A Small Place | 
pickI don‘t really have anything new to say about this short read (just under 2 hours on audio) that shares the author‘s perspective on her home island of Antigua, but it is well worth the time. It will most likely make you think more consciously if you travel as a tourist to the Caribbean.
#ReadingTheAmericas2023 #Antigua #audiobook #nonfiction
pickMy #IslandVibe #TitlesAndTunes selection is so good and eye opening. Kincaid writes a critique of #Antigua and those who colonized the small island and how that colonization has shaped it. This is a memoir, so it‘s a very personal examination. One can feel her emotions. It‘s a must read. #ReadTheAmericas2023 #192025 #1988
pickI decided to kick May off with my #TitlesandTunes book. This piece includes all my favorite aspects of Kincaid‘s writing style. It manages to be charming, funny, elegant and confronting all in one breath. I had to keep reminding myself that this scathing indictment of colonialism was written in 1988! She gave me a lot to think about.
#TitlesAndTunes #IslandVibes @Cinfhen @BarbaraBB
Book and song aren‘t about the same island, but they have a similar vibe.
While I‘m thinking about this week‘s #WeeklyForecast & May‘s #BookSpinBingo , I wanted to prepare my #IslandVibe for #TitlesAndTunes .
I plan to read the tagged for #BritishVirginIslands for #ReadingTheAmericas2023 , so perfect to read it now! The song, which does not feature BVI in the lyrics, brings back lots of fun memories of school bus rides home when I was in elementary school. Both came out in 1988, incidentally.
pickJamaica Kincaid‘s short, but powerful reflection on her home country of Antigua.
Literary ✨ Corruption ✨ Cynical
For fans of Toni Morrison, and the books you analyzed in college/high school (hopefully)
pick#ReadingTheAmericas2023 #AntiguaAndBarbuda 🇦🇬 #BannedBooks
This was uncomfortable reading for an English person, and the more necessary for being so. Kincaid sketches out one chapter in the obscured history of misery called The British Empire. She states that all masters are human rubbish, that when they throw off the yoke of being masters they cease being human rubbish & become human beings. The degree to which Britons (and other colonisers) ⬇️
"Do you know why people like me are shy about being capitalists? Well, its because we, for as long as we have known you, were capital, like bales of cotton and sacks of sugar, and you were commanding, cruel capitalists, and the memory of this so strong, the experience so recent, that we can't quite bring ourselves to embrace this idea that you think so much of."
#12booksof2022
A #roll100 pick for August, this one was small, but mighty. Definitely made me think long and hard about colonialism/tourism and my own actions as a tourist. Need more Kincaid in my life! 🔥
pickI‘m struggling to review this precisely. It reads like a stream of consciousness diatribe to the point I had trouble finding cohesion sometimes as I read. Nonetheless, it has a lot to say about how overwhelming and multi-sided corruption can be and the difficulties of untangling it. It dealt also with the problems of tourism and outside influence on a small nation. I can‘t say I enjoyed reading it, but it‘s a pick for the emotional force it has.
"Ist es denn nicht merkwürdig, dass die einzige Sprache, die ich zur Beschreibung dieses Verbrechens habe, die Sprache des Verbrechers ist, der das Verbrechen beging?"
pickA sharp, acerbic read addressed directly to the reader on the ills of tourism and colonialism in Antigua, and the destruction left in its wake.
pickA powerful, lyrical denunciation of colonialism and tourism as its modern analog. The writing is so forceful it's like being struck. Repeatedly. This short work desires to be read and reread by every descendant of white colonizers.
so when the natives see you, the tourist, they envy you, they envy your ability to leave your own banality and boredom, they envy your ability to turn their own banality and boredom into a source of pleasure for yourself. (Pt 2) - Jamaica Kincaid
Every native would like to find a way out, every native would like a rest, every native would like a tour. But some natives—most natives in the world—cannot go anywhere. They are too poor. They are too poor to go anywhere. They are too poor to escape the reality of their lives; and they are too poor to live properly in the place they live, which is the very place you, the tourist, want to go— (pt 1)
pick"You are not an ugly person all the time; you are not an ugly person ordinarily; you are not an ugly person day to day."
Kincaid opens this extended essay by gently chiding a tourist in Antigua for their ignorance and follows with a description of how Antigua's history with colonialism and slavery led to its present issues with government corruption. The tone is punchy, sarcastic, and light, without making light of an important subject.
pickI feel ashamed to call myself a tourist after reading this essay. Whenever and wherever we travel are we aware of our behavior and of how we are being perceived? This is just one aspect of Jamaica Kincaid‘s portrait of her homeland of Antigua. All that she highlights about Antigua is applicable to the wider world. Excellently well written. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
pickThis book opened my eyes on tourism and Post colonial living conditions that are often obscured and not represented. The author brings to light a dark side of capitalism and how developing countries are catering to the foreign populations and not the inhabitants who live there. 10/10
pickThis audiobook is just under 2 hrs. I listened to it straight through while doings some chores and cooking. Published in 1988, Kincaid writes about the complicated history of her country Antigua. It discusses the legacy of colonialism and the corruption that has followed liberation from the British. There's so much crammed into this slim account that I don't know how she did it. If you have an interest in the history of Caribbean, start here. 4⭐️
More #BookMail! 📬🎉
I've never read any Jamaica Kincaid and this looked like a great place to start. It's an extended essay about Antigua, where she grew up. Its part love letter to its people, language, and customs, and part evisceration of colonialism and how it's damaged the country. Issues with colonialism and imperialism are firmly in my wheelhouse so I'm really looking forward to digging into this classic.
That the native does not like the tourist is not hard to explain. For every native of every place is a potential tourist, and every tourist is a native of somewhere. Every native everywhere lives a life of overwhelming and crushing banality and boredom...they are too poor to live properly in the place they live, which is the very place you, the tourist, want to go—so when the natives see you, the tourist, ...they envy your ability to leave...
