Helpful Score: 2
Jamaica Kincaid's haunting, deeply charged story of a woman's life on the island of Dominica. A story of love, fear, loss and the forging of character.
Jamaida Kincaid conjures up the world of Dominica in all its beauty and casual cruelty, a world in which the magical coexists with the mundane, a world in which the ghosts of colonialism stil haunt the relationships between men and women.
""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."
I could picture sitting on a porch and listening to this woman's life story. With a rich lyrical cadence to her voice and the mystery of one's thoughts and actions throughout life, it is a mesmerizing novel.
havent read it but i might, it looks great
Hardcover.
