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Putting Myself Together: Writing 1974–
A collection of the inimitable writer's essays, from her early days at The Village Voice through her time at The New Yorker.
This collection of Jamaica Kincaid's nonfiction writings, from her early days at The New Yorker until now, amounts to a brilliant, hilarious, trenchant self-portrait of one of the most surprising and original writers we have.
From the classic "Autobiography of a Dress" to her original thinking about the meaning of the garden, Kincaid writes about the world as she finds it, with her own quizzical, rapier-sharp response to reality that always takes the reader in new, life-enhancing directions.
Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson in Antigua in 1949. She has always been herself. Putting Myself Together shows how this inimitable self-created mind and spirit, endowed with inimitable wit, humor, and fearlessness, has become one of our essential writers.
This collection of Jamaica Kincaid's nonfiction writings, from her early days at The New Yorker until now, amounts to a brilliant, hilarious, trenchant self-portrait of one of the most surprising and original writers we have.
From the classic "Autobiography of a Dress" to her original thinking about the meaning of the garden, Kincaid writes about the world as she finds it, with her own quizzical, rapier-sharp response to reality that always takes the reader in new, life-enhancing directions.
Jamaica Kincaid was born Elaine Potter Richardson in Antigua in 1949. She has always been herself. Putting Myself Together shows how this inimitable self-created mind and spirit, endowed with inimitable wit, humor, and fearlessness, has become one of our essential writers.
- GenresEssaysNonfiction
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2025
42 people are currently reading
777 people want to read
About the author
Jamaica Kincaid
81 books1,820 followersJamaica Kincaid is an Antiguan-American novelist, essayist, gardener, and gardening writer. She was born in St. John's, Antigua (part of the twin-island nation of Antigua and Barbuda). She lives in North Bennington, Vermont (in the United States), during the summers, and is Professor of African and African American Studies in Residence at Harvard University during the academic year.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 26, 2025
jamaica kincaid has long been regarded as an esteemed contemporary writer, and this collection of her works from 1974 up to the current decade is a testament to her indelible influence within the writing sphere.
kincaid is one of those essential authors whose works i read in passing when i was back in undergrad and still pursuing my bfa in creative writing. back then, “unapologetic” was the word that immediately came to mind at first encounter.
this collection only cements this impression, as kincaid makes a wide breadth of topics come alive with her dynamic wit and refreshing insight. with her unique voice, she finds a good balance between the tense, angry edge that is apt for discussing colonialism, the black identity, and women finding their footing in the world. she does so while carrying an intimate acknowledgement and desire for understanding that puts these collected works into more depth.
reading this left me with the feeling that i was being constantly challenged to be more present and reflect on how i see the world, especially as i grow older. and i think that’s a good hallmark of what effective essay writing is, at the end of the day—it pushes you to pay attention in ways you haven’t really been able to before.
i did enjoy this, even if some parts tend to drag on (mostly the latter ones, where kincaid was writing for architectural digest and in her mellowed out garden writing, which is totally a personal preference), and i recommend it to anyone looking to get acquainted with jamaica kincaid’s works.
thank you again to netgalley and fsg for sending me an ARC for this!
kincaid is one of those essential authors whose works i read in passing when i was back in undergrad and still pursuing my bfa in creative writing. back then, “unapologetic” was the word that immediately came to mind at first encounter.
this collection only cements this impression, as kincaid makes a wide breadth of topics come alive with her dynamic wit and refreshing insight. with her unique voice, she finds a good balance between the tense, angry edge that is apt for discussing colonialism, the black identity, and women finding their footing in the world. she does so while carrying an intimate acknowledgement and desire for understanding that puts these collected works into more depth.
reading this left me with the feeling that i was being constantly challenged to be more present and reflect on how i see the world, especially as i grow older. and i think that’s a good hallmark of what effective essay writing is, at the end of the day—it pushes you to pay attention in ways you haven’t really been able to before.
i did enjoy this, even if some parts tend to drag on (mostly the latter ones, where kincaid was writing for architectural digest and in her mellowed out garden writing, which is totally a personal preference), and i recommend it to anyone looking to get acquainted with jamaica kincaid’s works.
thank you again to netgalley and fsg for sending me an ARC for this!
