At the Bottom of the River

Kincaid is not someone I read a lot; multiple students in my publication workshop this past spring listed her as a favorite author and it occurred to me then that I had not read anything of hers in a good 20 years. But sometimes I do like to challenge myself, so I thought I'd go back to her classic.

This is the shortest book I've read this week but it has taken me the longest to read; I've dipped in and out of it all day. It's not the kind of book I can feast on all at once, in a single sitting. I have to sit with it and chew on the pieces. The publisher calls them "stories" but they are more like prose-shaped poems, memories of variable cohesiveness. I'm more literal-minded than I should be, for an English professor, and I crave show more narrative like a comforting narcotic. Kincaid sometimes allows me to find the story in the gaps but just as often forces me to go without.

Even in those moments, though, I appreciate the wash of her language, like the sentences are giving my brain a good and useful scrub. Sometimes I have to stop reading and just see, in my mind's eye, the most vivid images that she spins out of the minutia of everyday existence, like with "the skin of an orange -- removed as if it had been a decorous and much-valued belt" which I thought about for a lot longer than one might expect.

It's not every afternoon that I ponder an orange. But some books make you look at the world in a different way than you've been used to, which is a good thing to do, and this is one of those books. show less

Beautiful short stories that have a dream-like quality to them. Mostly an exploration of mother-daughter relationships and relations to home. Kincaid's writing where every punctuation and word are part of the intricate work is wonderful discovery. Strange how reading her feels like sighing, that sigh after a nice cold drink on a hot day. In admiration of how she is able to achieve so much with such few words.

.75 stars because this improved and wasn't insufferable toward the end.

i really, really don't like her writing. she does a weird repetition thing that just doesn't work at all for me. and long (like pages long) sentences sometimes. it all feels like a mess, and is so uneven and frustrating to read. i think i actually hate it.

which is why the story what have i been doing lately surprised me - it was the same structure and repetition, but used to much better effect. i still wasn't a fan of the writing per say, but she twisted it a bit, which was both a nice change and an unexpected thing for her to do. so i did kind of enjoy that story. and the last, the title story, at the bottom of the river also was nice.

i tried to go into each story show more with an open mind, so did find those two to be alright, or even enjoyable, but the others, each time, just frustrated me with the language and the writing. i won't give kincaid more than one more shot before i give up on her. show less

Some really gorgeous writing--Kincaid writes in particular about setting in ways that are gorgeous and haunting, and really disorient you in the best of ways. I think I would need to reread this again just to really get a sense of the writing, and really be able to let myself go and enjoy it to a deeper degree. But I really did enjoy it, and I think it's pretty accessible so could also be useful for the classroom for younger people.

The eponymous story was the one that I enjoyed the most. The feeling of rapturous study of the light hitting and revealing the bottom of the river, the absorption and ecstasy of seeing another world and losing oneself in the deep contemplative observation was moving. There was less story in the stories than I was in the mood for, but that last one spoke to me.

At the bottom of the river by Jamaica Kincaid is a colourful and poetic evocation of the Caribbean. The prose has a thoroughly poetic quality. Rhythmic repetition of sentence patterns and words hints at the rhythms of life, short sentences at a relative simplicity. Beauty is enhanced by detail-rich descriptions of people and the surrounding natural world.

With this work Kincaid completely lives up to her reputation. The book gave me exactly the reading pleasure I was hoping to find.

Short stories that read like poetry. Trance-like, dream-like. Very unique voice.