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At the Bottom of the River

Jamaica Kincaid

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Feb 05, 2013 Annie rated it liked it

Shelves: world-in-80-books-2013

More lyrical vignettes of island life than short stories, but quite interesting and evocative. Would probably be best appreciated read aloud.

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Apr 27, 2022 Tony rated it did not like it

Shelves: short-stories, setting-caribbean

Easily the most well-known writer from the tiny island nation of Antigua, Kincaid lived there until age 17, when she was sent by her family to be a nanny in New York. In her mid-20s she started writing for various American magazines, and changed her name from Elaine Richardson to Jamaica Kincaid. She married the brother of the legendary New Yorker editor Wallace Shawn and started to get her short fiction published in the magazine. This first collection of hers includes seven of these early New Y Easily the most well-known writer from the tiny island nation of Antigua, Kincaid lived there until age 17, when she was sent by her family to be a nanny in New York. In her mid-20s she started writing for various American magazines, and changed her name from Elaine Richardson to Jamaica Kincaid. She married the brother of the legendary New Yorker editor Wallace Shawn and started to get her short fiction published in the magazine. This first collection of hers includes seven of these early New Yorker stories from the late 1970s and early 1980s.

I had no idea what to expect from the 82 pages, but I'll just say right away that the style of the writing just wasn't for me at all. After finishing the book, I read a few reviews to try and see what others found compelling in the writing and the phrases "prose-poems" and "abstract" and "ethereal" kept coming up -- and, well, that's just not my cup of tea in any way. The collection opens with "Girl" a three-page uninterrupted stream of instructional rambling/ranting from a mother figure to a daughter, from the practical (wash the white clothes on Monday) to the moral ("try to walk like a lady and not the slut you are so bent on becoming"). It's quite the tone-setter and having read of Kincaid's estrangement from her mother, presumably quite autobiographical. It also introduced me to Antiguan folk genre of bawdy benna songs.

"In the Night" isn't an uninterrupted stream, but it is a loose, stream of consciousness reverie of drifting through the night, seeing ghosts and various flora (Kincaid is a keen gardener). Same for "At Last" which is almost like a prose freeform poem, fragments of fleeting impressions and memories, which for me, crumble into nothingness. "Wingless" is more of the same. "Holidays" is marginally more structured, but not much. "The Letter From Home" mirrors the opener girl in its three-page stream of enumeration: "I stood up, I sat down, I stood up again; the clock slowed down, the post came late" and on and on and on. "What I Have Been Doing Lately" is another brief fever dream of impressions and mood. Indeed, another reviewer described the book as like reading someone else's dreams, and for me, the dreams were completely uninteresting.

I'll admit to skimming through the final three stories, as by that point, it was clear that I was unlikely to connect with any of them. Readers who enjoy hyper-lyrical prose with no narrative content should definitely give this a whirl, but it certainly wasn't to my taste. I will, however, try one of her later novellas to see if that's more my speed. ...more

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Apr 27, 2012 Vicky marked it as to-read

Shelves: novel, own-pre-konmari

Dec 28, 2013 Meghan marked it as to-read

Sep 26, 2017 Nikki Morse marked it as to-read

Shelves: owned-and-unread, caribbean

Jul 19, 2020 Celeste marked it as to-read

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