August 16, 2025
FSG pools together Kincaid’s (b. 1949) non-fic work, with the earliest published in 1974. Putting Myself Together covers the following topics: (1) the English colonizing Antigua, Kinkaid’s birth country, (2) American politics, race, and racism, focused from an African American perspective; (3) the transformation of Kincaid’s relationship with her mother, turning turbulent as Kincaid ages; and (4) gardening.
The essays are ordered by publication date and also generally by the sequence of the listed topics. As such, the pieces on politics will be dated; still, their value lies in Kincaid’s assessments, which consistently take on a polemical tone. On the one hand, on a content level, her political discussions in her earlier, critical works intrigued me more. On the other hand, I generally prefer a less abrasive approach, so the latter on horticulture appealed to me more. Naturally, given the piecing together of the author’s writings, readers will get to know her fraught relationship with her mom, if not in detail, then at least the shape of it. The repetition suggests that Kincaid’s mom’s existence truly influences “every action” and “completely infuses” Kincaid’s life.
To Gates’s (Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard) point in his wonderful introduction (which he reworks in the August 21st edition of The New York Review), Kincaid displays her voice in “an age of critical theory” and showcases her work of criticism alongside other black writers. We shouldn’t miss Kincaid’s contributions to African American literary history. I rate Putting Myself Together 3.5 stars.
My thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for an ARC.
The essays are ordered by publication date and also generally by the sequence of the listed topics. As such, the pieces on politics will be dated; still, their value lies in Kincaid’s assessments, which consistently take on a polemical tone. On the one hand, on a content level, her political discussions in her earlier, critical works intrigued me more. On the other hand, I generally prefer a less abrasive approach, so the latter on horticulture appealed to me more. Naturally, given the piecing together of the author’s writings, readers will get to know her fraught relationship with her mom, if not in detail, then at least the shape of it. The repetition suggests that Kincaid’s mom’s existence truly influences “every action” and “completely infuses” Kincaid’s life.
To Gates’s (Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and Director of the Hutchins Center for African & African American Research at Harvard) point in his wonderful introduction (which he reworks in the August 21st edition of The New York Review), Kincaid displays her voice in “an age of critical theory” and showcases her work of criticism alongside other black writers. We shouldn’t miss Kincaid’s contributions to African American literary history. I rate Putting Myself Together 3.5 stars.
My thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for an ARC.
August 24, 2025
Previously unacquainted with Kincaid, I don't think I am the right audience for this book. I did enjoy her writings about how it felt to be an Antiguan facing her history and the history of the island, especially that relating to Britain and British colonialism. Her essays cover so many important topics, including colonialism and post-colonial life, race, gender, parents, and pop culture. However, her writing style did not resonate with me and left me feeling reluctant to pick up the book a few times: as another reviewer wrote, some of the essays dragged.
Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC.
Thank you to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the ARC.
September 9, 2025
To my great shame I must admit I hadn't read anything by Jamaica Kincaid before this collection. I had heard of her, even had a book or two of hers on my To Read-List, and yet I hadn't gotten around to it. I don't know why, but when I saw this collection of her non-fiction writing, I figured it would be a great entry into Kincaid's mind and writing. And it was! Thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Not every fiction author is also a good non-fiction writer. Both non-fiction and fiction rely on a strong authorial voice, on the successful creation of a storyworld, and an ability to keep a reader hooked, but these elements can work in drastically different ways depending on the genre and the goal of the text. I have found it quite interesting to approach a fiction author through their non-fiction writing first, to see how they describe our primary world, what their thoughts are, and how they put those into words, before diving into their fictional writing. I did this with Ursula K. Le Guin as well, falling in love with her writing in No Time to Spare before finally reading The Left Hand of Darkness and The Word for World is Forest. I know that, in theory, the author is dead (as in, the author figure, see Roland Barthes), and usually I'm quite big on separating author and art. But sometimes the person and the life they have lived can enrich a reading experience, or perhaps add an extra layer of understanding to your reading. This is how I chose to approach Jamaica Kincaid as well, seeing our own world through her eyes first and then following her into her fictional creations.
