Rating: 
Summary: Parodic of Kincaid's own style
Review: I am an admirer of Kincaid's work, especially "The Autobiography of My Mother" and "My Brother." However, my high hopes for this book were dashed as I turned page after page. In "Mr. Potter," Kincaid unintentionally parodies the very prose style that made the above works so powerful. In close to 200 pages, what is incantatory in her earlier work is tediously and self-importantly repetitous in this one. The details of her father's life -- his ancestry, his abandonment of mother and daughters, his later livelihood -- are several dozen pages worth of narrative that is ridiculously stretched out in endlessly repeated phrases; and when those phrases are exhausted, we get paraphrases of those phrases. Instead of creating a solid portrait of her father the way she did with her mother and brother, we get a novel in which parodic repetition is the main character, in which the author's voice defeats forward-moving narrative. One gets the feeling that the style has become just filler, that Kincaid knew few enough facts of her father's life in order to fill entire book.
Rating:
Summary: Parodic of Kincaid's own style
Review: I am an admirer of Kincaid's work, especially "The Autobiography of My Mother" and "My Brother." However, my high hopes for this book were dashed as I turned page after page. In "Mr. Potter," Kincaid unintentionally parodies the very prose style that made the above works so powerful. In close to 200 pages, what is incantatory in her earlier work is tediously and self-importantly repetitous in this one. The details of her father's life -- his ancestry, his abandonment of mother and daughters, his later livelihood -- are several dozen pages worth of narrative that is ridiculously stretched out in endlessly repeated phrases; and when those phrases are exhausted, we get paraphrases of those phrases. Instead of creating a solid portrait of her father the way she did with her mother and brother, we get a novel in which parodic repetition is the main character, in which the author's voice defeats forward-moving narrative. One gets the feeling that the style has become just filler, that Kincaid knew few enough facts of her father's life in order to fill entire book.
Rating:
Summary: Parodic of Kincaid's own style
Review: I am an admirer of Kincaid's work, especially "The Autobiography of My Mother" and "My Brother." However, my high hopes for this book were dashed as I turned page after page. In "Mr. Potter," Kincaid unintentionally parodies the very prose style that made the above works so powerful. In close to 200 pages, what is incantatory in her earlier work is tediously and self-importantly repetitous in this one. The details of her father's life -- his ancestry, his abandonment of mother and daughters, his later livelihood -- are several dozen pages worth of narrative that is ridiculously stretched out in endlessly repeated phrases; and when those phrases are exhausted, we get paraphrases of those phrases. Instead of creating a solid portrait of her father the way she did with her mother and brother, we get a novel in which parodic repetition is the main character, in which the author's voice defeats forward-moving narrative. One gets the feeling that the style has become just filler, that Kincaid knew few enough facts of her father's life in order to fill entire book.
Rating: 
Summary: Nice writing style!
Review: I enjoyed this novel. It's very realistic, and flows smoothly. Great summer read. Other summer reads recommended are: In-Law Drama and Sunset in St. Tropez. Happy reading!
Rating:
Summary: Please
Review: Jamaica Kincaid needs to get off whatever herb she's smoking and go to creative writing 101.
Rating:
Summary: Subtle, nuanced, lyrical, passionate, and literary
Review: Jamaica Kincaid's most recent novel MR. POTTER (2002) is the author's most recent foray into the complex and challenging terrain of autofiction. The novel is subtle, nuanced, lyrical, passionate, and literary. For those who know Kincaid's work well and are committed to the ardor that reading her texts demands, it is not only an immensely rewarding read, but a new and unexpected episode in a literary drama that continues (thankfully!) to unfold with breathtaking poetry and philosophical brilliance.
Rating:
Summary: Subtle, nuanced, lyrical, passionate, and literary
Review: Jamaica Kincaid's most recent novel MR. POTTER (2002) is the author's most recent foray into the complex and challenging terrain of autofiction. The novel is subtle, nuanced, lyrical, passionate, and literary. For those who know Kincaid's work well and are committed to the ardor that reading her texts demands, it is not only an immensely rewarding read, but a new and unexpected episode in a literary drama that continues (thankfully!) to unfold with breathtaking poetry and philosophical brilliance.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Brilliant
Review: Kincaid's writing style is entirely unique and distinctive. This book is not just trying to tell a story, it is assigning an identity to people who otherwise would not have one. The point of this book is to explore and interpret the influence that the past has on the present, both globally and individually. Every literary device Kincaid incorporates into this book is used for a reason, from her repetition of certain phrases to her two page long sentences--it all adds and supports the depth and breadth of the subject she is writing about. With this book Kincaid not only challenges the way we view our lives, history and environment, but the way we view the lives,history and environments of people who are wholly unlike us. "Mr. Potter" is a striking piece of literature.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely Brilliant
Review: Kincaid's writing style is entirely unique and distinctive. This book is not just trying to tell a story, it is assigning an identity to people who otherwise would not have one. The point of this book is to explore and interpret the influence that the past has on the present, both globally and individually. Every literary device Kincaid incorporates into this book is used for a reason, from her repetition of certain phrases to her two page long sentences--it all adds and supports the depth and breadth of the subject she is writing about. With this book Kincaid not only challenges the way we view our lives, history and environment, but the way we view the lives,history and environments of people who are wholly unlike us. "Mr. Potter" is a striking piece of literature.
Rating:
Summary: A very tentative rating - Kincaid had me in her hands
Review: Mr. Potter is written in the same style of language circling as her Autobiography of My Mother. When I had read about 20 pages, I had to start over to determine if I had missed a transition in the storyline or if the author had omitted the transition - the latter being the correct answer. In Mr. Potter the circular language almost demands that you read out loud - or at least form the words in your mind - if you are to follow the story. In that sense, I did not enjoy reading this book as I had her earlier works. However, by the end of the book I had to be in awe of the author. She succeeded in presenting both the despair and the wisdom of being inconsequential. She accurately presented individuals as being shaped by small details such as a line drawn through the father section of a birth certificate. She presented the similarity in displacement whether a rich Lebanonese businessman, a Vienese doctor, or an African slave. Through that similarity of displacement, she made a strong social statement about the relationship of the "have's" and the "have not's". The story line is simple - a boy is born without his father claiming him, his mother leaves him as a servant boy while she commits suicide, he learns to drive, he becomes a chauffeur, he has many daughters - one of which is the narrator, he becomes a successful cabbie, he dies. However, through this simple story, through language that is simple and difficult simultaneously, Kincaid crafted a realistic, wise, critical depiction of humanity. I'm impressed.
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