Praise for JAMAICA KINCAID’S

At the Bottom of the River

“Of a handful of internationally known West Indian writers, only Kincaid so precisely conveys the dual texture of the smaller islands: the translucent overlay of colonial British culture upon people and places so absolutely alien to England. Gently, she peels back the fragile tissues of religion, vocabulary and manners to expose the vibrant life beneath the imported, imposed customs.”

—Elaine Kendall, Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Jamaica Kincaid’s first book of short stories … plunges us into the strange, magical, shifting world of childhood in the West Indies … These pieces are … full of brilliant colors, magical symbols, secret feelings and tropical scenery.”

—Roxana Robinson, The Philadelphia Inquirer

“She is a consummate balancer of feeling and craft. She takes no short or long cuts, breathes no windy pomposities: she contents herself with being direct … So lush, composed, direct, odd, sharp, and brilliantly lit are Kincaid’s word paintings that the reader’s presuppositions are cut in two by her seemingly soft edges.”

—Jacqueline Austin, Voice Literary Supplement

“What Kincaid has to tell us, she tells, with her singsong style, in a series of images that are as sweet and mysterious as the secrets that children whisper in your ear.”

—Suzanne Freeman, Ms.