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The Autobiography of My Mother
The Autobiography of My Mother: A Novel | Jamaica Kincaid
16 posts | 9 read | 1 reading | 5 to read
Powerful, disturbing, stirring, Jamaica Kincaid's novel is the deeply charged story of a woman's life on the island of Dominica. Xuela Claudette Richardson, daughter of a Carib mother and a half-Scottish, half-African father, loses her mother to death the moment she is born and must find her way on her own. Kincaid takes us from Xuela's childhood in a home where she could hear the song of the sea to the tin-roofed room where she lives as a schoolgirl in the house of Jack Labatte, who becomes her first lover. Xuela develops a passion for the stevedore Roland, who steals bolts of Irish linen for her from the ships he unloads, but she eventually marries an English doctor, Philip Bailey. Xuela's is an intensely physical world, redolent of overripe fruit, gentian violet, sulfur, and rain on the road, and it seethes with her sorrow, her deep sympathy for those who share her history, her fear of her father, her desperate loneliness. But underlying all is "the black room of the world" that is Xuela's barrenness and motherlessness. The Autobiography of My Mother is a story of love, fear, loss, and the forging of a character, an account of one woman's inexorable evolution evoked in startling and magical poetry.
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Bookdragon217
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"My impulse is to the good, my good is to serve myself. I am not a people, I am not a nation. I only wish from time to time to make my actions be the actions of a people, to make my actions be the actions of a nation."

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Bertha_Mason

"I was standing under the gallery and had sunk deep within myself, enjoying completely the despair I felt at being myself."
Mood.

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Bertha_Mason

"It was not too long after I heard the sound of the night guards' boots on the cobblestones; they were returning from their duty of guarding the governor's house, even though such a function, guarding the governor, was without meaning whatsoever, because who would harm the governor? I would, I could easily cut off his head, but they would only send another governor, and even I would grow tired of this, cutting off his head."

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Bertha_Mason
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Bertha_Mason
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Bertha_Mason

"Parts of my life, incidents in my life then, seem, when I remember them now, as if they were happening in a very small, dark place, a place the size of a dollhouse, and the dollhouse is at the bottom of a hole, and I am way up at the top of the hole, peering down into this little house, trying to make out exactly what it is that happened down there."

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Kayla.Adriena
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Book sale at Art in the Park!! And I'm having serious difficulty adding a sticker to a photo sheesh !

Crazeedi Sweet!!❣ 5y
30 likes1 comment
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Bertha_Mason

"The word "love" was spoken with such frequency that it became a clue to my seven-year-old heart and my seven-year-old mind that this thing did not exist."

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Bertha_Mason

"My mother died at the moment I was born, and so for my whole life there was nothing standing between myself and eternity; at my back was always a bleak, black wind."

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parasolofdoom
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Pickpick

Just finished listening to this -- the narration was EXCELLENT and really added to what was a great book already.

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parasolofdoom
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Picked this up on audio after Victor LaValle recommended it in that NYT article a couple weeks ago. The narrator is terrific and the book itself is compelling. About 40% in, wish I more listening time!

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/16/books/review/author-recommended-scary-books.h...

alisiakae I really like her book 6y
15 likes1 comment
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MsLeah8417
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I am looking forward to reading this one! The synopsis really piqued my interest😊📚 #jamaicakincaid

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GatheringBooks
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Oh Em Gee @readinginthedark , dear Hannah, thank you thank you for these lovely books!! The tea, bookmarks, and the card warm my heart even more. After a full day of troubleshooting at work and seemingly endless meetings and emails, this is a breath of fresh air and reminds me that life is still beautiful. Hahahhaa. Like, for serious. I‘ve said it before and will say it again: Book People are the Best People On Earth! 📚😍🧚🏼‍♀️😘👩🏻‍🏫

batsy What great gifts 🖤 Zami has been on my TBR for a long time. 6y
Cathythoughts Beautiful gifts ❤️❤️ 6y
RohitSawant How wonderful! 6y
See All 7 Comments
GatheringBooks @batsy ikr! 🧚🏼‍♀️📚😍 i loove litsy people!! 🤗😘😍 6y
GatheringBooks @Cathythoughts couldn‘t agree more! 😍🤗😘🧚🏼‍♀️ 6y
GatheringBooks @rohit-sawant book gifts are the best!! #bookmail #giveaways 😍🤗📚🧚🏼‍♀️ 6y
readinginthedark You are so welcome! I‘m glad that they arrived safely and made you smile! ❤️ 6y
74 likes7 comments
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LDuffN
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My library haul this week!!

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Emily.R
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The amazing Jamaica Kincaid. I admit, I fangirled. I read her book Autobiography of my mother as a teenager and loved it!