Dec 23, 2009

The Autobiography of My Mother | The Autobiography of My Mother

At a glance:

Author: Jamaica Kincaid
First Published: 1996
Type of Work: Novel
Time of Work: The 1920’s to the 1990’s
Setting: Dominica, a Caribbean island
Principal Characters: Xuela Claudette Richardson, Her father, Her stepmother, Jack LaBatte, Lise LaBatte, Philip, Roland
Genres: Long fiction
Subjects: Maturation or coming of age
Locales: Caribbean

Jamaica Kincaid begins her tough, ironic, and lyrical novel by having her narrator, Xuela, a seventy-year-old resident of the Caribbean island of Dominica, announce that “My mother died at the moment I was born, and so for my whole life there was nothing standing between myself and eternity.” Such a beginning promises the reader that an examination of big themes—life, identity, meaning—will surely follow, and in this respect, The Autobiography of My Mother does not disappoint.

Beginning with the subtitle, “a novel,” appended to the title on the front cover of...

[The entire page is 2133 words long]

The Autobiography of My Mother | The Autobiography of My Mother

At a glance:

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