Rating: 
Summary: My Brother
Review: "My Brother" by Jamaica Kincaid is one of the most unusual books I have ever read. It is moving, inspiring, depressing, emotional yet confusing all at the same time. The book is about a sister's journey as she helps her brother fight against AIDS to stay alive. It gives many explicit details that are disturbing. She paints a picture that can only be told by the one who experienced it first hand. In addition to the morbid mood of the book, the author has too many thoughts that she tries to fit into just one sentence. This form of writing can be hard to follow and actually trying to follow the storyline can be a distraction from the main focus of the book.
Jamaica Kincaid's novel is depressing and morbid in numerous ways. The setting of "My Brother" is mainly taking place in Antigua. There are no hospitals with the proper medications. In addition to the setting, the author's family affairs are an example of depression. Her family was extremely dysfunctional and unsociable. They had conflicts over meaningless situations and never resolved them. This family needed a psychiatrist to assist them with their many conflicts. Another example of depression in "My Brother" is the entire theme of a brother with no loving family and friends who is dying of AIDS, due to his own carelessness. On page 99-100, it shows how Jamaica's family is not affected in the least that Devon has just died. The one last main theme of depression is the relationship between Devon, the man with AIDS, and his mother. They never got along, which was very sad because Devon was dying and his mother didn't seem to care. She didn't do anything to try to help save him. It was Jamaica's help that gave her brother many extra days, perhaps years, of life.
"My Brother" was also a very confusing book. Reading it takes the complete focus of the one who is reading it in order to actually follow the story line. Many of the sentences are three or four thoughts combined into just one sentence. The book has a great number of sentences that are nearly half a page long. For example, on page 101 and 131, one of the sentences is nearly three quarters of the page. There are a great deal of commas, semi colons, and a few parenthesis in these sentences. With all of those elements, reading and actually comprehending the book can be very tough. Also, the author constantly bounces back from the present time to past experiences, which greatly contributes to the confusion.
My final opinion of this book is that it is very inspirational and moving. If one is close to someone with AIDS, they would find this book very enjoyable and interesting. Jamaica mentions many times that she doesn't love, never has loved and never will love her brother, yet she still goes way beyond her duties to care for her brother. After reading "My Brother" there are many instances where Jamaica is much like a true hero. By supporting her brother, Jamaica became a hero to herself and to Devon. The book is inspiring because it encourages anyone who reads the book to love their family and not take them for granted. "My Brother" is a moving book because throughout it, one learns of the struggles the entire family went through. Devon's critical conditions, however, did not bring the family any closer together. An example of a struggle the author told of was a time when her mother disapproved of something one of her other children did, and she began to throw stones at him. Her son then threw his mother to the ground and broke her neck (pg. 189). That experience the author described really stuck out because it sounded so unreasonable.
"My Brother" is a novel that one would not consider to be easy reading, not just because the style of writing was confusing, but because it was not a happy story. After reading this book, one would feel bad for Jamaica's family, yet inspired by her words. The book was hard reading, mainly because it was done in an unusual type of writing. It was also very depressing and had a definite morbid feel to it, yet it was extremely inspirational. It encourages those who read it to love your family while they're still there for you.
Rating: 
Summary: Critical acclaim for MY BROTHER
Review: "Brilliant writing and thinking. . . MY BROTHER. . . is about life and death. It's about how economic and emotional poverty corrode the body and the soul. It's about the sticky tentacles that tie brothers to sisters, mothers to daughters, adults to their childhoods, people to where they come from--no matter how far they stray, no matter how desperately they try to escape." --Meredith Maran, San Francisco Chronicle Book Review"MY BROTHER approaches perfection in its controlled prose and detached elegance, with new layers of detail revealed with each recounting of a memory." --Giselle Anatol, Philadelphia Inquirer "Kincaid's prose is, as always, meticulous--the emotions scalding, the declarations harsh. But she triumphs here by transforming tortured memory into emancipating elegy." --Nick Charles, People "Kincaid's prose is so direct, so honest, so searing, so searching that these concise 198 pages demand to be read in one breathtaking sitting." --Jocelyn McClurg, The Burlington Free Press "A narrative of raw, unmediated emotion, this story settles over the reader like a storm. After MY BROTHER, everything looks different." --Julie Hale, The Virginian-Pilot "Kincaid has pulled out all the stops. . . A book whose painful memories meander, then jar the senses like a rattlesnake's tail." --Paula L. Woods, Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rating: 
Summary: Even Entertainment Weekly Liked It
Review: Every week I flip through the book section of Entertainment Weekly mostly to see what's new. Those reviews are vicious they rarely have a good thing to say. In the past they have given terrible marks to some of my favorite books. So I was amazed to see they had rated this book an A-. I immediately put down the magazine and picked up a copy of MY BROTHER. I was not disappointed. Kincaid is a brilliant writer. Her prose is tight, short, succinct, clear and to the point. In less than 200 pages she says what other writers might have taken twice that much space to convey. Her writing is enjoyable to read even when she is writing about unpleasant subject matter. She has a keen insight into the events in her life and her relationships with other people. To dismiss this as merely an "aids memoir" is to overlook the main theme in the book which primarily deals with the relationship of the author and her biological family and the life she's left behind in another country along with them. Along the way Kincaid asks many intriguing questions, (although she does not always answer them). Why do parents do and say such cruel things to their children? Why do parents sometimes see these acts and statements as loving acts for the child's benefit? Why does one child from the same household grow up to be "good" and the other "bad"? Why do the parents sometimes love the "bad" child more than the "good" child? Why do we as adults continue to have contact with our parents and siblings even though we despise some of their past acts and continuing "bad" behaviors? If you have relatives that you love and hate at the same time (and perhaps think you're unique in this aspect) you owe it to yourself to read this book. The aids aspect is only a backdrop for a mesmerizing look at family relationships and what makes people tick and act the way they do in those relationships.