There are too many pieces of writing in Putting Myself Together to even attempt a rough summary of it all. So rather, I'll address some of the recurrent themes which stood out to me. One was, very clearly, her connection to Antigua and Barbuda, where she was born and lived for the first seventeen years of her life. Her experiences under colonial rule, how the imposed British education system worked on her, how she loved so much about Antigua and about her family, and yet how desperate she was to get away, it all comes out very strongly in her writing and you can trace how these things change and develop for her across the decades covered by the writings collected here. This is also tightly connected to her relationship with her mother, which is marked by intense love and ever-growing distance and dislike. I admire Kincaid for her honesty in how she excavates these complicated feelings in herself, the push-and-pull of a mother-daughter relationship, complicated by the world, sons/brothers, and everything else. In the later writings, when her mother has dies and Kincaid has children of her own, there is a touching new awareness in her writing about it, which doesn't lessen what came before but rather gives its extra depth. Her experiences under colonialism also informs her writing about racism in its various forms and I did have to say I delighted somewhat cruelly in her strong distaste for England. Another major theme is her gardening, which naturally entails conversations not just of tulip types and the best time to plant and water, but also considerations on colonialism, who owns the earth, the joy of watching something grow, the patience and submission to nature required of gardening, and more. I discovered the joy of gardening myself a year or two back and so really enjoyed reading Kincaid's thoughts on it.
In his introduction to this volume, Henry Louis Gates Jr. writes that Kincaid "has a sense of what it takes to become a person, to put yourself together. Becoming is an act of invention, tested by the real". (Quote may differ in published version.) This ended up also being what stood out to me most clearly from Kincaid's writing. She communicates the way in which we are shaped by the outside world, yes, but also the way in which we can choose what we put on, how we put ourselves together, which things we accept and which we don't. That process of becoming is an invention, yes, but it is based on actual insights into the real world, on sharply dissecting not just the world but also one's self. Kincaid spares no one and nothing, including herself, in these pieces and I truly do think that it is only in this way that one can become as unflinchingly oneself the way Kincaid seems to have done. Naturally, with a collection that spans decades the way Putting Myself Together does, there are bound to be pieces that hit and those that don't. I imagine editing the collection would have been difficult, trying to find that fine line between showing growth and development and preventing repetition of themes. It is probably best to read this in various sittings, dropping in for a story or two and letting them cook, rather than reading it all in one or two goes. Whether you're already a Kincaid-reader or, like me, are new-ish to her, I can recommend Putting Myself Together for the insight not just into a person but into an author as well.
Putting Myself Together is a fascinating look inside Kincaid's mind, into how she sees the world and the way she and the world interacted to make her who she is.
URL: https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/...
Not every fiction author is also a good non-fiction writer. Both non-fiction and fiction rely on a strong authorial voice, on the successful creation of a storyworld, and an ability to keep a reader hooked, but these elements can work in drastically different ways depending on the genre and the goal of the text. I have found it quite interesting to approach a fiction author through their non-fiction writing first, to see how they describe our primary world, what their thoughts are, and how they put those into words, before diving into their fictional writing. I did this with Ursula K. Le Guin as well, falling in love with her writing in No Time to Spare before finally reading The Left Hand of Darkness and The Word for World is Forest. I know that, in theory, the author is dead (as in, the author figure, see Roland Barthes), and usually I'm quite big on separating author and art. But sometimes the person and the life they have lived can enrich a reading experience, or perhaps add an extra layer of understanding to your reading. This is how I chose to approach Jamaica Kincaid as well, seeing our own world through her eyes first and then following her into her fictional creations.
