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Annie John

3.58 of 5 stars 3.58 · rating details · 2,396 ratings · 202 reviews

Annie John is a haunting and provocative story of a young girl growing up on the island of Antigua. A classic coming-of-age story in the tradition of The Catcher in the Rye and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Kincaid’s novel focuses on a universal, tragic, and often comic theme: the loss of childhood. Annie’s voice—urgent, demanding to be heard—is one that will no...more

Paperback, 148 pages

Published June 30th 1997 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (first published 1985)

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Jan 06, 2013 Nadia Parbo rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wrote a whole review, but for some reason Goodreads decided not to save it. What a bummer! Anyway, the gist of what I wrote - unfortunately, you will never get the whole thing, and it was brilliant, I tell you - was that this would've been a much better book if the main character Annie was just a little likeable. Sometimes I didn't like her. Sometimes I was disgusted. Remember that part where she meets a former teacher who had the audacity to tell the students that she liked all of them equall...more

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Mar 18, 2013 Gale rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: survival

“Facing the Dark Side of Adlosence”

Despite the cover’s implication that this book is about a little girl, this is Not reading suitable for young children. True--teenage girls may well identify with Annie’s painful process of emotional disengagement with her lovely mother. In eight sparse vignettes Kincaid bares her soul as she recounts her psychological journey from an adoring only-daughter of ten into a resentful and rebellious teenager.

Raised on the island nation of Antigua in the West Ind...more “Facing the Dark Side of Adlosence”

Despite the cover’s implication that this book is about a little girl, this is Not reading suitable for young children. True--teenage girls may well identify with Annie’s painful process of emotional disengagement with her lovely mother. In eight sparse vignettes Kincaid bares her soul as she recounts her psychological journey from an adoring only-daughter of ten into a resentful and rebellious teenager.

Raised on the island nation of Antigua in the West Indies Annie is very bright though somewhat small for her age. Impressing her teachers with her quick mind she is immediately noticed by her new classmates as well, but they gradually realize her penchant for mischief, which increases to a general defiance of authority.

Alas, as she matures Annie develops a dark side—weaving a web of lies, deceit, theft and flagrant disobedience. As a child she is surprised to learn that even children can die; perhaps she is shocked by the death of something immensely cherished but intangible: that of her own childhood innocence. As a pre teen she has secret or sudden friendships of credible intensity; she is tormented by the wish for her female body to ripen (lying bare-breasted under a full moon might help) and later by the jeers of older boys.

Annie also wrestles with conflicting beliefs about Black Magic; a terrifying protracted illness of both mind and body; and her confusion about the sexuality of her older father, who seems indifferent to her. Walking the tightrope between modern ideas and centuries of voodoo practice she despairs of escaping the confines of her island home. Must she travel to distant England to reclaim the right to her own womanhood? Although not a sympathetic protagonist the author shares her inner struggles—touching a poignant string in the hearts of all women who have grappled with jealousy and social isolation. An insightful introduction to a culture clash within one breast, this book is for girls 12 and up.

(May 3, 2012. I welcome dialogue with teachers.)

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Nov 07, 2012 Melissa rated it 3 of 5 stars

This coming-of-age story follows a young girl, Annie, as she grows up on the island of Antigua. There are eight episodes, each a picture of Annie's life as she tries to understand the world around her.

Annie wasn't a likeable character, though I suppose few young teenage girls are likeable in real life. So in that way Kincaid's portrayal of the girl felt very real, but at the same time, it's hard to love such a selfish and often cruel character.