Rating:
Summary: A Dark Jewel of a Book
Review: A dark jewel of a book, a monstrous little book is this one by Jamaica Kincaid. Not only is it a mesmerizing incantation delineating the details of her brother's death from AIDS, but it also shines a light on the sometimes tenuous relationship she has had with her overbearing mother. The prose style is so spare and so haunting that it reminds one immediately of the works of Marguerite Duras and Annie Ernaux. An excellent, excellent book!
Rating: 
Summary: I was looking forward to this book, but was disappointed.
Review: After reading this book I couldn't come up with a good reason for praising it. It seemed repetitive and left me questioning whether this book was about the author's brother, or the author and her mother. I felt vey little connection with anyone except the doctor who treated her brother. What an example of human kindness and compassion!
Rating: 
Summary: Enticed me to read more by Kincaid
Review: Although I have only rated this book a 6 it introduced me to Kincaid and I have now orderd more of her work and am looking forward to reading it soon. I liked much of the book, particularly her stream-of-conscious run-on sentences that made me feel I was seeing her mind working spontaneously. I liked the few real conversations she had with her brother and the way she found out he was really gay. What I didn't like was the feeling that one needed to read her earlier material to really understand what she was talking about. Clearly she has big problems with this mother of hers but, despite a few examples of bad mothering here and there, there is nothing in the book to show her mother as being much worse than many mothers. One can tell from Kincaid's obvious and written pain that her Mom must have been inordinately abusive but it is not in this book. We must trust the author that the abuse occurred or Kincaid is a major whiner spending way too much time feeling sorry for herself. I chose to believe the abuse occurred and will read her earlier works to find out. Again, I was impressed by this book enough to want to explore other of Kincaid's writing but as a stand alone book I can see no reason it was nominated for a non-fiction National Book Award this year 1997. The book feels like a hurriedly dashed off exercise any author might do to begin work but not a fully fleshed out completed version - a beginning of a book. I wanted much more.
Rating:
Summary: The book is very intresting.
Review: Although the topic Jamaica Kincaid's book isn't my favorite,I will recomend it to my friends.
Rating: 
Summary: Just what we need: Another weepy AIDS-death memoir
Review: An utter waste of paper and ink. In this memoir-as-genre age, these kinds of books have become the last word in banality.
Rating:
Summary: My Brother
Review: English Charlotte Wood
Book Review 1/4/02 The biography My Brother written by Jamaica Kincaid describes a heroic womens
life growing up in a poor household and a very difficult family situation. Jamaica possesses
nearly opposite qualities as the hero of the book The Odyssey. In mythology literature a
hero is strong, takes revenge, is powerful and has beauty. In todays society and also in
My Brother a hero is a person who helps others and is a positive role model.
The story is told by Jamaica herself, in first person. When her brother is diagnosed
with the HIV virus she is quickly reunited with her family and her past. A past that she left
behind at age 16. She travels back to her home in Antigua. There she finds her mother. A
women who she respected but did not love. I had sympathy for her then, but still no love,
only sympathy, and some revulsion, as I felt what had just happened to her-her child had
died, she would be burying one of her children-was a contagious disease and just to be
around her, just to be so near her meant I might catch it. (Page 173)
During her many trips to Antigua Jamaica learns many things about her family and
her life. It also reminds her of many dreadful childhood memories. Such as the time when
her mother burns her most precious possessions, her books. I insisted on reading books.
In a fit of anger that I can remember so well, as if it had been a natural disaster, as if it had
been a hurricane or an erupting volcano, or just simply the end of the world, my mother
found my books, all the books that I had read, some of them books I had bought, though
with money I had stolen, some of them I had simply stolen, for once I read a book, no
matter its literary quality I could not part with it. (Page 132)
Although the story is titled My Brother it mostly illustrates Jamaicas perspective
on his life and her own. She greatly portrays a hero figure. She is taken out of her ordinary
world and put into a controversial situation. She chooses the path to go back to her
childhood home and help her family and her brother. Although she does not love her
brother she pays for very expensive medication and takes care of him. At the beginning of
the book her brother denies having the virus, Me no get dat chupidness, man. Jamaicas
willingness to help her brother and determination shows that she is generous enough to
help someone just recently brought back into her life, that she hardly even knows.
I recommend this book to anyone who wants to read it. It is a gratifying story of
heroism and family. It reminds people of what is really important in life and that one
person can make a difference.
Rating:
Summary: The book tell about Jamica relationship with her family & .
Review: Her brother siknes and also the way she was treated as child she though it was unfear to her that her mother made felt to her, but late she understood that everything her mother did was because she loves her. At the end she discovered that she love her brother in her way too.
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