20/04/2020 Jamaica Kincaid - Wikipedia

much of her fiction is "culturally specific and experimental".[26] It has also been praised for its keen
observation of character, curtness, wit,[5] and lyrical quality.[12] Her short story Girl is essentially a
list of instructions on how a girl should live and act, but the messages are much larger than the literal
list of suggestions. Kincaid makes a list of motherly orders a piece of literature. Derek Walcott, 1992
Nobel laureate, said of Kincaid's writing: "As she writes a sentence, psychologically, its temperature is
that it heads toward its own contradiction. It's as if the sentence is discovering itself, discovering how
it feels. And that is astonishing, because it's one thing to be able to write a good declarative sentence;
it's another thing to catch the temperature of the narrator, the narrator's feeling. And that's universal,
and not provincial in any way".[24] Susan Sontag has also commended Kincaid's writing for its
"emotional truthfulness," poignancy, and complexity.[14] Her writing has been described as "fearless"
and her "force and originality lie in her refusal to curb her tongue". [27] Giovanna Covi describes her
unique writing: "The tremendous strength of Kincaid's stories lies in their capacity to resist all
canons. They move at the beat of a drum and the rhythm of jazz…"[25] She is described as writing with
a "double vision"[25] meaning that one line of plot mirrors another, providing the reader with rich
symbolism that enhances the possibilities of interpretation.

Influences

Kincaid's writing is largely influenced by her life circumstances even though she discourages readers
from taking her fiction literally.[5] To do so, according to the writer Michael Arlen, is to be
"disrespectful of a fiction writer's ability to create fictional characters". Kincaid worked for Arlen, who
would become a colleague at The New Yorker, as an au pair and is the figure whom the father in Lucy
is based on. Despite her caution to readers, Kincaid has also said, "I would never say I wouldn't write
about an experience I've had."[14]

Reception and criticism

The reception of Kincaid's work has been mixed. Her writing stresses deep social and even political
commentary, as Harold Bloom cites as a reason why the "literary qualities" of her work tend to be less
of a focus for critics.[25] Writing for Salon.com, Peter Kurth called Kincaid's work My Brother the
most overrated book of 1997.[28] Reviewing her latest novel, See Now Then (2013), in The New York
Times, Dwight Garner called it "bipolar", "half séance, half ambush" and "the kind of lumpy exorcism
that many writers would have composed and then allowed to remain unpublished. It picks up no
moral weight as it rolls along. It asks little of us, and gives little in return."[29] Another New York
Times review describes it as "not an easy book to stomach" but goes on to explain, "Kincaid's force
and originality lie in her refusal to curb her tongue, in an insistence on home truths that spare herself
least of all." [27] Kate Tuttle addresses this in an article for The Boston Globe: "Kincaid allowed that
critics are correct to point out the book's complexity. "The one thing the book is," she said, "is
difficult, and I meant it to be."[30] Some critics have been harsh, such as one review for Mr Potter
(2002) that reads, "It wouldn't be so hard if the repetition weren't coupled, here and everywhere it
occurs, with a stern rebuff to any idea that it might be meaningful."[31] On the other hand, there has
been much praise for her writing, for instance: "The superb precision of Kincaid's style makes it a
paradigm of how to avoid lots of novelistic pitfalls."[32]

List of works
Novels

Annie John (1985)

Lucy (1990)
The Autobiography of My Mother (1996)

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