Stephanie Jane reviewed A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid
Justified anger
4 stars
I wasn't prepared for the vitriolic anger of Kincaid's short book, A Small Place, or the sense of guilt on behalf of my country that it would engender. Antigua is one of many nations completely altered by a British empire presence and, as we learn from Kincaid, her people are still suffering the effects decades after their supposed independence. As readers of this essay we are taken on a tour of Antigua and are shown both the obvious tourists sites and the ruined unequal society hidden behind beautiful beaches. The perpetually under-repaired library is a particularly effective metaphor. Kincaid contrasts Antiguan life for rich white and Middle Eastern immigrants against that of black Antiguans who are still unable to escape their slave and servant heritage regardless of how hard they may work. A Small Place is a powerful indictment of Empire and would be useful reading for present-day Brexiteers who …
I wasn't prepared for the vitriolic anger of Kincaid's short book, A Small Place, or the sense of guilt on behalf of my country that it would engender. Antigua is one of many nations completely altered by a British empire presence and, as we learn from Kincaid, her people are still suffering the effects decades after their supposed independence. As readers of this essay we are taken on a tour of Antigua and are shown both the obvious tourists sites and the ruined unequal society hidden behind beautiful beaches. The perpetually under-repaired library is a particularly effective metaphor. Kincaid contrasts Antiguan life for rich white and Middle Eastern immigrants against that of black Antiguans who are still unable to escape their slave and servant heritage regardless of how hard they may work. A Small Place is a powerful indictment of Empire and would be useful reading for present-day Brexiteers who seem to believe that Britain's greedy, selfish past is an era to which we should return.