Rating: 
Summary: A novel of adolescent alienation and familial separation.
Review: Annie John tells the tale of a family's disintegration. Told from the perspective of Annie, 10 when the novel starts and in young adulthood by its end, the story revolves around Annie's transformation from an adoring, obedient child to rebellious, hardheaded outcast within her own home. It's a classic mother-daughter love-hate tale where balance is somehow lost and animosity and divisiveness come to rule the day.The story is rendered in a series of 8 chapters that effectively amount to a sequence of interrelated short stories each of which highlights and incident and/or event that stands as a critical turning point in the mother-daughter relationship. The story is set in Antigua. This, along with the prosaic quality of Annie's narrative voice, add an element of the exotic to the story. It also provides the basis for the inflexible social structure that locks the combatants into rigid stances from which, ultimately, they cannot extricate themselves. The book is well written and progresses in a stately and unrushed manner. It's not the sort of book you pick up and can't put down. In point of fact, I found I tended to put it down after every chapter-the short story effect lent itself to such a reading style and, as each chapter amounts to a major point in the story, that gave me a chance to assimilate and assess the story tot hat point. I found the book intellectually stimulating but I can easily see how someone not really gripped by the story could call this work boring, as quite a few previous reviewers have. On the whole I found it a unique and interesting reading experience that, in retrospect, ought to have been somewhat depressing, yet wasn't. On the whole, an intriguing book.
Rating:
Summary: Annie John Book Review
Review: After reading the book ANNIE JOHN, I was amazed at how different I thought the book was going to be. I liked the way that Kincaid went through this little girls life and took you along with her. In this coming of age book, you got in the characters head and knew her fears, thoughts, and curiositys. The life of this girl was so much different that anyone I know. It was very interesting to learn about another persons lifestyle and culture which had so many different aspects. This family also had very little money and had no technology in their life. The author really got you into this familys life. The book also focuses on the relationship between this little girl and her mother. Her mother affects a lot of the decisions the little girl makes in life. It also takes you through the relationships with her father and her peers at school. Overall, I thought the book made you appreciate what you have in life and also give you the reality of how people were living back in the past and a completly different country and community.
Rating: 
Summary: a timeless tale in a unique setting
Review: Annie John tells the tale of 10-year-old Annie John as she grows up in Antigua. She is her mother's only and her father's youngest child, and she recognizes this as she identifies herself within her household and the greater island society. (Her father never married any of the other children's mothers, nor does she ever really see her half-siblings -- a few of whom are older than her own mother.) As she matures, Annie senses her once very close relationship with her mother mutating in a direction which scares and saddens her: the love-hate relationship as one subconsciously prepares for adulthood by holding the hand that holds one down. This context is the underlying basis of 8 beautifully written chapters of Annie's adolescence and ultimately her departure from the island. Tales include a forbidden friendship with a girl known simply as "The Red Girl"; playing marbles with the boys; the first day at a new school; a long illness. Kincaid brings forth the overwhelming emotions that envelope a young girl as she goes through these events and remind the reader that, even if such an event is in her long-forgotten past, they are very big deals indeed.
Rating:
Summary: The roller-coaster called adolescence
Review: I wish that Kincaid would have wrote the entire life of Ms. Annie John for us. This is the first book of Jamaica Kincaid's that I read---I love her simple, refreshing style. The emotions of Annie John are very real feeling---her ever-changing relationship with her mother. The feeling that you are being abandoned, just because you are growing. Things you felt that you were only experiencing, but they were happening to other children too. A clear look at being young.
Rating:
Summary: Delicate Daughters
Review: A very appealing book, written by Jamaica Kincaid. This book you will not put down easily. The little girl, Annie John, goes through so many mental changes, that you have compassion for her and her situation. Annie could not except the change, for herself as well the change of her mother. The two of them had shared wonderful times together and as she grew older at the age of becoming a young woman, it was hard for her to set her priorities straight, because her mother had shared so much with her. Annie's mother does not see what is happening within her, and she shows a lack of concern toward her, if it was there it is hidden, by the way she speaks to her, throwing such words as "slut." at her. Annie John, reflects some of the same startling views in her frame of thinking as do many youth today. If more mothers would read this novel, they may see the delicate emotions of their own daughters.
