Annie John by Jamaica Kincaid is an absolute treasure of a book, even though the main character, Annie, was not always a 'little treasure'.
The narrator, Annie John, told the story of her childhood and teenage years during the 1950s in Antigua directly to the reader, starting with her misapprehension at the age of ten that only people who she didn't know died.
Annie was a very clever child who soon after the story began was sent to a new school, where she quickly made new friends and fell in love with another girl, Gwen, who she promised to love forever. Of course 'Annie + Gwen 4 eva' lasted about as long as most teenage crushes, and before long Annie fell in love with someone known as the grubby Red Girl, whose life seemed to be far more carefree to Annie than her own.
As a child Annie's mother loved Annie dearly and in return, Annie idolised her mother. Learning that she would have to eventually leave her parents home forever broke Annie's heart, but as she grew older, her relationship with her mother changed. Reading about Annie and her mother's constant pushing against each other and disliking each other and saying something polite and caring in front of others while secretly wishing the other dead was about as exhausting as actually having a rebellious teenage daughter.
Annie manipulated her peers just as easily as she did her mother. She wasn't always a likeable heroine, but she was certainly an honest one, and as such, completely believable.
Annie John is a very slim book, but it covers a lot of ground for anyone interested in mother-daughter relationships. I've never read anything set in the Caribbean before and found everything about the setting to be fascinating, from details about the John's family home to what they ate, the superstitions Annie's mother believed in and the family's relationships in their community. The writing is fabulous and deceptively simple.
Finding more books by Jamaica Kincaid is at the top of my wish list.
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