Annie John

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Summary: A Girl Created In Her Own Image: Jamaica Kincaid
Review: A young girl's relationship with her mother can be an intimate and trying experience.
In Annie John, Jamaica Kincaid relives intimate experiences and explicitly describes
"intense emotional bonds between mother and daughter" (Draper 1164). The novel takes place in the small town of Antigua, where the young girl, Annie John grows, learns and
experiences many different relationships. As Annie John goes through childhood into becoming a young adult, the reader grows and learns along with her. The reader gets a
feeling that Kincaid copied this novel from one of her journals as an adolescent. The feelings portrayed are so in tune with that of a young girl. Kincaid's relationships are so
believable and real because they directly parallel her own life at that age. Annie John first experiences a surreal, unbreakable bond with her mother. Kincaid uses unique dialect to illustrate their beautiful connection. When Annie John's mother begins to encourage her
to become her own person, Annie John feels her mother is pushing her away and begins to resent her for it. As Annie John begins to meet other girls her age she indulges into
new and more exciting relationships. As her new bonds become more prevalent the bond with her mother begins to fade. Annie John begins to question her mother's rules and
craves her own identity. This journey for her identity ultimately destroys their relationship and a hatred begins to fester. Annie John soon realizes that her small town of
Antigua is only holding her back, she decides to leave for England. Kincaid's imagery and storytelling is absolutely enticing. This story will teach a range of readers about the
sacred relationship between mothers and daughters. Kincaid makes the reader question or relive their own experiences. This semi-autobiographical work delivers an emotional
journey concerning the hardships of living in a post-colonial society while trying to establish your own identity separate from that of your mother.

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Summary: Inspirations of Love and Hate
Review: Jamaica Kincaid almost enchantingly expresses to her readers about what a girl can go through in her life while living on the island of Antigua. Her imaginative writing practically trains our minds to become a character in the book. She tells us exactly how a girl, in this case named Annie John, feels during the phases in her life. Extraordinarily, Kincaid even allows male readers to become empathetic towards a young girl growing up to develop into a woman. In the beginning of the story, Kincaid portrays Annie as the loving daughter who looked up to and admired her mother. To her, her mother was the most ravishing woman ever. Soon enough, as Annie grew to become an adolescent, things changed. Annie starts to consider her and her mother as almost rivals. It seems as if they are competing to see who can make the other person angrier. The frustration indulged in the characters in the story by Kincaid practically tells us that the trust that they had, has now sadly been affected. Annie assumes that since this miniature duel has already begun that she will not try to make peace and thus Kincaid tends to be descriptive with a not so predictive ending.

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Summary: wonderful book
Review: This is quite a book. I think some American readers might have some trouble reading the book (lack of dialogue, etc.) but give the book a chance and you'll be delighted by the end of the novel. The book has a sort of Proustian feel. The meandering, sinuous prose is something you rarely find in contemporary fiction. Some might not like this book (those who like books heavy with story or narrative), and that's okay. But if you like Edmund White or Marcel Proust, you must read this book!

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Summary: well done
Review: Annie John was a well written book, about a young girl who after being sheltered by her parents, suddenly becomes somewhat disconnected from them. It seems that as she enters puberty her relationship with her mother deteriorates. I believe that this is the fault of the mother who did things with her daughter that made her too attached, for example they often took baths together. When Annie's mother realises that she is becoming a woman she begins to treat her different and Annie feels as though she is alone in her own world without the love that she feared losing throughout her childhood. This causes her to develop a deep hatred for her mother whom she once loved so much. I cannot say that I relate to Annie however Jamaica Kincaid does such a wonderful job getting you actually feel the pain and happiness encountered ny the character.

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Summary: GO THROUGH PHASES
Review: THIS BOOK WAS VERY INTERESTING IT WAS FOOL OF LAFTER YOU SHOULD READ IT I DID MY SELF...