There are too many pieces of writing in Putting Myself Together to even attempt a rough summary of it all. So rather, I'll address some of the recurrent themes which stood out to me. One was, very clearly, her connection to Antigua and Barbuda, where she was born and lived for the first seventeen years of her life. Her experiences under colonial rule, how the imposed British education system worked on her, how she loved so much about Antigua and about her family, and yet how desperate she was to get away, it all comes out very strongly in her writing and you can trace how these things change and develop for her across the decades covered by the writings collected here. This is also tightly connected to her relationship with her mother, which is marked by intense love and ever-growing distance and dislike. I admire Kincaid for her honesty in how she excavates these complicated feelings in herself, the push-and-pull of a mother-daughter relationship, complicated by the world, sons/brothers, and everything else. In the later writings, when her mother has dies and Kincaid has children of her own, there is a touching new awareness in her writing about it, which doesn't lessen what came before but rather gives its extra depth. Her experiences under colonialism also informs her writing about racism in its various forms and I did have to say I delighted somewhat cruelly in her strong distaste for England. Another major theme is her gardening, which naturally entails conversations not just of tulip types and the best time to plant and water, but also considerations on colonialism, who owns the earth, the joy of watching something grow, the patience and submission to nature required of gardening, and more. I discovered the joy of gardening myself a year or two back and so really enjoyed reading Kincaid's thoughts on it.
In his introduction to this volume, Henry Louis Gates Jr. writes that Kincaid "has a sense of what it takes to become a person, to put yourself together. Becoming is an act of invention, tested by the real". (Quote may differ in published version.) This ended up also being what stood out to me most clearly from Kincaid's writing. She communicates the way in which we are shaped by the outside world, yes, but also the way in which we can choose what we put on, how we put ourselves together, which things we accept and which we don't. That process of becoming is an invention, yes, but it is based on actual insights into the real world, on sharply dissecting not just the world but also one's self. Kincaid spares no one and nothing, including herself, in these pieces and I truly do think that it is only in this way that one can become as unflinchingly oneself the way Kincaid seems to have done. Naturally, with a collection that spans decades the way Putting Myself Together does, there are bound to be pieces that hit and those that don't. I imagine editing the collection would have been difficult, trying to find that fine line between showing growth and development and preventing repetition of themes. It is probably best to read this in various sittings, dropping in for a story or two and letting them cook, rather than reading it all in one or two goes. Whether you're already a Kincaid-reader or, like me, are new-ish to her, I can recommend Putting Myself Together for the insight not just into a person but into an author as well.
Putting Myself Together is a fascinating look inside Kincaid's mind, into how she sees the world and the way she and the world interacted to make her who she is.
URL: https://universeinwords.blogspot.com/...
July 15, 2025
Jamaica Kincaid put together a collection of her finest essays from her early days at The Village Voice through her time at The New Yorker (1974-). The collection covers a range of topics such as race, pop culture, politics, her love of gardens, Antigua, her complicated relationship with her mother and her childhood upbringing. Her writing is raw, humorous, honest, and thought provoking. The vivid imagery of Antigua, her garden, flowers, Muhammad Ali and Pam Grier made me feel as is I was immersed in the setting. The first half of the collection is my favorite.