Annie has a tendency to become obsessed with her f...more

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Jan 19, 2012 Melody Peek rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this book because my class was doing a winter book read, where we all got our own assigned book. I didn't pick this book thinking it was interesting, I actually thought It was kinda dumb, and just wanted to read it to get it over with so i could get back to my winter break. When I first picked the book up and started reading I had no idea what it was even about. As I read I was hoping the book would describe some parts that I didn't understand, like why there was so much detail about how...more

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Nov 20, 2011 Alicia Scully rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, gr-8-10, historical-fiction, young-adult-lit, realistic

Follows Annie John as she journeys through childhood and works her way through adolescence. Annie must learn about herself and her changing body while she must also deal with the complexities of interacting in her society. She struggles constantly with her mother, and they move from having an extremely loving relationship to battling with one another constantly. Anne resents that her mother does not retain the same level of familiarity with her once she reaches adolescence and her mother attempt...more

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Apr 29, 2011 Allison Doyle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Allison by: Brighde Mullins

I was told to re-read this for novel research, and it was like a new experience this time around. I flew through this book and once again was reminded how much I love Kincaid's long sentences, her ability to thrust you into the mind and life of her characters, and her effortless ability to keep it interesting and entertaining. I noticed this time through the lack of paragraph breaks and the sparse dialogue (I've been looking at dialogue and action tags lately). Recently hearing her read aloud fr...more

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Sep 20, 2010 Alex Barclay rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Jamaica Kincaid's story of Annie John is about a young girl, the titular character, growing up in Antigua with her mother and father. At first, we're shown a life where Annie is doted on by her mother until it is time for her to start growing up. Inexplicably to Annie, her mother has stopped fawning over her and expects her to be more of a lady. The book is about a girl's coming to terms with the idea of trying to tear herself away from her parents by discovering her own self worth. The book cov...more

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May 10, 2010 Joselito Honestly and Brilliantly rated it 5 of 5 stars

The ambivalence of a grown child's love for his parents.

I have a nephew, well-mannered and intelligent, now 20 years old. All his life he has lived with his parents in California. Except for the last six years (his only sibling, a sister, was born six years ago), he was an only child. He now wants to leave home, go to Texas by himself, away from his family, to work or study. His parents could not understand it.

Jamaica Kincaid wrote this book from the point of view of a child like that. Except th...more The ambivalence of a grown child's love for his parents.

I have a nephew, well-mannered and intelligent, now 20 years old. All his life he has lived with his parents in California. Except for the last six years (his only sibling, a sister, was born six years ago), he was an only child. He now wants to leave home, go to Texas by himself, away from his family, to work or study. His parents could not understand it.

Jamaica Kincaid wrote this book from the point of view of a child like that. Except that Annie John (the narrator) is a girl, but nevertheless an only child too and likewise intelligent. She lived in Antigua (an island in the Caribbean) and grew up there. At age 17, she was already taller than her parents (which,strangely, can be said also of my aforementioned nephew).

The novel starts with Annie John's recollection of her childhood and of the special bond she had with her mother. She recalls small incidents of remembered love, how she had admired her mother's beauty, the smell of her hair, the food she cooked for her, the things they did together. As she grew up to be a teenager, however, seemingly for no reason at all, she began to hate her mother and the place she grew up in.

Now, she's 17. She's leaving for England to study nursing (a course she doesn't like, but which she finds infinitely better than staying home). She lays in her bed for the last time, looking at the familiar things inside their house she's determined not to go back to again, ever, but without telling any of her parents about it:

"The house we live in my father built with his own hands. The bed I am lying in my father built with his own hands. If I get up and sit on a chair, it is a chair my father built with his own hands. When my mother uses a large wooden spoon to stir the porridge we sometimes eat as part of our breakfast, it will be a spoon that my father has carved with his own hands. The sheets on my bed my mother made with her own hands. The curtains hanging at my window my mother made with her own hands. The nightie I am wearing, with scalloped neck and hem and sleeves, my mother made with her own hands. When I look at things in a certain way, I suppose I should say that the two of them made me with their own hands. For most of my life, when the three of us went anywhere together I stood between the two of them or sat between the two of them. But then I got too big, and there I was, shoulder to shoulder with them more or less, and it became not very comfortable to walk down the street together. And so now there they are together and here I am apart. I don't see them now the way I used to, and I don't love them now the way I used to. The bitter thing about it is that they are just the same and it is I who have changed, so all the things I used to be and all the things I used to feel are as false as the teeth in my father's head. Why, I wonder, didn't I see the hypocrite in my mother when, over the years, she said that she loved me and could hardly live without me, while at the same time proposing and arranging separation after separation, including this one, which, unbeknownst to her, I have arranged to be permanent? So now I, too, have hypocrisy, and breasts (small ones), and hair growing in the appropriate places, and sharp eyes, and I have made a vow never to be fooled again."

