About this item
Highlights
- A portrait of an indelible young woman, Kincaid's second novel is "vivid, true and necessary" (Los Angeles Times).
- About the Author: Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John's, Antigua.
- 176 Pages
- Fiction + Literature Genres, Coming of Age
Description
Book Synopsis
A portrait of an indelible young woman, Kincaid's second novel is "vivid, true and necessary" (Los Angeles Times).
Lucy, a teenage girl from the West Indies, comes to North America to work as an au pair for Lewis and Mariah and their four children. Lewis and Mariah are a thrice-blessed couple--handsome, rich, and seemingly happy. Yet, almost at once, Lucy begins to notice cracks in their beautiful facade. With mingled anger and compassion, Lucy scrutinizes the assumptions and verities of her employers' world and compares them with the vivid realities of her native place. Lucy has no illusions about her own past, but neither is she prepared to be deceived about where she presently is.
Review Quotes
"Beautifully precise prose . . . It leaves the reader with the unforgettable experience of having met a ferociously honest woman on her own uncompromising terms." --The New York Times
"Brilliant . . . Lucy confirms Ms. Kincaid as a both a daughter of Bronte and Woolf and her own inimitable self." --Wall Street Journal "A furious, broken-hearted gem of a novel . . . Part of the richness of this book is the way we come to see, as Lucy struggles to do, the connections between those of us who have too much and those who will never have enough--and between 'a sentence for life' (what can't be changed in the self) and that which can be wrestled with and, at least, understood." --San Francisco ChronicleAbout the Author
Jamaica Kincaid was born in St. John's, Antigua. Her books include At the Bottom of the River, Annie John, Lucy, The Autobiography of My Mother, My Brother, Mr. Potter, See Now Then, and An Encyclopedia of Gardening for Colored Children (with Kara Walker). She lives in Vermont.