Some of the essays made the collection feel like a drag to read but I made it through to the end. As much as I love gardens and contrary to what Kincaid may say, you can definitely have too many books about gardening! I felt this way after the 3rd essay on the topic. Here’s a few of my favorite quotes:
“Even if I really came from people who were living like monkeys in trees, it was better to be that than what happened to me, what I became after I met you.” Conference Presentation: Jamaica Kincaid
“Words are superior to a picture because words make a picture; a picture is just by itself—it frustrates; it will remain itself no matter what you do, no matter what you say; it will only offer likenesses, comparisons.” Christmas Pictures From A Warm Climate
“What to do in a world like that with a man like that?” The Little Revenge from the Periphery
“…but then again, I am always thinking of my mother; I believe every action of a certain kind that I make is completely influenced by her, completely infused with her realness, her existence in my life.” The Estrangement
“it is evidence of the ignorance, the absence of moral knowledge and feeling, the realization once again that the people who lay claim to the “Enlightenment” needed enlightenment and that the rest of us were perfectly okay and that because of them we are in search of something that some of us already knew…” A Letter to Robinson Crusoe
Some of the essays made the collection feel like a drag to read but I made it through to the end. As much as I love gardens and contrary to what Kincaid may say, you can definitely have too many books about gardening! I felt this way after the 3rd essay on the topic. Here’s a few of my favorite quotes:
“Even if I really came from people who were living like monkeys in trees, it was better to be that than what happened to me, what I became after I met you.” Conference Presentation: Jamaica Kincaid
“Words are superior to a picture because words make a picture; a picture is just by itself—it frustrates; it will remain itself no matter what you do, no matter what you say; it will only offer likenesses, comparisons.” Christmas Pictures From A Warm Climate
“What to do in a world like that with a man like that?” The Little Revenge from the Periphery
“…but then again, I am always thinking of my mother; I believe every action of a certain kind that I make is completely influenced by her, completely infused with her realness, her existence in my life.” The Estrangement
“it is evidence of the ignorance, the absence of moral knowledge and feeling, the realization once again that the people who lay claim to the “Enlightenment” needed enlightenment and that the rest of us were perfectly okay and that because of them we are in search of something that some of us already knew…” A Letter to Robinson Crusoe
February 19, 2025
this book consist of deeply personal collection of nonfiction that showcases the evolution of one of today’s most original literary voices. spanning from her early days at The Village Voice to her refined work at The New Yorker, this collection offers a fascinating glimpse into Kincaid’s thoughts, experiences, and sharp perspective on the world. her writing is fearless—she never holds back. whether she’s recounting her Antiguan upbringing, dissecting colonialism, or finding deeper meaning in gardening, her prose is always insightful and unapologetically honest. she has an incredible way of making personal reflections feel universal, challenging readers to question power, identity, and history in ways they might not have before.
one of the most compelling things about poems is the author's distinct voice. she writes with wit, humor, and precision, effortlessly weaving the personal with the political. Her essays aren’t just thought-provoking—they’re alive with energy, refusing to conform to traditional expectations. her take on gardening, for instance, isn’t just about plants; it’s about colonization, control, and the ways history continues to shape the present. this collection also highlights the author's literary evolution, showing how her writing has deepened over the years while retaining its signature edge. fans of her fiction will appreciate the lyrical, sharp style, while newcomers will find this an exciting entry point into her work. It’s intimate yet unsentimental, critical yet full of depth.
this book is for anyone who loves essays that challenge and inspire. whether you’re a longtime Kincaid fan or discovering her for the first time, this collection is a testament to her brilliance, originality, and lasting influence in the literary world.
4 stars!
one of the most compelling things about poems is the author's distinct voice. she writes with wit, humor, and precision, effortlessly weaving the personal with the political. Her essays aren’t just thought-provoking—they’re alive with energy, refusing to conform to traditional expectations. her take on gardening, for instance, isn’t just about plants; it’s about colonization, control, and the ways history continues to shape the present. this collection also highlights the author's literary evolution, showing how her writing has deepened over the years while retaining its signature edge. fans of her fiction will appreciate the lyrical, sharp style, while newcomers will find this an exciting entry point into her work. It’s intimate yet unsentimental, critical yet full of depth.
this book is for anyone who loves essays that challenge and inspire. whether you’re a longtime Kincaid fan or discovering her for the first time, this collection is a testament to her brilliance, originality, and lasting influence in the literary world.
4 stars!
November 22, 2025
It’s always interesting to read a writer over time—their collected works over a period of their life—to see the changes in their thinking and what stays the same, to see their obsessions. In Kincaid’s work, that obsession, as I’m sure she’d admit too, is gardens. But it's fascinating to observe as well, in this collection, Kincaid’s development as an essayist, from her early musings on living alone in New York for the first time to her later pieces, a mother pondering her relationship with her own mother, a daughter losing her father, her mother.