"Lying in my bed for the last time, I thought, This is what I add up to. At that, I felt as if someone had placed me in a hole and was forcing me first down and then up against the pressure of gravity. I shook myself and prepared to get up. I said to myself, 'I am getting up out of this bed for the last time.' Everything I would do that morning until I got on the ship that would take me to England I would be doing for the last time, for I had made up my mind that, come what may, the road for me now went only in one direction: away from my home, away from my mother, away from my father, away from the everlasting blue sky, away from the everlasting hot sun, away from people who said to me, 'This happened during the time your mother was carrying you.' If I had been asked to put into words why I felt this way, if I had been given years to reflect and come up with the words of why I felt this way, I would not have been able to come up with so much as the letter 'A'. I only knew that I felt the way I did, and that this feeling was the strongest thing in my life."

The scene, the following day, was heart-rending for it felt very familiar to me. I also grew up in an island, with my parents and siblings, and left it to study in the city. I, too, had experienced leaving our house, with my baggage, and with my anxious parents in tow, my mother telling me to be careful, my father trying to look confident, us passing through some places in our town which I have my own memories of, my parents at the dock, as my boat leaves, looking at me and the boat until we are so far off the sea and I could see them no more.(less)

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May 20, 2009 Jenn rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: grad-school-2009, literary-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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May 19, 2013 Lucinda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: classic-fiction

This is an interesting and somewhat frustrating coming-of-age novel full of the inexplicable actions and impressions of a teenager. Kincaid's main focus is the transformation of her protagonists relationship with her mother, dealing to some extent with her changing sense of her place in her island village and with her school friends. I found myself wondering what kinds of betrayals can or do occur between parent and child in the process of transforming from child to adult. The relation necessari...more

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Nov 12, 2009 Jaquana Mctizic rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed reading Annie John. I think that Jamamica Kincaid is a really good author. I felt that I could connect with Annie John in the novel when she expressed that she didn't know about death and that she didn't think that children or people close to her died. When I was younger I use to feel the same way until someone really close to me had passed away. I didn't understand what was going on at the time, but as I got older I started to realize that people you didn't think died could act...more

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Oct 01, 2010 Nicole rated it 4 of 5 stars

I liked this book a lot. Sort of Hemingway-esque in the prose style at times, but also burgeoning with sense memories. Lost a star because at times the reading became less pleasurable, but only because the author was so adept at reminding me how much adolescence SUCKS regardless of your relationship with your parents.

The parts I found most arresting: when the daughter's perception of the mother was still liminal/in flux and kept switching back and forth between lovely and terrible. The need to k...more

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Apr 16, 2011 Deborah Palmer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Loved it!

The Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid

The key to great writing is great story telling and Jamaica Kincaid is a great storyteller. Her prose is beautiful, spare, blunt, compact and to the point. Her writing cuts you to the heart. Of course I'm biased because I love Jamaica Kincaid. She is one of the best raconteurs ever! So engrossed am I in her storyline that even though I’m eager for the next development I’m saddened by the ever expanding vignettes because I know that the bo...more Loved it!

