group must wait three days for an airplane. Finally they get off safely. "Days later, in Kathmandu, we heard that the very airport where we had camped for days had been attacked by Maoists and some people had been killed." In Kathmandu another Maoist attack closes the city down. "As we waited to leave this place, I remembered the carpet of gentians¨and the isolated but thick patches of Delphinium abloom in the melting snow. There were the forests of rhododendrons, specimens thirty feet high¨I remembered all that I had seen but I especially remembered all that I had felt. I remembered my fears. I remembered how practically every step was fraught with memories of my past, and the immediate one of my son Harold all alone in Vermont, and my love for it and my fear of losing it."

Customer Reviews:

Jamaica Kincaid is not a travel writer!.......2007-05-18

It seems apparent that some of the reviewers picked up this book with the misguided notion that they were going to read some wonderful account of their beloved Himalayas. Apparently you have no idea who Jamaica Kincaid is or what her writings are about, so if are upset because you have "been to the Himalayas and there are much better writings," it's because you've never read (or probably even heard about) "My Brother," "Lucy," or any other of her profound literary works. She is not a travel author, and although this work is set during her physical journey, it, like every other work of hers, is about the psychological, emotional, and social journeys we all make.

Anyone has the right to write a review, but please make sure you have some idea of the genre of the book before you start casting dispersions. Personally, I give this book a 4 only because I consider this work to be less introspective than her others. It's still more profound than 90% of the other writings out there, just not as emotionally revealing as, say, "Autobiography of My Mother." Her writing is, as always, lyrical, with the unique ability to paint an extraordinarily vivid picture of even the most banal scenes. I highly recommend it, but only if you are well aware that this is not a "travelogue."

I gave up on this book after 40 pages...you will, too!.......2006-04-10

Stay away from this book! Jamaica Kincaid's book is filled with pseudo-philosophy and hollow observations towards life which reads artificial. As someone who has trekked the Himalaya, I can only surmise that Kincaid was on some shallow, self-absorbed trip of her own. Don't just take my word for it, read just one of her own passages (pages 27-28): "One group was from Austria but we decided to call them the Germans, because we didn't like them from the look of them, they were so professional-looking with all kinds of hiking gear, all meant to make the act of hiking easier, I think. But we didn't like them, and Germans seem to be the one group of people left that can not be liked just because you feel like it." She can't even be bothered to learn the name of one of the Sherpas who helped carry her provisions, and instead refers to him as "Table" since he was also responsible for setting up the table where her and the other hikers ate. Giving him this demeaning nickname as you would a dog gives you some idea as to the type of person Kincaid is. Save yourself a few bucks, there are far, far better books to read about the Himalayas.

Himalayan Adventure.......2006-01-30

This is a lovely book which beautifully describes an extensive trek in a remote area of the Himalayas. Ms. Kincaid and her close friend, Dan Hinckley, a distinguised botanist, make the trip together. Dan Hinckley has traveled in the region extensively. It is the author's first Himalayan trek and she trains diligently to be prepared for its rigors. The author is a gifted writer who describes the feelings and emotions triggered by the beauty of the region and its warm and hospitable people. Ms. Kincaid's style is most engaging and includes wonderful description, humor, and great senstivity. The focus of the trek is the collection of seeds for propagating Himalayan plantlife in North America. The passion of the participants for gathering the seeds of rare species is engaging to gardeners and non-gardeners alike. All who have journeyed to this special part of the world, or intend to, will enjoy this charming book.

A Difficult Trek.......2005-08-20

As an avid reader, enthusiastic traveler, lover of Nepal, and a wannabe gardener, I eagerly picked up "Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya". Jamaica Kincaid has written of her trek through the mountains of Nepal gathering seeds to plant in her Vermont garden. What promises to be a literary trek through some of the world's highest peaks ends up feeling more like a slow walk down an endless sidewalk. While there are a few remarkable descriptions of the mountains and rivers she crossed, most of the book is filled with the author's introspective whining. The pages of a travel memoir should transport the reader into another land and introduce us to it's places, people and unique culture. Unfortunately, "Among Flowers" fails to do any of those things.
The main thing that struck me about this book is how self-absorbed the author seems to be. By her own admission, she took almost no interest in what was around her unless it was of some use to her, for example, if some particular seeds would grow in her region. While she seems to have a good grasp of Latin plant names, she couldn't learn the actual names of her Nepali porters. Instead she refers to them merely by what role they played in relation to her- the man who prepared her meals was "Cook" and the one who carried her table was "Table". She admits that she didn't bother noting the characteristics of the Nepali people since they couldn't do the same for her. She makes a gross generalization of the people as either looking like they were from the South (India) or the North (Tibet), apparently not having taken the time to learn about the many indigenous Nepalese tribes. As a black woman who was raised in Antigua and now resides in America, I was very surprised at Kincaid's lack of cultural sensitivity toward others and apparent disinterest in the people of Nepal. In addition, in two different places she mentions having a hatred for the Germans and even says "Germans seem to be the one group of people left that can not be liked just because you feel like it".
As a piece of literature, the text is rambling and incohesive. Some sentences seem like they will never end; others left me wondering what she was talking about. She ping-pongs between what she sees and what she feels and then attempts to draw us into her distant memories. Far too much of the book is spent describing what she was thinking and complaining about things. I'm afraid the result is that she seems to be far more engrosed with herself than interested in the amazing places and people she is walking among. This book may better have been described as a personal journal than a travel memoir.
If you are interested in trekking in the Himalaya, read a different book. If gardening and seed-collecting are what you fancy, look somewhere else. However, if you want to get to know Jamaica Kincaid, this just may be the book for you.

A Trip Of A Lifetime To Paradise........2005-06-13

Jamaica Kincaid writes this memoir of her travels in Hong Kong, Nepal, and the Himalayan Mountains in October 2002. Her fellow hikers were Dan Hinkley of European descent, living now in Seattle and Bleddyn & Sue Wynn-Jones from Wales. They belong to a group of botanists who go on trips to gather seeds from plants to transplant after they return to their separate homes. In 1998 she had been on a similar trek across southwestern China with Dan.

On this trip she was exhilerated by the lushness of the foliage, so like a paradise garden, but could not get used to the deceptive nearness of their destinations (so near and yet so far). She was not accustomed to the vast difference between her expectation, perception, and reality -- the way things really are.

They faced some dangers along the way and some hardships, but the trip was long and winding up and down hills and they were exhausted by nightfall. A tall waterfall was so ferocious it sounded like jet engines on an airplane.

It took a while to absorb all that she'd seen to put it into book form for the National Geographic. They felt lucky to get back to civilization after the three-week long walk. She took notes along the way and had her digitial camera with her to take relevant photos. She grew up on an island in the Carribbean but now lives in Vermont where she has a continuing garden.

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