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Summary: Well-written?!
Review: I chose this book for my summer reading assignment simply because it is so short. But I wondered and wondered and couldn't find an answer to the question: why does is have so much acclaim??? It is like the diary of a girl with a dull life. It is NEVER exciting. It is EXTREMELY poorly-written, with no symbolism or great imagery or really anything at all. This is the typical "childhood problems" [stuff] they always make you read for school. I'd rather read something interesting or even funny over the summer. If I had an autobiography it'd be more fascinating than this. Besides, isn't the root word of "vacation" vacate, implying that summer is supposed to be empty and free of reading stuff like this? All that happens in this meaningless, plotless book is that Annie complains. She complains about hating her mother, hating the things that come along with growing up (HOW do they make her so miserable?), loving the other girls in her school (it IS an all-girl school and they don't really know about boys) and them loving her. The major events that happen are utterly stupid and make you wonder why this story was written. It's moderately intriguing as to why Annie is so obsessed with death and funerals. But the whole thing about winning marbles and her mother searching for the marbles she doesn't want Annie to have is just boring. This book isn't too time-consuming but is not worth reading.

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Summary: truthful and simply insightful
Review: i adore this book. we recently read it in my english class, and it rings incredibly true to me as an adolescent who has a lot in common with the protagonist, annie john. kincaid's writing is not overflowingly flowery and she tells her story in simple language, but the story is rich with passion, symbolism, and insight. i'm not a big fan of freud's theories, but, though this book is sometimes classified as 'psychoanalytic literature', kincaid retained my appreciation for her rendering of what could be seen as a "typical" mother-daughter relationship, keeping the story alive and taut and never trite. _annie john_ can be read as a statement on many different subjects and themes, including coming of age/adolescence, mother-daughter relationships, colonialism, tradition, education, the nature of love, and more.

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Summary: A Great Traditional Story of a Young Girl's Life
Review: Once you open this book and begin to read it's contents you are immediately swept away to be with a family trying to make it by in everyday life. The main character, Annie, whom you will be following through out the novel becomes your friend as you go where ever she shall go. You really feel the struggles of this young girl who is trying to find herself and grow into adult hood. The author, Kincaid, does an excellent job in making you feel like you are right there in the midst of everything going on in this young woman's life. It is almost as if she is really writing about her own life in her native land. From the growing pains of being an adolescent to making great friends that will influence her this book is wonderfuly written. I would definitly recommend reading the story of "Annie John".

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Summary: Ambivalent Love
Review: Jamaica Kincaid's book, Annie John, is a very touching, emotional story of a girl entering adolescence and how her relationship with her mother changes. It is almost an autobiographical work because the theme is parallel to Kincaid's own relationship with her mother as she was growing up in Antigua in the mid nineteen hundreds. As a young girl, Annie and her mother were very close and did everything together. They took baths together, shopped together, and even dressed alike. As Annie grows older, her mother starts treating her differently and is less affectionate with her. As a result, Annie begins to resent and hate her mother. Kincaid writes in such a way that the reader can relate to Annie and feel her pain. The sadness is evenly balanced by the amusing trouble the mischievous Annie gets herself into as she grows up. This heartfelt book will make you laugh and cry. This is a captivating story of a mother's love, the pains of growing up under British Colonial Rule, and the changes a girl goes through as she becomes a woman.

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Summary: A simple but complex little girl
Review: Annie John, a novel by Jamaica Kincaid, covers a young girl's coming of age, from the age of ten through the age of seventeen. Annie John is a very angry, confused young black girl growing up Antigua. Annie's mother encourages her to take on more responsibility as she grows older, but Annie fights her maturity. She wants to continue her early childhood relationship she has had with her mother. In Annie John, Kincaid takes the simple subject of a young girl's coming of age and turns it into a profound, sensitive novel. She effectively lets her audience have a bird's eye view of the changing relationship between a young girl and her mother and the turmoil related to these changes in roles. When the audience finishes reading Annie John, they are not only familiar with what it was like to grow up in Antigua, but they leave with the knowledge of the complexity of the mother-daughter relationship. Kincaid clearly tells us the advantages and disadvantages of life in Antigua and how most girls hold their mother in such a high esteem. Most novels are written either for men or women or girls or boys but this novel is interchangeable; any person of any age or gender can identify with the characters and their situations in this novel. Traditionally, Jamaica Kincaid writes about her life in Antigua; however, this book, although not autobiographical, is possibly a comparison of her life and the life of the character, Annie. Jamaica Kincaid, in Annie John, is able to effectively combine aspects of culture and history to illustrate the complexity of Annie John's relationship with her mother and how her relationship with her mother affected her relationships with others.