The Autobiography of My Mother by Jamaica Kincaid

The key to great writing is great story telling and Jamaica Kincaid is a great storyteller. Her prose is beautiful, spare, blunt, compact and to the point. Her writing cuts you to the heart. Of course I'm biased because I love Jamaica Kincaid. She is one of the best raconteurs ever! So engrossed am I in her storyline that even though I’m eager for the next development I’m saddened by the ever expanding vignettes because I know that the book will end and my foray with the characters will end.
The title itself is intriguing since an autobiography by definition is an account written by him or herself since the mother in the story is deceased everything is seen through the eyes of the daughter, Xuela.
This immediately sets the story on its head providing an inverse tale of a mother/daughter relationship without the mother being physically able to tell her story. This novel introspection of a woman haunted through a lifetime by her own guilt at perhaps killing her only opportunity to have experienced true love.
Xuela continues to search for love always via the mother she never knew, the mother whom though she never directly comes out and says so, Xuela believes she killed just by being born.
Xuela experiences a dichotomy of self. Surrounded by others, in the midst of a sea of humanity and even during intimate relations with various lovers she is disconnected from other humans in a way unfathomable for most of us.
Basically unloved and unwanted by an indifferent father Xuela disassociates from every other man in her life. Xuela never developed the ability to experience love fully with soul as well as body, even with men who become her “lovers”. Her lovers and the people she interacts with are like ghost figures, much like the mother she envisions in her dreams, never quite fully accessible to Xuela’s heart.
Ms. Kincaid explores the many levels of Xuela’s dissonance with her fellow humans through the race and gender restrictions of the time period. In fact she rather struck me as having a sociopathic personality. Xuela appears incapable of having any positive human emotions towards others around her except when doing so might seem to benefit her.
Annie John
Ms. Kincaid’s books deal with many mother/daughter issues. The always seems to be that undercurrent of sadness, pain, and displeasure in the midst of island paradise. The Autobiography of My Mother is a narrative on the mother the daughter never knew and Annie John, the novel I’m currently reading is a tale of the deteriorating relationship between a mother and daughter who know each other perhaps all too well.
Both protagonists in The Autobiography of My Mother and Annie John are women whose lives are rhapsodies with discordant notes and chords. Both novels are in-depth psychological studies of young women on the edge.

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Feb 09, 2011 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

I decided to pick up Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid after I had mentioned another one of the author’s books, Lucy, in a recent literary blog hop about an under-appreciated literary title. Annie John is not a memoir of Kincaid, but more of a reflection and expansion of Kincaid’s youth.

As I’ve mentioned before, Kincaid writes very methodically and lyrically: her words are like butter on a page. This is why I love to read Kincaid, because her novels are so rich and despite their short lengths, it ta...more

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Nov 11, 2009 Britney rated it 5 of 5 stars

Annie john is a booka about a girl coming of age. While annie is maturing her and her mother relationship falls apart for many reasons. Annie tries to replace her mother and gets revenge on her with different girls she meet in her life. annie also rebels and start having behavior problems to try to get her mothers attention.the time of annie growing up is in the colonial period so many of the local activities are not allowed because of the british set the rules and standards. annie soon becomes...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Tai Harris rated it 4 of 5 stars

Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid. Farrar, Straus and Girout, New York, 1985.

Jamaica Kincaid creates a touching yet provocative coming of age story about the complexities of a daughter’s relationship with her mother. Annie John is introduced to the reader as a cunning 10 year-old who lives for the approval of her parents and the loving connection to her mother until that relationship is challenged. Annie John’s rite of passage through adolescence is bitter sweet. She does not welcome the new expecta...more Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid. Farrar, Straus and Girout, New York, 1985.

Jamaica Kincaid creates a touching yet provocative coming of age story about the complexities of a daughter’s relationship with her mother. Annie John is introduced to the reader as a cunning 10 year-old who lives for the approval of her parents and the loving connection to her mother until that relationship is challenged. Annie John’s rite of passage through adolescence is bitter sweet. She does not welcome the new expectations her mother has demanded of her in representing herself as a young lady. This demand is the first insight into Annie’s feelings of betrayal by her mother. “In the end I got my dress with the men playing their pianos and my hibiscus, but I was never able to wear my own dress or see my mother in hers without feeling bitterness and hatred, directed not so much toward my mother as toward, I, suppose, life in general”(Kincaid 26). Kincaid uses something as simple as a pattern on a dress to illustrate Annie’s need to remain childlike in her mother’s eyes.