I’ve always admired Kincaid’s incredible facility with language, how she plays with words—not in the form of puns, but in sentence construction, in the construction of her essays. There is much to learn here; and again, with this collection, you can watch her style evolve, her approach to telling the stories of her life—her reflections about home, her recollections of her complicated childhood—morph and change shape over the years. You can see, too, that this facility with words and structure was there from the very beginning, that she has only honed it over time. Along with that comes her droll, sometimes sharp humour, most often wielded against the coloniser, Britain. These are among my favourite essays.
But back to gardens. Kincaid teaches me that you can write about the same thing over and over, finding new ways to inquire into your preoccupation—just as an artist before a canvas does. She teaches me that words are brushstrokes, that practice doesn’t make perfect so much as it is in routine that one continuously finds new ways to explore and express, as one turns one’s eye within and without; that words are a tool, like a paintbrush and a box of paints, for the examined life.
Thank you to FSG and NetGalley for DRC access.
I’ve always admired Kincaid’s incredible facility with language, how she plays with words—not in the form of puns, but in sentence construction, in the construction of her essays. There is much to learn here; and again, with this collection, you can watch her style evolve, her approach to telling the stories of her life—her reflections about home, her recollections of her complicated childhood—morph and change shape over the years. You can see, too, that this facility with words and structure was there from the very beginning, that she has only honed it over time. Along with that comes her droll, sometimes sharp humour, most often wielded against the coloniser, Britain. These are among my favourite essays.
But back to gardens. Kincaid teaches me that you can write about the same thing over and over, finding new ways to inquire into your preoccupation—just as an artist before a canvas does. She teaches me that words are brushstrokes, that practice doesn’t make perfect so much as it is in routine that one continuously finds new ways to explore and express, as one turns one’s eye within and without; that words are a tool, like a paintbrush and a box of paints, for the examined life.
Thank you to FSG and NetGalley for DRC access.
December 13, 2025
I have a passing familiarity with Jamaica Kincaid so I jumped at the chance to read wide-ranging essays of hers gathered together in PUTTING MYSELF TOGETHER.
We are given insights into her childhood, her family dynamics, and her great love of tending gardens: “For years I have been making a garden and unmaking it too. It isn’t out of dissatisfaction that I do and undo, it is out of curiosity.”
I found two of her final essays particularly impactful (one on current events, one tying in the origins of her love of gardens and gardening). There was something lifegiving about reading much of this book over the summer, as Kincaid made me more appreciative of the moments I found myself walking outside, noticing what I might otherwise have overlooked.
(Thank you to Farrar, Straus & Giroux for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.)
We are given insights into her childhood, her family dynamics, and her great love of tending gardens: “For years I have been making a garden and unmaking it too. It isn’t out of dissatisfaction that I do and undo, it is out of curiosity.”
I found two of her final essays particularly impactful (one on current events, one tying in the origins of her love of gardens and gardening). There was something lifegiving about reading much of this book over the summer, as Kincaid made me more appreciative of the moments I found myself walking outside, noticing what I might otherwise have overlooked.
(Thank you to Farrar, Straus & Giroux for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.)
August 31, 2025
*arc accessed through netgalley.
i adore kincaid's voice, tone and style. it's that much more distinct in her essays than in the one work of fiction i read by her (so far), lucy. anger, playfulness, experimentation, this essay collection has a wide range. quite naturally, considering the time span between the texts. i happen to appreciate the earlier essays more. the second half of the book is filled with mostly garden/gardening related essays and it got a little boring to me. most of them are quite short though, so it's not too bad. the essays on her home country, family and colonization i devoured. i wanted to read longer texts on these subjects from her, which only goes to prove how much i need to read more of her books!
i adore kincaid's voice, tone and style. it's that much more distinct in her essays than in the one work of fiction i read by her (so far), lucy. anger, playfulness, experimentation, this essay collection has a wide range. quite naturally, considering the time span between the texts. i happen to appreciate the earlier essays more. the second half of the book is filled with mostly garden/gardening related essays and it got a little boring to me. most of them are quite short though, so it's not too bad. the essays on her home country, family and colonization i devoured. i wanted to read longer texts on these subjects from her, which only goes to prove how much i need to read more of her books!
