A Small Place

I purchased this book for one of my classes, I must confess I had not heard from Jamaica Kincaid in the past but after reading A Small Place I was blown away. I love how straight forward no filter the author is in this book, she definitely makes you feel uncomfortable yet opens your eyes and create a new awareness in you with a sardonic tone that will make you want to read more. This monologue is definitely not for the thin skin people, the author did not hold her pen to express what is inside her head. I dare you to give it a try!. I definitely want to read more from Jamaica Kincaid.

In her book A Small Place the author Jamaica Kincaid reflects on the debilitating impacts of colonialism and slavery on her people, Antiguans. The narrator does not tell her audience, which are tourists, about the beauty of Antigua, the warm and beautiful weather of the country, or the magnificent even about beaches. She straightforwardly confronts her audience as tourists and informs them about their lack of awareness of the corrupt political system in the place they are visiting and the people who suffering consequently from outcomes. She is telling them if they were intelligent enough, they would not travel the long journey from their land to the place of Antigua in order to build up the corrupt political system. In this book, the most important themes that the author deals with are slavery, colonialism, corruption. The country is naturally beautiful and has thriving tourism industry, however, the underlining problems of corrupt system that was inherited from the slavery and colonialism, oppresses its citizens. The deep-rooted negative effects of these two brutal and inhumane systems are still visible in the political and socio economic situations of Antigua. The leaders are corrupt and work based on nepotism and political affiliations (Kincaid, 72). An irrefutable example, which the narrator uses, is the presence of Japanese made cars for taxi drivers. She states the reason why these luxurious and expensive cars are available for the drivers are because the government mandates their purchases and operations (5-6). These cars benefit the members of the government, not the people of Antigua. Her second example for the political corruption is the assignment of the Minister of Culture (46). The irony is that this minister is also the Minister of Education and Sports who controls all these offices for his advantage. She believes these offices exist for the purpose of exploitation and abuse, and not for the benefit of the country. The people of Antigua came out of slavery and colonialism, they still are suffering and are being abused and exploited by their own government.

Delivered on time and in pretty good condition as far as I remember. I liked it. I thought it was an interesting read, well written, and thought provoking. I hadn't heard much of the country before having read the novel, so it really left me knowing much more than I had before reading the novel. It isn't a particularly long read, but I've read it about three or four times and enjoyed doing so. Would definitely recommend.

Quick read

Amazing book!

An experience written from a viewpoint most tourists have surely never considered. Honest and deep; written concisely and eloquently. The reader gets an eye opener that should permanently change their view. This book was required reading for my child’s Sophmore class in a private girls high school. Thank you to Jamaica Kincaid for giving this perspective to young girls who are future leaders.

Title: A Small Place Author: Jamaica Kincaid Stars: 3 & 1/2 (out of 5) Format: Paperback # of Pages/Words: 81/~20,200 Where It Came From: I purchased this novella from Amazon several months ago. It was a required textbook for a special topics course in tourism and communication studies, but it is an enjoyable read nonetheless. While I probably wouldn't have come across it by my own wanderings, I'm glad that I had the chance to experience it. The Review: For a book that just barely breaks 81 pages, A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid packs a powerful punch. And whether she simply ran out of things to say (although I highly doubt it) or rather she was simply making a play on her exposition about the island of Antigua as "a small place," the smallness of the book makes it seem much less intimidating and powerful than it is in reality. Kincaid's blunt style offers no warnings, no prefaces, and no excuses, plunging right ahead in the first page into the overarching theme of the book: how white colonization of Antigua has, essentially, destroyed everything that was good and right and true on the island. From paragraph one, Kincaid establishes a second-person POV in which you are placed in the identity of an anonymous tourist visiting Antigua for the first time. From there, it's full steam ahead through what essentially feels like a "declaration of rights and grievances" against the colonial time period in general. I'll admit--after finishing the first chapter, I was sitting neck-deep in a pile of muddy guilt. I wanted to apologize to the Antiguan people for what had been done to them. The power of Kincaid's words lies mainly in the fact that, although the ground-level basis of understanding for slavery and colonization has been thoroughly established (through rhetoric on early American colonization and the Civil War), she presents the reader with a new, underrepresented account of what happened in Antigua. Kincaid's lyrical writing juxtaposes what was (pre-colonization) with what is (post-modernization, if you can even call it that) in a way that draws in even the most politically reluctant reader (such as myself). She doesn't tip-toe around issues of race and politics. Who am I kidding--she stomps all over them like a step team at nationals. And while I absolutely do not discount her outrage, and I am overwhelmingly sorry for and sympathetic to the horrors that the Antiguan people faced at the hands of the Europeans, I couldn't help but feel alienated by the attack-attack-attack mantra that Kincaid adopts throughout the book. She gets so mired down in lamenting the past that she creates a lens with which she views the present and the future. But that's not to say that I didn't appreciate the book. Kincaid's conviction and never-back-down attitude is very much the core of what draws the reader through to the end. It is only the very last section that an element of hope is introduced and Kincaid posits that perhaps the "non-reality" of Antigua might one day become its redemption. Her final lines are justifiably haunting for the clarity they provide concerning humanity: "Of course, the whole thing is, once you cease to be a master, once you throw off your master's yoke, you are no longer human rubbish, you are just a human being, and all the things that adds up to. So, too, with the slaves. Once they are no longer slaves, once they are free, they are no longer noble and exalted; they are just human beings."* *Quotation used under the fair use exemption of the United States Copyright Act of 1976