Kincaid timelines Annie’s journey through adolescence with a series of events that changes her perception of life and love for her mother. Another significant event is the ritual of going through the contents of a truck that marked Annie’s life from birth. She lived for the stories her mother told of her as a baby and toddler with each garment removed from the truck. When she was told that they would no longer bond over the contents of the truck because she was at the age where she needed to transform into a young lady, her world shattered. She associated those stories and time spent with her mother as an act of love. “At times I would no longer hear what it was she was saying; I just liked to look at her mouth as it opened and closed over words, as she laughed. How terrible it must be for all the people who had no one to love them so and no one whom they loved so, I thought” ((Kincaid 23). The woman she admired, dressed liked and doted over was denying her of the things that comforted her as a child and represented love. Annie saw this act as her mother’s ultimate betrayal and no longer saw her mother in the same light. “

Her growth is also marked by the feelings of love for another person other than her parents. Kincaid displays through the character of Gwen, Annie’s longing for the closeness of another female since the damaged bond with her mother. She is the outlet Annie desires, for that time, to fill the void. As time goes on, she grew out of that longing. Gwen’s presence was no longer needed and yet another indication of her growth and change. “Gwen and I walked home from school in the usual way and did the usual things, but just the sight of her was no longer a thrill to me” (Kincaid 91).

Kincaid creates a well-rounded character which allows the reader to feel emotion for. As the reader, we sympathize with Annie throughout her journey of growing up. It is representative of our own journey and because of that fact the story of “Annie John” can be anyone’s story. Kincaid does an incredible job in capturing the inevitable transformation of a child into young adulthood. She creates a story everyone can relate to; the poignant moment when we realize we are not viewed as a child. Annie’s rebellion to change began the moment her mother acknowledged her growth.
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Nov 20, 2011 Sue rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, list-1-001-books, read-in-2011

I bought this book at The Book Rack, a used bookstore in S. Yarmouth, MA this past summer because it was in 1,001 Books To Read Before You Die. I decided to read it after finishing her memoir, My Brother. It is a short book, only 148 pages, which I read in one day. It is a coming of age story - about an only child, Annie John, born to a beautiful mother whom she first adores and then comes to hate/love - sound familiar? Telling quote: My mother would kill me if she got the chance. I would kill m...more

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Nov 12, 2009 Jaslyn Shaw rated it 3 of 5 stars

Annie John is a simple yet enjoyable novel. It is an interesting book that should be read by others. Annie John may not be the best book to read, but it is still an ok book. It is perfect for mothers and their daughters to read. Throughout the book, Annie struggles to find her self and become independent. She only follows by what her mother tells her through stories from the trunk. Eventually, after seeing her mother and father in the midst of a sexual act, she feels neglected. This incident mak...more

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May 25, 2011 Nic rated it 5 of 5 stars

Wow! Kincaid remembers and depicts the conflicts of only-childhood, both internal and external, with a vividness and absorption as powerful as youth itself. These stories transported me back to my own childhood. The security, the peace, the unconditional love, which leaves one bewildered when it is later marred by jealousy, anxiety, hormones and the compulsion to assert one's own will and test invisible boundaries. Kincaid's voice drew me in gently, firmly and I swam in the poetry of her words,...more

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Nov 12, 2009 Anthony Morales rated it 4 of 5 stars

Annie John is the story of a young independent, rebellious, and sometimes secretive young girl. From the beginning of the book I was very intrigued to see where things would go with Annie. The relationship between Annie and her mom in this book was horrendous. It had a good vibe in the beginning of the book but as the book progressed the relationship just worsened between the two. I'm still left hanging with the question as to whether or not Annie is a lesbian. The ending was weak in my mind. No...more

