What is most interesting is how Ms. Cook captures the relationships of the women pictured in her photographs. You get a real sense of the proximity or the distance between family members. This book is a loving tribute to the family and would be a great gift to someone in your own.

Marianna Cook renders each family so beautifully with her camera. With words and photographs, this book beautifully chronicles women and their families. No two portraits are alike, and everyone telling of the relationships shared within each.

Accompanying each portrait are interviews of the family members, some surface, but mostly poignant revelations about the relationships that they share with one another. I know that this book will touch everyone, not just those pictured within its cover.

I have this book-got it at her exhibit a few years ago here in Chicago. Her photographic style is of a dreamlike quality, and while her exact method of producing her photos remains a secret, the results are breathtaking. If you can't get to one of her shows, then at least buy the book - it makes you want to escape to these lovely garden settings. One of the better scenic photographers I've seen in a while.

Black & white images of gardens from around the world. Some gardens well know, some not, but all captured in a style only this photographer brings to the world. A book that deserves to be placed where everyone can see and look through it. A book that you'll read many times, seeing something new in each photograph every time.

Essays are perhaps the greatest literary form in history; the good ones are always a pleasure to read, the best ones touch us, arouses something deep inside in our heart and mind, and all of them are short, usually under thirty minutes to read. So, when there is an annual anthology of the best American essays, how can one resist? The entries span a wide range, from Marcus Aurelius to homosexuality to gardening. And although there is no unifying theme, all of the authors showcase the power of pure, unrestrained writing, the brilliance often missing from today's commercial periodicals

This book is a collection of her earlier anonymous columns for 'The New Yorker.' They were written in 70's and early 80's, so the subjects are old. For instance, Sting (and the Police) and Boy George (and Culture Club) were gaining popularity in the book. But she already established her crisp and dynamic and music-like prose style. It's my pleasure to read her candid and sometimes sarcastic comments about snobs. It's my pleasure to read her stories about her native country, Antigua, and her parents. She wrote the stories as her friend's stories (remember that those were anonymous columns), but they were of her own prose style.

I read all of her books, and I don't like much her previous book, 'My Garden,' but I enjoyed 'Talk Stories.'

Jamaica Kincaid describes, in her terrific Introduction, her beginnings as a writer in New York in the '70's. She made a few great friends, and one brought her to the attention of William Shawn, beloved and legendary editor of the 'New Yorker.' He invited to submit short pieces. That magazine, which Kincaid points out was "a magazine that has since gone out of business, though there exists now a magazine by that name," was her home for over ten years. Kincaid's brief acid note and comment introduces an unignorable subtext: there existed a deeply valued and memorable world, now gone.

These pieces were Kincaid's apprenticeship in writing. They are a pleasure to read.

All were unsigned (giving writers a freedom she valued) when they first appeared in the magazine. Here they are arranged chronologically. If you are new to Jamaica Kincaid's mind and writing, they are a great introduction. If you are familiar with her amazing novels (or gardening essays for that matter) they are fresh, many are very funny, and all are examples, in varying ways, of how to write.

Great book.

This classic, Kincaid's tale of a West Indian girl who comes to the States and becomes an au pair to a wealthy white couple, has been re-released. I first read this novel about ten years ago as my introduction to Kincaid's writing and was both intrigued and in awe of her language, themes, and symbolic language.

Until she was nineteen years old, Lucy Potter had not ventured from her own little world on the small island where she was born. Now she is living with a family and learning a culture that is very different from her own. Lewis and Mariah and their four daughters want Lucy to feel like she is part of the family but at first she finds it difficult to fit in. She just wants to do her duty and in her off-hours discovers a new world through her friend Peggy and sexuality through young men, Hugh and Paul.

Lucy often reflects on her life back on the island; the conflicts between she and her mother, and the British influence on the islanders. She remembers when she and her friends would read the Book of Revelations using the passages to terrify each other. She also remembers the time her mother showed her how to mix herbs that supposedly would cleanse a woman's womb but what they both knew was an abortion remedy. Lucy knows what is expected of her, to study for a respectable job like a nurse and to honor her family. She finds out that the tidy, neat world of the family she has come to love is not all it purports to be and how silence is a universal language.