I feel like most readers choosing to pick up this book aren't who need to hear what Kincaid has to say but you’ll just have to pass it around to family and friends. Its a short and easy read.

Such a fantastic book, I loved every part of it. Would definitely recommend. It also highlights how important it is to be literate, because education is the true key to emancipation.

good book. the text is very readable

This book didn't stop me from visiting Antigua at all, in fact, Jamaica Kincaid's observations in 'A Small Place' were spot on. When I visited the island before I read her book, I always had my 'tourist hat on', and was oblivious to the struggles of the indigenous population; the corruption that still haunts their politicians; and the failed legacies that the British had left behind some time ago. It was only after I had read her book, that everything she had written, fell into place when I went back to visit again. The majority of cars were still in a much better state than the homes where people lived, and many of the islanders that I spoke to were always complaining about the influx of the Guyanese & the Syrians who were hindering their own job prospects, also, the politicians were still 'ducking & diving' to avoid the smears of corruption; and not forgetting the influence of the long departed British is still much in evidence to this day (you only have to look at the decaying statues & monuments, and the over reliance on a judicial system that still prolongs many a murder trial on this island). An evocative read, but a very accurate one ...

So, this is my first Kincaid read, and all thanks to the 2020 Reading Women Challenge. Their first prompt is an author from Caribbean or India. Since I’ve read a lot of women from India, I thought let’s give the Caribbean a shot and started with A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid – a rather short, but extremely powerful and engaging book about colonialism and its effects in Antigua. There were so many things I wasn’t aware about Antigua till I read A Small Place, and like I said I was only too happy to read something out of my comfort zone and thereby discover the writing of an author I had intended to read for a while. A Small Place is a memoir, it is also a history of Antigua in a way, it is also an essay of anger against the people who colonised Antigua, it is also a voice of great empathy that Kincaid has for her country and people. The book begins with an attack on tourists who visit Antigua – what they expect and choose to see versus what the place is. A Small Place is a short book – but extremely powerful and angry. Kincaid writes about home – about what it meant to her, and what has become of it. Of how the English ruled them, and how their independence has only worsened the situation because of corruption and bureaucracy. Jamaica Kincaid speaks candidly – almost to the point of being brutal – there are no holds barred. The prose comes from an extremely personal space and therefore the writing shines the way it does. For instance, when she speaks of lack of clean water in the country or even about the beloved old library that was destroyed in an earthquake and how nothing was done to build the new one. And now that there is a new one that has been built (way after the book was published), but there is still doubt if it is open to public or not. Kincaid’s book is large – very large not only in its scope but also in what it has to say – and how she manages to say it in all in less than hundred pages is nothing short of a feat. That explains the writer she is – succinct, bare-boned, and yet so deeply emotional that every emotion is reflected on paper, and in turn is felt by the reader.

hermosa prosa de las cosas sencillas. pocas veces me releo un libro. este seguro que lo volveré a leer.