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Annie John

Jamaica Kincaid

Start date: April 15, 2016

Finish date: May 15, 2016

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Aug 05, 2024 Tony rated it liked it

Shelves: novels, setting-caribbean, comingofage

Kincaid is universally regarded as the foremost fiction writer of Antiguan heritage, and I've decided to read her short books in chronological order. This second book (following her story collection At the Bottom of the River) is also a series of stories originally published in The New Yorker magazine, but narrated by the same titular protagonist. Hewing very closely to Kincaid's own biography, it's a classic postcolonial coming of age story following Annie from roughly age 10-17, when she leave Kincaid is universally regarded as the foremost fiction writer of Antiguan heritage, and I've decided to read her short books in chronological order. This second book (following her story collection At the Bottom of the River) is also a series of stories originally published in The New Yorker magazine, but narrated by the same titular protagonist. Hewing very closely to Kincaid's own biography, it's a classic postcolonial coming of age story following Annie from roughly age 10-17, when she leaves the tiny British Caribbean possession of Antigua.

Annie's sharp mind has her pushing up against the boundaries of her mother and the norms of the English teachers at her very English school. She secretly excels at the forbidden game of marbles and sneaks out to meet with her friend Gwen at a lighthouse. (Much could be made of her "love" of other classmates, and of practice kissing, but I don't think it's meant to mean anything other than typical young experimentation.) In typical adolescent rebellion, she strains for something more in life, but can't quite understand what that is or why she's angry at her mother.

Indeed, their relationship is likely to frustrate many readers, as Annie comes across as cruel and petulant for no reason. In real life, Kincaid has spoken about how the birth of her three younger brothers left her emotionally and materially subjugated to them -- a theme more explicitly described in Kincaid's next book, "Lucy." (In fact, I recommend reading that book immediately after this, because while the protagonists are ostensibly not the same character, their fictional biographies both dovetail directly with Kincaid's and each other's.)

In any event, the book stands well as a portrait of a smart young girl chafing at the possibilities of life on a small Caribbean island in the mid 1960s. I didn't find it super-compelling, but given the ratio of thematic interest to length, I can see why it still pops up on school reading lists and will likely continue to live on in reissued editions. A much more compelling Caribbean-adjacent novel for readers interested in similar themes is Beka Lamb by the Belizean author Zee Edgell. ...more

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May 23, 2016 Julie Griffin rated it really liked it

This was a very short book which seemed to be over as soon as I started. Told from the eyes of a young girl growing up in Antigua, it is a very slight coming of age tale following Annie from a young girl who adores her mother, to a young adolescent who despises her mother and everything about her as she ages into a more competitive environment in middle school, more independent friendships with other girls her own age, and aspirations that move beyond her home. She begins hiding things from her ...more

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