October 28, 2025
3
I have not read a collection of one writer's mainly nonfiction works over such a long period of time (50 years). It reminds me of talking with a long time friend or family member, and overtime you learn more and more lore and changes in perspectives over time. From that angle, I enjoyed this collection. That being said, several times throughout the collection I sped through it because I was not overly interested.
Favorite Writings:
Pam Grier
Jamaica Kincaid's New York
Athol Fugard
Biography of a Dress
An Antiguan Election Journal
Introduction to Generations of Women
Sowers and Reapers
The Estrangement
Lack, Part Two
A Letter to Robinson Crusoe
The Disturbances of the Garden
I have not read a collection of one writer's mainly nonfiction works over such a long period of time (50 years). It reminds me of talking with a long time friend or family member, and overtime you learn more and more lore and changes in perspectives over time. From that angle, I enjoyed this collection. That being said, several times throughout the collection I sped through it because I was not overly interested.
Favorite Writings:
Pam Grier
Jamaica Kincaid's New York
Athol Fugard
Biography of a Dress
An Antiguan Election Journal
Introduction to Generations of Women
Sowers and Reapers
The Estrangement
Lack, Part Two
A Letter to Robinson Crusoe
The Disturbances of the Garden
April 14, 2025
Very unique voice. Funny and honest. Whether she’s writing about her childhood, colonialism, or gardening, her words cut straight to the core.
Reading this felt like a great conversation with someone so much smarter than me. Having only read her work in the New Yorker, this was a great entry point. Reminds me what good nonfiction can do—move us, challenge us, and change how we see the world.
Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for sending me an ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own!
Reading this felt like a great conversation with someone so much smarter than me. Having only read her work in the New Yorker, this was a great entry point. Reminds me what good nonfiction can do—move us, challenge us, and change how we see the world.
Thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux and NetGalley for sending me an ARC of this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own!
August 3, 2025
ARC REVIEW
This collection of essays were so thought provoking and uniquely written. I laughed and also felt profound sadness and gratitude. The way Kincaid writes is so descriptive and full of imagery. This is my first time reading Kincaid’s writing and I can’t wait to read more of her work. She’s clearly a literary genius.
Thank you to the publishers for the opportunity of reading this book as an E-arc <3
This collection of essays were so thought provoking and uniquely written. I laughed and also felt profound sadness and gratitude. The way Kincaid writes is so descriptive and full of imagery. This is my first time reading Kincaid’s writing and I can’t wait to read more of her work. She’s clearly a literary genius.
Thank you to the publishers for the opportunity of reading this book as an E-arc <3
June 15, 2025
I have not previously read any Jamaica Kincaid but after reading this collection I have added several of her other books onto my reading list.
A varied collection of topics covered over a long expanse of time (1974-2020), really insightful takes, had me shaking my head, laughing and nodding along, sometimes within the same essay
A varied collection of topics covered over a long expanse of time (1974-2020), really insightful takes, had me shaking my head, laughing and nodding along, sometimes within the same essay
October 17, 2025
This is the first Jamaica Kincaid book that I have read and it won't be the last. A collection of sharp (sometimes cutting) and thoughtful essays reflecting on (among several other things) a Caribbean childhood, mother-daughter relationships, immigration, and gardening.
Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, Giroux for the ARC.
Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus, Giroux for the ARC.
October 7, 2025
Love Jamaica Kincaid’s writing style as always and appreciated the sampling of work over the years. Found it hard to get into the intros she wrote for books I’m not about to read, but a worthwhile book all the same.
November 24, 2025
I found the rambly parts super interesting and fun to read. But the intros were a bit difficult to get through knowing that that was all I was gonna read about it. But I guess I see how significant they are in presenting her range and growth throughout her works. Took me a while to get through and made me realize short stories simply require more effort from me to read…
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