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May 10, 2011 Chris Hearn rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Stylistically not as interesting as her short-prose collection At the Bottom of the River, featuring a very difficult to like but fairly well developed lead; this book could with a little more effort have found a place in the fairly interesting canon of autobiographical post-colonial lit ie Chamoiseau's School Days, instead it's not much more than a cliched coming-of-age tale about an annoying little bitch getting her first periods and not being sure if she's a lesbian and hating her mum, which...more

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Sep 13, 2011 Tracie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I bought this book YEARS ago and finally got around to reading it on vacation. It was a strange book to read so close to my 30th birthday (I actually share the same birth date as the main character). I felt like I was reading my mother's story of growing up on a tiny island, being recognzed for her intelligence and then shipped off to England to an uncertain future. I also felt like I was reading my own story, especially in regards to how your relationship with your mother (who goes from being y...more

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Jan 17, 2011 Unwosu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Annie John has an interesting structure because each chapter was written to stand on its own as a short story. This sometimes makes the overall story somewhat disjointed at times but Kincaid's lyricism in her writing tends to compensate for that. Some of the stories are stronger than others and I would recommend the first chapter which is absolutely beautifully written and morose. My only regret is that I wish I read Annie John in middle school or high school when I would have more appreciated t...more

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Nov 08, 2009 Kelli rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Kelli by: My Lovely AP Lit Teacher, Ms. Rodriguez

I really enjoyed reading Annie John. It was an excellent book about a relationship that involved a mother and a daughter. In the beginning of Chapter 1, the main character, Annie John, tells us about her experience with death. She explains how she isn’t too familiar with it and how she looks forward to seeing who is next! “After I found out about the cemetery, I would stand in my yard and wait for a funeral to come.” (Kincaid, 4) Now why she feels this way, I don’t know. “Some days, there were n...more I really enjoyed reading Annie John. It was an excellent book about a relationship that involved a mother and a daughter. In the beginning of Chapter 1, the main character, Annie John, tells us about her experience with death. She explains how she isn’t too familiar with it and how she looks forward to seeing who is next! “After I found out about the cemetery, I would stand in my yard and wait for a funeral to come.” (Kincaid, 4) Now why she feels this way, I don’t know. “Some days, there were no funerals.” “No one died,” I would say to my mother.” (Kincaid, 5) Annie enjoyed going to funerals, even though she didn’t know the person that had died. She even lied to her mother one time just to go to a funeral of a girl who was her age. Her mother caught her lying and she punished her for it. Annie has arrived at a new school where she fits in perfectly because of her smarts. “In the middle of all these new things, I had forgotten that I was to enter a new school that September.” (Kincaid, 29) She starts off quiet in her classes and as I read, she has become popular with her newfound friend, Gwen, whom she’s in love with!! “I liked a girl named Albertine, and I liked a girl named Gweneth. At the end of the day, Gwen and I were in love, and so we walked home arm in arm together.” (Kincaid, 33) Whoa. I wondered about this quote too, “Leaving out, of course, any mention at all of Gwen and my overpowering feelings for her.” (Kincaid, 33) I wonder why Annie John and her mother all of a sudden stop being so close. “When I got home, my mother came toward me, arms outstretched, concern written on her face. My whole mouth filled up with a bitter taste, for I could not understand how could so beautiful even though I no longer loved her.” (Kincaid, 53) In Chapter 7, Annie talks about her relationship with an old friend that she used to play with. She stops and talks to him when she notices him across the street from her. So they have a conversation and say their goodbyes. When Annie gets home, her mother asks her where she has been all this time. Annie responds, saying that she was doing extra credit at school. Her mother wasn’t buying what lies she fed her. So Annie’s mother goes on to say that she saw her with a group of boys earlier. “She observed me making a spectacle of myself in front of four boys. She went on to say that, after all the years she had spent drumming into me the proper way to conduct myself when speaking to young men, it had pained her to see me behave in the manner of a slut in the street and that just to see me had caused her to feel shame.” (Kincaid, 102) Ok, now that was mean and bogus!! How dare you tell something like this to your child just because you saw with a group of boys??? So not right. Anyway, Annie comes back with a surprising funny come-back. She says, “Well, like father like son, like mother like daughter.” (Kincaid, 102) HA!! Now that was funny. I’m not saying that her mother deserved that, but she was wrong for the way she came at Annie. Annie was bold for saying this to her mother, I give her that. WOW, she never ceases to AMAZE me! I was shocked to realize from the last chapter that, Annie was named after her mother. So Annie leaves her home to go to England for Nursing. I think that’s great for her, but she is only 17 and I think that is so young. But if she is ready then I say, GO FOR IT!! (less)