Kincaid's language is outstanding in remembering her home; "the color of six o'clock in the evening" is just one example. It is well known that her writing draws from her life experiences as in The Autobiography of My Mother and My Brother and I look forward to her latest offering, Mr. Potter which is reportedly based on her father's life. Kincaid was my introduction to writers of Caribbean descent and remains one of the greats. I actual rating for this book is a 4.5.-----
Dera Williams
Apooo Bookclub

The cadence of the speech patterns of the Caribbean comes through in Kincaid's writing. There is a lilting quality to the way she puts words together that lets you know exactly how she wants the lines to be read. It's easy to add the Carib accent, as well.
Lucy is a bright young girl come from The Islands to work as au pair for a wealthy couple with 4 daughters. As Lucy matures and rises from her past to carve out her own definition of herself in this strange new world, the marriage between the parents of the little girls unravels.
At the core of this book by Kincaid (and from others of her's I've read thus far)is the ambiguous love/hate relationship she has with her powerful mother.
Read it!

I'm from the Caribbean and it is ironic that I had never heard of Jamaica Kincaid until I was in college. For that particular class we studied an excerpt from Annie John called the Circling Hand. That book was so great I searched and found more books by Mrs. Kincaid. Lucy was next. I absolutly loved this book. The angst that Lucy felt is so familiar to young women who immigrate from one country to another. I could feel all of her resentment and rage, her joy and her hopes her fitting in and not fitting in. I laughed and cried when I read and reread this book. As a matter of fact I think I will reread it again...

At the Bottom of the river isn't, in my perspective, a very good book. I gave it one star. I gave it one star because there isn't really a plot, main character (at least with a name), and it is boring. The book is sort of written in a mix between the first person and third person perspectives. The book is hard to understand, especially with 2 two page long sentences! The book kind of seems like it is someone thinking, with no real reason. It skips from one place to another in one chapter. It is hard to get into the story, and since there is no plot, there is little suspense. All in all, it isn't a very good book, and I don't recommend it.

In its strangeness is its beauty.
I won't pretend to have understood this book. At times I'd put it down and think, huh? But the overall impression was that of the privilege of listening in on the unstructured flow of a person's thoughts-- of following the mystical journey that takes a Caribbean girl to womanhood-- of the complicated relationship between a mother and her daughter-- and more.
Still, after having read it, I still wonder, what was that about? But I feel better having read it. I feel smarter. I feel wise. I know that I have learned something. It might take me a while to figure out what it was.
Enjoy.

A book that drifts from page to page, from consciousness to consciousness.

Reading the book is liking trying to look at things at the bottom of the river, which continuously get distorted by the movement of the water, the interplay of light reflected on the surface and shadows at the bed, and things that sometimes drift into view and out - with and for no apparent reason.

Quite an interesting experience.

Overall, the gardeners who wrote about their favorite plants were more interesting to read than most of the other authors. The selection that dealt with ringworm was especially out of place (what on earth did THAT have to do with plants?). The essay on plant collecting was great, though, and Tony Avent's short essay on hostas almost makes me like them. Almost. And you have to like a book that has an essay on Meconopsis. I liked exactly 50% of this book.

I was very pleased with this book, which is why I went out and bought the other Jamaica Kincaid gardening related book.

This would be a lovely gift for a keen gardener, particularly in winter, when one can only dream about the garden. The essays were mainly interesting and informative - some were funny and poignant. The ones that wrote about their actual favourite plant were the best - the ones that went off on 'frolics of their own' just didnt cut it, but these were few, and probably added for unecessary 'colour' and 'arty-fartyness'! The paeony and meconopsis ones are my favourites.

Every gardener has a favorite plant and is anxious to share plants and stories with others. Some of these essays are filled with technical information, others are lyrical musings on the esthetic of plants. Either way, this is a book to cuddle up with and to cherish. It's also a perfect special occasion gift for other gardeners.

How many of us as people in general can relate to being an adorable, obedient, loveable child; then turning into a deceitful, sneaky, and mischievious teenager? Jamacia Kincaid does a beautiful job of depicting this in her novel "Annie John" through her unique writing style. Never, have I read another author's book and felt the same as I did after reading "Annie John". The character Annie John starts off in the story as an adorable child who has a wonderful relaioship with her mother. This particular relationship is almost described as a fairy tale between the two. As time goes on, Annie's mother seemed to intentionally put up a wall between Annie and herself,(perhaps so she wouldn't have to deal with the pain of letting her go). Like many of her novels, British oppression over Antigua was an unannounced element to the novel. For example, she makes reference to how many of her teachers at her school happen to be of British nationality as many of the characters are. After reading this powerful story, one can certainly conclude that this book uniquely describes the dynamics of a mother-daughter relationship and British oppression by letting the reader literally feel the happiness and sorrow at the same time.

