A Small Place
 | Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000, Paperback Customer Rating: 28 reviews Recommend |
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A brilliant look at colonialism and its effects in Antigua — by the author of Annie John
"If you go to Antigua as a tourist, this is what you will see. If you come by aeroplane, you will land at the V. C. Bird International Airport. Vere Cornwall (V. C.) Bird is the Prime Minister of Antigua. You may be the sort of tourist who would wonder why a Prime Minister would want an airport named after him — why not a school, why not a hospital, why not some great public monument. You are a tourist and you have not yet seen . . ."
So begins Jamaica Kincaid's expansive essay, which shows us what we have not yet seen of the ten-by-twelve-mile island in the British West Indies where she grew up.
Lyrical, sardonic, and forthright by turns, in a Swiftian mode, A Small Place cannot help but amplify our vision of one small place and all that it signifies.
Title: A Small Place
Sales Rank: 49481 in Books
Author: Jamaica Kincaid
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1st edition, 2000-04-28, Paperback, 96 pages, ISBN: 0374527075
Package Dimensions: 8 x 5.7 x 0.5 inches, 0.25 pounds
- Difficult read but truly necessary
- Ignore the reviews laden with the white liberal guilt or the white liberal defensiveness. This book is about a struggling country that needs the money from the west to survive, yet at its heart wishes the west would just take its rude tourists and away. As tourists we refuse to see that we've created a new form of economic imperialism… More reviews
- just mindless insults
- If you expect a well-reasoned and persuasive essay, look elsewhere. At best, this is the mindless rantings of somebody who's been through a lot and really needs to vent. The only thing she was able to persuade me by the end of the book was that I was an evil person.
The book is divided into several chapters. The format is fairly simple: in every… More reviews
- Kincaid's Mad as Hell, and She's Not Going to Take it Anymore
- Published in 1988 Kincaid's "A Small Place" is an unflinchingly angry portrayal of post-colonial, post-slavery life on the island of Antigua. To put it simply: Kincaid is as mad as hell, and she's not going to take it anymore. If you're white and can shelve your defensiveness for a moment this book is actually really enjoyable, it's written in first person and directed at "you," the British colonizer and/or… More reviews
- The lovely tourists
- I had to read this book for a Multicultural Literature class at my Uni, and, far from being informative, all it did was fill with me a contempt of my own. I am not a racist by any means, but when confronted with such a bitter, snide voice as the one Kincaid displays, I find myself unconsciously getting defensive. When she says, "you are a tourist; you are… More reviews
- A Small Mind Writes A Small Place
- A major failing of this essay, which claims to be non-fiction, is Kincaid's sole reliance on her own memories of Antigua. As an eye-witness, Kincaid has the chance to provide a unique perspective on the issues of slavery, corruption, tourism, colonialism, and SIDS (small island developing states). Yet, she ruins this chance, in my opinion, with her complete disregard of any perspective other than her own.… More reviews
