"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. <BR>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."<BR>

"Following the author's first collection, At the Bottom of the River (1983), Jamaica Kincaid continues her fascinating account of the struggle from girlhood to adolescence in Antigua, West Indies, where she grew up. These are wonderful stories, told with a disarming simplicity and sharp, clear images. She conveys the atmosphere of the Caribbean islands with colorful, haunting details. In the stories, all of which originally appeared in The New Yorker, we relive the experiences familiar to many of us: the joy of having a secret friend, the terror of a teacher telling parents about misdeeds at school, seeing a dead person for the first time, glimpses of sexuality, winning admiration for an essay. Ms. Kincaid portrays the unique intensity of the mother-daughter relationship as few have ever done, and she has preserved the child's-eye view intact, capturing all the rebelliousness and ambivalence of feelings toward parents, friends, puberty, and leaving home. Poignant, sensual, exotic, these narratives linger in the mind. At the end of the book, when Annie finally boards ship for nursing school in England, the reader can only hope there is more of this marvelous writing forthcoming." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)