How many of us as people in general can relate to being an adorable, obedient, loveable child; then turning into a deceitful, sneaky, and mischievious teenager? Jamacia Kincaid does a beautiful job of depicting this in her novel "Annie John" through her unique writing style. Never, have I read another author's book and felt the same as I did after reading "Annie John". The character Annie John starts off in the story as an adorable child who has a wonderful relaioship with her mother. This particular relationship is almost described as a fairy tale between the two. As time goes on, Annie's mother seemed to intentionally put up a wall between Annie and herself,(perhaps so she wouldn't have to deal with the pain of letting her go). Like many of her novels, British oppression over Antigua was an unannounced element to the novel. For example, she makes reference to how many of her teachers at her school happen to be of British nationality as many of the characters are. After reading this powerful story, one can certainly conclude that this book uniquely describes the dynamics of a mother-daughter relationship and British oppression by letting the reader literally feel the happiness and sorrow at the same time.

Unfortunately, I had to buy A Small Place for my University of Michigan class on Latin America. I'm horrified that students and people will believe the West Indies is such a bad place from this book. Horrified. Believe me, I was born and lived in Barbados, an island close and similar in attitude to Antigua. Many everyday activities in Barbados that occur in Antigua are turned into Dateline "controversy of the week" issues. People, it's not that serious! What's worse, she doesn't even touch the real issues of the Caribbean. Not to mention, Jamaica Kincaid wrote the account as a longtime resident of the US. She doesn't even sound like a West Indian; she sounds like a pampered, naive North American who believes every nation that doesn't have a McDonald's on every block is third world, to exaggerate. White superiority is the myth this book perpetuates, and the West Indies is once again made out as a "Banana Republic." What's worse, half of the book's claims aren't even true, nor do natives consider them major issues. A warning to North Americans and Westerners alike; take this book with a grain of salt, most of this account is cornball, "what people want to hear" bull. Unfortunately, most people will believe this "tragedy." Please don't. I'm never believing anything Western media says about the rest of the world again.

Like other reviewer, I was little put off by Kincaid's politics.

But the first thing that struck me about this book was the tense and voice. Second person (?you do this, you do that.....?) isn?t very common in literature, so when I see it, it has an immediate effect on me. Now, in one sense, I admire the choice of this tense. It allows the narrator to talk directly to the reader, informing him or her. It also gives the narrator some freedom to literally paint a scene in the reader?s mind. Instead of going to all the trouble to create the hundreds of details necessary to allow the reader to place himself or herself in Antigua, Kincaid can accomplish this in one sentence. Granted, she goes on to provide the details (she points out the cars, the roads, the hospital, the beach, the sun, etc.) but as she does this she has some additional room with this tense to comment on these details and actually point out their significance.

Using this tense also lets Kincaid convey her opinion of the typical tourist who comes to Antigua. Using the second person present tense makes the book flow more like a conversation, and as such, allows me to imagine one particular narrator, a very specific person who is telling me this story and painting these pictures in my mind, filling in the details and their significance as we go along. And if I am not a middle class or upper middle class white American who travels to other countries, this works very well. If I am not a middle or upper class Briton, this also works. But if I am, as are many of the people who buy and read contemporary literature, this would put me out a bit. In fact, it would pretty well alienate me to this narrator. Kincaid?s narrator pretty clearly says she wishes the tourists would stay home, she despises the English, she disdains the concepts of democracy and capitalism, and doesn?t think much of the people who do. Now on the one hand, using this tense and voice makes the narrator very real, very tangible as a character. We hear the narrator?s opinions on almost everything, so the voice becomes distinctive and individual. On the other hand, what this narrator says can be very challenging to some readers. Kincaid has obviously made some choices about what she has to say and how she sees her readership.

Starting in second person, the narrator focuses on building the scene in the reader?s mind, helping the reader see himself or herself in Antigua. The first sense we get of the narrator is from the asides (?Or worse, European?). The first time the narrator identifies herself is on pg. 10 (?of the people like me...?). I think this relates to the gradual change in voice that becomes evident at the beginning of chapter 2.

At the beginning of chapter 2 (after the illustration) the voice changes from a heavy second person to a slightly more traditional first person. Kincaid starts the chapter with ?The Antigua I knew....? and goes on to stay more focused on the first person voice. For me, this reinforced the conversational aspect of the book, the give and take as the focus moves from one speaker to the other. Even though it is always Kincaid?s narrator talking, the first chapter?s emphasis on the reader (you, you, you) is followed by the second chapter?s emphasis on the narrator (I, I, I). This more closely approximates the rhythm of a real conversation and keeps the essay relaxed and moving forward for me.