Rating:
Summary: Life To Be
Review: Jamaica Kincaid portrays a dynamic relationship between a mother and a daughter in the novel Annie John. Kincaid travels through the childhood and adolescent years of Annie. From bathing and dressing like her mother to the sudden change that causes Annie to rebel and grow a hatred for the same women she once loved so dearly. This meaningful book will force you to travel back through your own childhood days as well as memories. After completing Annie John you will see why Kincaid was selected as one of three finalists for the 1985 international Ritz Paris Hemmingway award (Voices From The Gaps 2). Jamaica Kincaid uses this powerful novel to portray her own childhood in Antigua. You can clearly see Annie is an autobiographical fiction character living the life very similiar to the one Kincaid once lived.
Rating:
Summary: A Precis of "Annie John"
Review: Jamaica Kincaid is a female Caribbean author who has written a novel that deals with the pressures of a young girl growing up. Annie John, written by Jamaica Kincaid, is a short descriptive novel that follows the course of a young Caribbean girl growing up on the island of Antigua. In Annie John Kincaid keeps the reader's attention by constantly going in directions that are reminiscent of a person's childhood.
Annie, the main character of Annie John, must deal with the day in and day out problems of growing up. She must face such dilemmas as fitting into a new school. Kincaid makes the reader remember the first day that they attended a new school with phrases like, "On opening day, I walked to my new school alone" (34). How many of us can remember the fears that we faced on the first day in which we attended a new school? One of these fears had to be entering into this new world all alone. As Annie conquers life's obstacles, she becomes more confident in most of her actions. The one thing that Annie cannot seem to conquer is her relationship with her mother. How powerfully Kincaid draws on the readers memory of there own dealings of growing up. It sometimes feels as if the whole world is against them. One of the biggest struggles of growing up on the island of Antigua for Annie is dealing with her heritage. Annie really has no idea of where her family history began, just where her family lives. Annie held a terrible resentment towards the people that had conquered her homeland. She finds personnel satisfaction in looking at a picture of Christopher Columbus in chains and "...wrote under it the words 'The Great Man Can No Longer Just Get Up and Go'"(78). Annie further demonstrates this resentment in the hatred that she has towards the British girls that attend her school. Derek Walcott explains: "Annie's childhood is suffused with doting attention from her elders; her passage to adolescence is fraught with events and alliances that lead her away from complacent mutual acceptance" (Walcott). Annie is an interesting character that gives a perfect insight into what it was like growing up on the Caribbean island of Antigua. In Annie John Kincaid does a splendid job of bringing the characters and setting to life. The readers' imagination is drawn into the world in which the story is set. Kincaid has a way of making the small island town in which Annie lives seem as if it alive and evolving still today. Works Cited Kincaid, Jamaica. Annie John. Toronto: Collins
Publishers, 1988.
Walcott, Derek. Book jacket. Annie John. By Jamaica Kincaid. Toronto: Collins Publishers, 1988. Book jacket.
Rating: 
Summary: Where The Motherly Instinct Comes From
Review: Kincaid does a great job of expressing a young girls jouney into her women hood. The book also talks a lot about how Annie John recieves all of her independece and motherly instinct. Kincaid tells the story of Annie John in such a way you could almost think that it is kincaid herself telling her childhood stories. The character is strong, determined and is a very intellegent women. Kincaid does a fantastic job of showing how a daughter is just like her mother while she grows up and when she grows up. These elements along with the ease at which this story can be read makes it great for all ages to read. The story also lets you analyze the many themes and magic that the carribean island posses.
Rating:
Summary: Annie John
Review: This was one of the strangest books I have ever read. The girl Annie is the most complex person I have ever encountered while reading a book. This book describes the feelings and emotions of a young girl as she is growing up and is going through "younglady" trip to adulthood. Its pretty intreasting, although I'm not very sure of the ultimate meaning, but give it a try you won't be sorry.
Rating: 
Summary: The most boring book in the history of boring books.
Review: Jamaica Kincaid's piece of garbage Annie John is by far the most boring book that I have ever read in my entire life. Kincaid's writing would make for an interesting read, if she were to actually have the characters do things in this novel instead of whine and moan. Here is a summary of everything that happens in this novel: Annie John whines for 150 pages and then the book ends. Annie, the protagonist, is probably the most whiniest character I have ever had the displeasure of reading about. Books like this make me wonder if being literate is actually a good thing.
| 
