Staff Pick
If you've read Kincaid's short story, "Girl," I recommend exposing yourself to even more of her work. If you haven't read "Girl," then please pick up this book so you can read it! This writing is some of the most lyrical I've ever come across, and I almost feel as if Kincaid is inventing a genre of her own with her unique style. Recommended By Junix S., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
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.
Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John's, Antigua. Her many books include My Garden (Book); Talk Stories, a collection of her New Yorker writings; and Mr. Potter, a novel. In 2000 she was awarded the Prix Fémina Étranger for My Brother. Kincaid lives with her family in Vermont.
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, naïvely whimsical and biblical in its assurance, and it speaks of what is partly remembered, partly divined. The memories often concern a childhood in the Caribbeanfamily, manners, and landscapeas 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 thingsa house, a cup, a pen. Transfiguring our human form and our surroundingsshedding skin, darkening an afternoon, painting a perfect placeall of the short stories in At the Bottom of the River tell us something we didn't know, in a way we hadn't expected.
Originally published in 1983, Jamaica Kincaid's first book immediately established her as a vibrant and hauntingly beautifuland uniquevoice in contemporary literature. "These stories have all of poetry's virtuescare for language, joy in the sheer sounds of words, and evocative power . . . [These tales are] beautiful to listen to."Anne Tyler, The New Republic
"Eccentric, visionary pieces [with] all the force of illumination, and even a prophetic power."Edith Milton, The New York Times Book Review
"Kincaid jumps with grace and ease from the mundane to the enormous, and, fascinated, we believe her."David Leavitt, The Village Voice
"Hers is a voice you have never heard before . . . Exhilarating to read and impossible to forget."Doris Grumbach, The Washington Post Book World
Review
"This book will burn on your shelf. It is too choked with love to incite envy, too humble for admiration, and still too stratling to escape astonishment."--Derek Walcott
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John's, Antigua. Her books include
At the Bottom of the River,
Annie John,
Lucy,
The Autobiography of My Mother, and
My Brother. She lives with her family in Vermont.