A Small Place

Who am I to critique the assessment of someone who was born and raised in a place, and then chooses to write about the place? Who am I to determine whether their love of that place, and their anger towards anyone remotely resembling the people who corrupted it, is warranted? Jamaica Kincaid has written at once a love letter to her homeland, Antigua, and a stinging rebuke to all who trespass upon it. The anger is palpable, as is the feeling that Kincaid still holds her country and its people near and dear to her heart. Antigua is a small island, colonized during the rise of the Great British Empire and now once again independent but not free from corrupt rulers. Kincaid's anger at the colonization and the devastation it wrought upon the land and the culture and the people to this day are center stage in A Small Place. Second to that is her description of a paradise island that is irresistible to all who encounter it. She drives home her point with eloquence; one can not really argue the facts as she presents them. The essay is effective - I felt rebuked, I felt uncomfortable, and I felt as if she were unveiling an obvious truth that is easier to ignore than to acknowledge. Tourists visit Antigua every day and its unlikely that they stop to consider the perspective from which Kincaid approaches her description of Antigua - or its people, or its visitors. A corrupt government replaced empirical rule and Kincaid laments that the island will never realize its potential as a free nation, a beautiful paradise, or a place of refuge for its people. Still, the author clearly appreciates the place of her birth, and still lovingly regards it with compassion and perhaps even hope.

This is such a beautiful and heartbreaking read. The situation in Antigua is much reminiscent of my homeland today. I like the anger expressed here, very often we aren't supposed to express anger about our exploitation, oppression, and dehumanization. We are supposed to express our pain and heartbreak rationally and logically so our oppressors don't have an excuse to heap more exploitation and dehumanization on us. A small place is very logically angry, very easy to read and beautifully written. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more of Kincaid's books.

This was a wonderful book. Antigua is a very "Small Place" but it really looks at the big picture and illustrates colonialism and neocolonialism as it happened all around the world. A really heartbreaking portrait of the island of Antigua.

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 the fat white tourist. Kincaid's sense of humor is wonderfully dark, and there are a lot of moments of humor if you keep an open mind. Still, at the heart of the matter is the story of Antigua's decay, left to rot by the British colonizers, with a population that doesn't vote openly corrupt officials out of office. She openly points out the irony of the celebration of emancipation alongside the valorization of the Hotel Training School, which teaches the residents of the island to be servants. In the end Kincaid concludes that no one is to blame, that after slavery the masters are no longer evil and the slaves are no longer "noble," but that everyone is merely human. She problematizes the matter, but offers no solutions, which might irritate those concrete sequentials among us. Also, she refers to Columbus, and the explorers in general, so adored in American culture, as "human rubbish" on multiple occasions. You might not agree with Kincaid, but this is one topic someone should be angry about, and her unapologetic narrative is about as honest as you can get.

Antigua, an awe-inspiring vacation spot for Europeans and North Americans, takes on a different aura when discussed by native Jamaica Kincaid. Ms. Kincaid describes how the Antiguans feel about the tourists who visit: ugly people. Ugly because they invaded, then brought slaves to work for them so they could become rich while ignoring the needs of those who made them wealthy. Ugly because of what they've done to the island and the people who live there. Jamaica talks about the corrupt government and the hand that North Americans, British, Syrians and Lebanese play in that corruption. She describes how England paved the roads the Queen of England would travel when she visited, but left everything else in poor condition. Ms. Kincaid also mentions the drug dealers that the government ignores and those who build ugly condos for the wealthy and rent business space to the government who should be building their own space. In a very few pages, Jamaica Kincaid says what a lot of former slaves would like to say but are perhaps too politically correct to utter. She does the job for us. Ms. Kincaid does not mince her words when it comes to what the British Empire did to the people of Antigua and the world for that matter. Frequently, I found myself wanting to stand up and cheer as I read her words of disgust and anger. While Ms. Kincaid is specifically speaking of Antigua, her words describe the slave trade and the destruction and poverty left in the wake of it no matter what country. It is well worth reading - more than once. Reviewed by alice Holman of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

Can't say enough about this book. . . She succintly and poignantly articulates the reality of developing nations with colonial legacies with priceless ardor, sadness and frustration.. A must for those who like to confront the consequences of history.

When we all visit from our safe, comfortable, clean northern usa cities, we should take a closer look at the caribbean to see what the government has done with tourism dollars. It is not being spent on their people or their needs. As we enjoy the sun, ocean, food, and, most importantly, the people, ask where the money we are donating to the economy goes and if we have a right to pollute their lovely island. We walk around in scantly clad clothes and take no notice of what the native people think of this. Their morals are much higher than ours. Tourism will continue to ruin all of the West Indies, we must question our own government's motives in supporting the Byrd family.