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A Small Place

Jamaica Kincaid

Discussion: Caribbean

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Mar 22, 2015 Claire rated it really liked it

Shelves: caribbean-literature, nonfiction, african-american-women-writers, autobiography, around-the-world, antiguan-literature

Four short autobiographical essays, anti-travel, Jamaica Kincaid at her most provocative. The first essay is quite brilliant, especially as it is written in the second person, you, you, you, thus deliberately embedded with an accusatory tone.

Jamaica Kincaid has been away from Antigua for some years and is seeing it with new eyes when she returns, she describes the ugly, despicable tourist as someone we become when we leave home, how we are despised by locals everywhere. Her essay summed up in th Four short autobiographical essays, anti-travel, Jamaica Kincaid at her most provocative. The first essay is quite brilliant, especially as it is written in the second person, you, you, you, thus deliberately embedded with an accusatory tone.

Jamaica Kincaid has been away from Antigua for some years and is seeing it with new eyes when she returns, she describes the ugly, despicable tourist as someone we become when we leave home, how we are despised by locals everywhere. Her essay summed up in this quote:

"That the native does not like the tourist is not hard to explain. For every native of every place is a potential tourist, and every tourist is a native of somewhere. Every native everywhere lives a life of overwhelming and crushing banality and boredom and desperation and depression, and every deed, good and bad, is an attempt to forget this. Every native would like to find a way out, every native would like a rest, every native would like a tour. But some natives—most natives in the world—cannot go anywhere. They are too poor. They are too poor to go anywhere. They are too poor to escape the reality of their lives; and they are too poor to live properly in the place they live, which is the very place you, the tourist, want to go—so when the natives see you, the tourist, they envy you, they envy your ability to leave your own banality and boredom, they envy your ability to turn their own banality and boredom into a source of pleasure for yourself.”

She speaks of the old Antigua she remembers, named, built, run by the badly behaved English who imposed their ways and built things that would exclude locals or take from them, she removes all politeness and false exteriors and says the things that nobody ever says, let alone puts them into print.

The new Antigua, self-ruled, run by corrupt yet elected rulers, all of whom have had US green cards and most with Swiss bank accounts, each foreign investment has a suspect story attached to it.

"It is just a little island, the unreal way in which it is beautiful now, is the unreal way in which it was always beautiful. The unreal way in which it is beautiful now that they are a free people, is the unreal way in which it was beautiful when they were slaves."

Though short and something of a rant, I recognise the familiarity of Kincaid's rhythmic style of language, it pulses with energy and power and sometimes overflows, capturing that passionate anger for the state of her ancestral home. ...more

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Aug 31, 2018 Karen Witzler rated it really liked it

Shelves: caribbean, 500-books-by-women

As Salman Rushdie says in the introduction - a jeremiad- but a beautifully written jeremiad and contained in only 80 pages. I fear we are all becoming denizens of "A Small Place" not in a fixed geographical sense like Kincaid's Antigua, but economically and socially between the world of oligarchs, drug barons, tax dodgers, and those who are relegated to the College for Servants and who ought to feel grateful that they aren't outright slaves. I enjoyed the view of history, her personal memories o ...more

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Jan 24, 2016 Lilisa rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, 2016, around-the-world-2016-lilisa-s-chal, antigua-and-barbuda, ylto-geo-challenge-part-2

The book encompasses four segments about Antigua, an island nine miles wide and 12 miles long which was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1493 and subsequently settled by Europeans, particularly the British, as part of their trading quest around the world. It's a wry, sardonic and direct jab at colonialism and the view of tourists as they flock to the island on vacation -- to enjoy the blue sky, the warm waters and colorful and lush surroundings. But do they actually "see" what they're visit ...more

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Feb 01, 2013 Maria rated it really liked it

Well wow, Kincaid basically takes a sledgehammer to all the issues she has with Antigua- the colonial masters, the corrupt government. Mostly what I liked about it was that you can replace Antigua with any other Caribbean country in the dialogue and the same truths ring out.

The only element I disliked about this book was the writing style at the beginning - the use of 'you', but I do think it served well to get her points across. ...more

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Mar 03, 2023 KayG rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 1-kindle, ultimate-around-world-list, 1-2023

Antigua.

Interesting read about the Caribbean island of Antigua. I read this in my effort to read around the world. I’m so glad I selected it as it was so informative. I learned so much about the islands, colonization, slavery, its problems, its beauty. She’s a wonderful writer.

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