Small Place Section Stands Out Because of Voice Change Again

On page 52, the narrator changes voice again. In this section, the narrator stops talking primarily about herself and the reader and speaks in a more essayistic voice about Antigua as a whole. ?In a small place, people cultivate small events.? For me, this served to draw attention to this section. Not only because the voice changed, but also because the meaning of the book?s title is revealed in this section. The effect on me as reader is to keep my attention. The general feeling I come away with is an essay that starts with me, moves to the narrator, then moves to Antigua in general.

Last Section Entirely Third Person

The final change in voice occurs in the last section. The last chapter is totally in third person. The narrator has completely dropped the reader (you, you, you) and herself (I, I, I) and begins to speak in straightforward, third person omniscient point of view about Antigua. She even drops into the essayists questions (?What might it do to people...?) in this section. Ending the book in this voice, to me, lent credibility. If she had stayed in the first or second person voice all the way to the end, I might have more easily dismissed the book as biased or too personal. But slowly moving across the voice spectrum, ending in traditional third person, lends an aura of objectivity to the end.

All in all this was a fascinating change ue of tense and voice to tell a compelling story.

"A Small Place," by Jamaica Kincaid, is a nonfiction prose piece about the Caribbean island of Antigua. The author bio at the beginning of the book notes that the author was born on Antigua. A lean 81 pages, this is nonetheless a powerful text.

Kincaid discusses British colonialism, the corruption of the Antiguan government, racism, and greed. It seems to me a key question raised by the book is whether post-colonial Antigua is worse than colonial Antigua. The book is very much haunted by the spectre of New World slavery.

This book is a dark, angry jeremiad. I think it works better when seen as an extended prose poem rather than as an essay. As the latter, it could be criticized as full of invalid generalizations and undocumented claims. But as a poetic/prophetic text, it is chillingly effective.

Ultimately, Kincaid's vision of the human condition is extremely negative But her haunting, almost hypnotic prose really held me. I recommend the book to anyone planning a trip to a poor country for their own pleasure.

Despite what many other people may think, my friends, and other people around my age, may not appreciate this book. Sure, it seems like an odd and boring book, but maybe thats because some of the symbolism and situations that occur in it might not appeal to other readers. I actually thought it was very interesting. This book was required for summer reading and out of the books, Anne Frank and The House on Mango Street, i found this one most enjoyable. Annie finds herself growing up too fast because of her excellent learning ability. She is a bright girl with lots of potential. She begins her life admiring and adoring her mother, when , as she grows up, she becomes more matureand views the world in a whole other way and progresses a hate relationship with her mother. I honestly thought this book was worth my time reading, and also taking in consideration that its a kinda thin book to read. :)

Jamaica Kincaid almost enchantingly expresses to her readers about what a girl can go through in her life while living on the island of Antigua. Her imaginative writing practically trains our minds to become a character in the book. She tells us exactly how a girl, in this case named Annie John, feels during the phases a typical girl would go through, given she has had no abnormal episodes in her life. Extraordinarily, Kincaid even allows male readers to become empathetic towards a young girl growing up to develop into a woman. In the beginning of the story, Kincaid portrays Annie as the loving daughter who looked up to and admired her mother. To her, her mother was the most ravishing woman ever. Soon enough, as Annie grew to become an adolescent, things changed. Annie starts to consider her and her mother as almost rivals. It seems as if they are competing to see who can make the other person angrier. The frustration indulged in the characters in the story by Kincaid practically tells us that the trust that they had, has now sadly been affected. Annie assumes that since this miniature duel has already begun that she will not try to make peace and thus Kincaid tends to be descriptive with a not so predictive ending.

Annie John is about a daughter in the throes of conflict with her mother. She is finding out about mortality and sexuality and that her mother regards her as rival for her father's attention.

When a group of high school students read this book in my class eight years ago, the boys in the back row all whined about reading "girl stuff." Presumedly they're older now and would have some interest in the struggles of their mothers, daughters, sisters, and lovers... not to mention themselves. After all, don't we all go through a period of gaining vision and resenting it simultaneously?

I was caught with the opening scene, Annie John sees people dressed in black and some in white bobbing in the distance. What is it? she asks her mother, who tells her it must be the funeral of a child since such burials are always held in the morning. "Until then, I had not known that children could die."