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Jamaica Kincaid Annie John
Vintage Books 0099773813 / 9780099773818 PAPERBACK New
0099773813 Jamaica Kincaid beautifully delineates hatred and fear, because she knows they are often a step away from love and obsession. At the start of Annie John, her 10-year-old heroine is engulfed in family happiness and safety. Though Annie loves her father, she is all eyes for her mother. When she is almost 12, however, the idyll ends and she falls into deep disfavor. This inexplicable loss mars both lives, as each grows adept at public falsity and silent betrayal. The pattern is set, and extended: And now I started a new series of betrayals of people and things I would have sworn only minutes before to die for. In front of Annie's father and the world, We were politeness and kindness and love and laughter. Alone they are linked in loathing. Annie tries to imagine herself as someone in a book--an orphan or a girl with a wicked stepmother. The trouble is, she finds, those characters' lives always end happily. Luckily for us, though not perhaps for her alter ego, Kincaid is too truthful a writer to provide such a finale. n--This text refers to the n nPaperback nedition. n nFrom AudioFile n nKincaid, a Harvard professor born in Antigua, has a lilting delivery that matches her lyrical writing. Kincaid's enunciation is so crisp that her island accent becomes a delightful plus, instead of a distraction. Unlike many authors who read their own work, Kincaid is comfortable with the medium, reading at a leisurely pace and emphasizing the wit and aching emotion of her novel. Though set in a world far removed from America, the story of a mother/daughter relationship is universal. Adults, who can listen in retrospect, should find this as appealing as teens, who can relate to the various painful stages of maturity revealed by Kincaid with humor and tenderness. R.O.F. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine n--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Price:
10.90 EUR
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