The Autobiography of my Mother - Softcover

Kincaid, Jamaica

3.77

5,155 ratings by Goodreads

9780452274662: The Autobiography of my Mother

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0452274664 ISBN 13: 9780452274662

Publisher: Penguin, 1997

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A seventy-year-old West Indian woman looks back over the course of her life and examines the relationships that have given meaning to her existence.

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Review:

In The Autobiography of My Mother, Jamaica Kincaid's disturbing, compelling novel set on the island of Dominica, she writes, "My mother died at the moment I was born, and so for my whole life there was nothing standing between myself and eternity." 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. --Alex Freeman

Review:

Fierce, incantory . . . lyrical . . . powerful and disturbing.--Michiko Kakutani "New York Times "

Fierce, incantory . . . lyrical . . . powerful and disturbing. Michiko Kakutani, "New York Times"

Kincaid, always an elegant stylist, makes this story of a simple woman extraordinary . . . filling her prose with rich, poetic detail . . . An unforgettable account of singular survival. "San Francisco Chronicle Book Review"

A book that comes both to haunt and to dazzle us . . . [Kincaid] writes like an angel: with enviable lucidity and precision and a lyric touch that frequently aspires to the condition of poetry. "Boston Sunday Globe""

Fierce, incantory . . . lyrical . . . powerful and disturbing. Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

"Fierce, incantory . . . lyrical . . . powerful and disturbing." --Michiko Kakutani, New York Times

"Kincaid, always an elegant stylist, makes this story of a simple woman extraordinary . . . filling her prose with rich, poetic detail . . . An unforgettable account of singular survival." --San Francisco Chronicle Book Review

"A book that comes both to haunt and to dazzle us . . . [Kincaid] writes like an angel: with enviable lucidity and precision and a lyric touch that frequently aspires to the condition of poetry." --Boston Sunday Globe

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