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Mar 11, 2013 Vivian Valvano rated it 4 of 5 stars

In eight lyrical chapters, Kincaid has Annie John relate her life from childhood to age 17 on Antigua. Annie John is a fascinating character; she is bright, complex, astoundingly observant, sometimes rational, sometimes emotional, sometimes placid, sometimes sensual, sometimes obstinate. Her relationship with and perceptions of her mother make up an integral part of her story. Also crucial are the superb renderings of the Antiguan locale, the seemingly simply stated but extremely astue commentar...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Connie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: caribbean, 1001-books, coming-of-age, src-summer-2012

As an only child in Antigua, Annie John had a close relationship with her parents, especially her mother. When she becomes an adolescent, she is at the top of her class, but she rebels outside the classroom. She and her mother are in a love/hate relationship in this coming-of-age book. It's a very confusing time emotionally for Annie as she goes through adolescence and breaks away from her parents.

Jamaica Kincaid writes beautifully. I especially enjoyed the local color--the descriptions of the f...more

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May 02, 2013 Muna D rated it 5 of 5 stars

Character’s name Annie, Allen, and the book is really intresting.
As a child she is surprised to learn that even children can die; perhaps she is shocked by the death of something extremely care for but freedom: that of her own childhood innocence. As a pre-teen she has secret or sudden friendships of credible intensity; she is tormented by the wish for her female body to ripen (lying bare-breasted under a full moon might help) and later by the jeers of older boys.
Annie was also wrestles with c...more

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Nov 14, 2011 Jesse Lieblein rated it 4 of 5 stars

A childhood lost and not found…
Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid. Hill and Wang Pub, New York, March 1985

Kincaid’s story of Annie John creates a crucial speculation of culture, race, and self-awareness. One might find the novel mostly geared towards a coming-of-age story. However, I found that there is much more focus on the unique characterization and underlying issues of Annie herself, leading to a more comical and tragic representation of a young woman’s struggle. The author’s story of a mother-d...more A childhood lost and not found…
Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid. Hill and Wang Pub, New York, March 1985

Kincaid’s story of Annie John creates a crucial speculation of culture, race, and self-awareness. One might find the novel mostly geared towards a coming-of-age story. However, I found that there is much more focus on the unique characterization and underlying issues of Annie herself, leading to a more comical and tragic representation of a young woman’s struggle. The author’s story of a mother-daughter connection matches with a young teen’s loss of hope and discretion because of Kincaid’s “fiction-biography” type writing. She uses the first person point-of-view to connect Annie to the reader and to her environment and surrounding characters on the island of Antigua. She grows up here in her mother’s shadow, until she turns 12 and reaches that “forsaken” age…
Annie yearns for a sense of freedom and self-awareness throughout the whole novel. The beginning of the story gives Annie’s tragic but comical points of view on her visitations to the graves of dead children (representing her loss of childhood). She also tells of how her and her mother are so very close, as Annie is practically a “little her,” as Mrs. John suggests. Annie lives in her mother’s shadow, always being punished for “dirty and nasty” things she does with her friends Gwen and the Red Girl. Mrs. John bathes with her, takes her into town, and even teaches her how to dress, act, and shop. Annie turns 12, starts to menstruate, and happens to confront the sexuality of her mother and father. She feels betrayed by her mother’s negligence of their close relationship, and starts to rebel.
Annie takes on many forms of rebellion and acts out in the class, where she is the smartest girl, with friends, and at home. She meets her disheveled friend, the Red Girl, and dreams that the Red Girl "followed me around worshipfully and took with great forbearance any and every abuse I heaped on her" (Kincaid 57). The relationship between Annie and her mother began to tarnish as Annie grew up, because Annie was trying to find her own shadow to live in, amongst the cultural stereotypes of the “average” Antiguan young woman. Kincaid’s writing was witty and funny, mixed with her sometimes-depressing story. Annie rebels against authority in school and at home. One example is when she defaces Christopher Columbus’s picture and writes “The Great Man Can No Longer Just Get Up and Go” (Kincaid 78). Her teacher, Miss Edward gets very upset with Annie leading her own interpretation of history, creating a sense of her own nationalistic rebellion, but mocks her teacher’s appearance when Edward gets angry.
Her friend, the Red Girl’s free spirit makes Annie envious of her unkempt and messy lifestyle, and Annie starts to steal and play marbles. She knows her mother doesn’t like these things, so she feels a sense of independence when she does them. The Red Girl’s habits disgust Annie’s mother as Mrs. John exclaims, "Oh, what an angel she was, and what a heaven she lived in!" (Kincaid 58). These are just a few examples of Annie’s yearning for difference and self-assurance in her society. Kincaid puts the pressure of society, growing up as a young girl, and familial issues, all unto Annie. At the end of the novel we learn that Annie desires "a place where nobody knows a thing about me" and has a sense of hopelessness that "the whole world into which I was born had become an unbearable burden" (Kincaid 128). Desire, hopefulness, and a yearning sense of self-forgiveness and awareness are what Kincaid portrays through Annie’s character. Lesbianism, racism, and depression are all brought up throughout the depictions of Annie’s life and trials and tribulations she goes through. Yet, Kincaid’s beautiful prose, almost as lyrical and magical as the characters it describes, can touch anyone’s heart…anywhere, of any age or race, at any time.

Kincaid, Jamaica. Annie John. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1985.(less)

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Jul 09, 2009 Topher rated it 3 of 5 stars

Annie John is a simple story about the relationship between a independent minded girl growing up in Antigua and her mother. While on the outside Annie is a perfect girl, Kincaid does a remarkable job of detailing the conflict she feels about her mom. Like all kids, Annie is rebellious and secretive at times. Without ever really getting into it with her mom, though, she ends up growing away from her steadily until she decides to leave Antigua for good at the end of the book. I read it while in St...more

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May 25, 2011 Rebecca Blackson rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: stupid

I'm not sure how to classify this one. I loved the writing! It was a brilliantly written coming of age story set in the Caribbean. The first half was filled with phenomenal stories of Annie's childhood and her relationships with her mother and her friends. But the second half ...what in the world? She goes insane and hates her mother for no reason at all. She goes so far beyond the normal teenage angst that I couldn't figure out where in the world the author was taking it. And then, the book jus...more

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About Jamaica Kincaid

Jamaica Kincaid is a novelist, gardener, and former reporter for The New Yorker Magazine. She is a Professor of Literature at Claremont-McKenna College.

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“Like father like son, like mother like daughter!” — 7 people liked it

“My unhappiness was something deep inside me, and when i closed my eyes i could even see it. it sat somehwere - maybe in my belly, maybe in my heart; i could not exactly tell - and it took the shape of a small black ball, all wrapped up in cobwebs. i would look at it and look at it until i had burned the cobwebs away, and then i would see that the ball was no bigger than a thimble, even though it weighed worlds. at that moment, just when i saw its size and felt its weight, i was beyond feeling sorry for myself, which is to say i was beyond tears. i could only just sit and look at myself, feeling like the oldest person who had ever lived and who had not learned a single thing.” — 2 people liked it

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