Customer Reviews

Lucy (Contemporary Fiction, Plume)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This classic, Kincaid's tale of a West Indian girl who comes to the States and becomes an au pair to a wealthy white couple, has been re-released. I first read this novel about ten years ago as my introduction to Kincaid's writing and was both intrigued and in awe of her language, themes, and symbolic language.

Until she was nineteen years old, Lucy Potter had not ventured from her own little world on the small island where she was born. Now she is living with a family and learning a culture that is very different from her own. Lewis and Mariah and their four daughters want Lucy to feel like she is part of the family but at first she finds it difficult to fit in. She just wants to do her duty and in her off-hours discovers a new world through her friend Peggy and sexuality through young men, Hugh and Paul.

Lucy often reflects on her life back on the island; the conflicts between she and her mother, and the British influence on the islanders. She remembers when she and her friends would read the Book of Revelations using the passages to terrify each other. She also remembers the time her mother showed her how to mix herbs that supposedly would cleanse a woman's womb but what they both knew was an abortion remedy. Lucy knows what is expected of her, to study for a respectable job like a nurse and to honor her family. She finds out that the tidy, neat world of the family she has come to love is not all it purports to be and how silence is a universal language.

Kincaid's language is outstanding in remembering her home; "the color of six o'clock in the evening" is just one example. It is well known that her writing draws from her life experiences as in The Autobiography of My Mother and My Brother and I look forward to her latest offering, Mr. Potter which is reportedly based on her father's life. Kincaid was my introduction to writers of Caribbean descent and remains one of the greats. I actual rating for this book is a 4.5.-----
Dera Williams
Apooo Bookclub

This is a very simple story which starts off with several conventional plot twists but ends on a poignant, and somewhat surprising, note. However, by the novel's end, Lucy manages to captivate the reader, and the story somehow manages to resonate within the reader long after the novel has been finished. Kincaid tells Lucy's story eloquently and lyrically and convincingly draws out several themes which help to give the story breadth and depth. Dispossession and alienation from one's homeland and family, mother-daughter relationships, the middle class family, and Lucy's sexuality are only some of the themes that are explored in the novel. Lucy's voice is strong and individual, and she clearly emerges as a character of complexity and strength.

In a graceful and simplistic, yet deceptive, writing style, Caribbean author Jamaica Kincaid examines and scrutinizes the [white middle class] American way of life in LUCY. This novel is 164 pages of pure social commentary, whether it be of America or of Kincaid's native Antigua. Throughout her work, Kincaid confronts challenging issues related to mother-daughter relationships, marriage, puberty and sexuality, and love. This book was meant to be talked about.

One thing you should know before picking up this book is that the main character, Lucy, is an extremely f**ked up kid who, overall, is wholly unlikeable. That being said however, the book does have its strong points. Lucy is a girl from the West Indies who comes to North America as an au pair. Her journey through the book not only shows us some of the prejudices she must endure, but more ironically shows the extremes of her own prejudices.
I found a lot of the book to be seemingly hopeless and exasperating, but it is also an eye opener in the realm of the subjugated. There is also something of a ray of hope at the book's finish.
Lastly, this book is very much manifested from some of the author's own experiences as a native of Antigua and it would really do a reader good to read Jamaica Kincaid's easily readable yet extremely angry essay, "On Seeing England for the First Time," before delving into this book.
"Lucy" is short and worth the time it takes to finish as I believe the story is more defined by what is furtively omitted (yet alluded to) than what is actually displayed in black and white.

We were asked to read this book in our English course. If we had read it out of our own motivation we would have probably all liked it, since it deals with issues that are interesting and important for teenagers. The novel is about a 19 year old girl who emigrates from the Caribbean to New York to work as an au pair. There she is faced with a totally different culture and environment. Her long immigrant journey is presented in a precise, passionate and honest writing style. We think that it is recommendable for schools to give pupils of our age an insight into the thoughts and feelings of a girl who decides to leave her home country to start a new life in a new world.

The central figure of this novel is a teenage girl from the West Indies working as an au pair for an American family. Her name is Lucy, and as the story opens, she describes her first day on the job, her surroundings, and the ambivalence of being away from home. Faced with a different cultural backdrop and elements of time, Lucy is able to compare, dismiss, and draw her own conclusive ideals based on the premise that the family she's working for are not perfect as originally thought. As she matures, and her life focuses on the realistic ramifications of how things really are in this new environment, we began to see a difference in mannerisms and expression.

Jamaica Kincaid, the author, colors this drama with a unique imagery that forces the reader to dig a little deeper for definitive tones that allow you to understand Lucy's character makeup, and why she thinks as she does. It is this penchant for the subliminal that the author gives this girl, that tend to have you believe that poignancy is a given rather than an afterthought. I found it to be a simple story short on plot, with no conflicting analogies, but allowing the author to speak volumes for a well written expose of differing themes to give it a profound niche. To wit: Kincaid's lilting prose and narrative stylings lend itself to a certain eloquence that you almost forget that this is a story set in the '60s dealing with such things as the mental anguish of leaving a homeland and alienation from familial relations; mother-daughter relations; teenage sexuality and promiscuity; and Lucy's exploration into the art of kissing. But because it reads as a timeless element to what is being portrayed, it's much more than a moot point when subtext makes a case for good writing!

If readers are not familiar with Jamaica Kincaid's style of writing, this could be a novel that would be easily misunderstood, or worse, not read at all lest a point be missed where Lucy's strong voice and individuality emerges as a character of complexity and strength. This book has continually been recommended for reading lists and the recipient of countless English classes. Using the first person singular sort of gives it a believable track where you almost wish that you were in Lucy's shoes to be able to make the decisions she makes. It is my overall feeling that the author used the simplistic approach to delve into the sort of social commentary intentionally avoiding a conventional plot to derive at a surprising ending. Readers will not only be captivated by how Lucy comes to terms with the idiosyncrasies she dealt with, but will be able to resonate within to know that something good came of Lucy's quest to find herself. This is an excellent book, and I recommend it to be read with an open mind and a liberal approach to understanding the world of a teenager dealing with such complexities and being a better woman for it. Read it and learn!

Jamaica Kincaid has wonderfully portrayed the life of a young woman from the Caribbean who, in search of freedom, migrates to the U.S. Freedom comes with a price, though, and Lucy is paying it, as she fails to find the peace she hoped she would have gained.

I'm from the Caribbean and it is ironic that I had never heard of Jamaica Kincaid until I was in college. For that particular class we studied an excerpt from Annie John called the Circling Hand. That book was so great I searched and found more books by Mrs. Kincaid. Lucy was next. I absolutly loved this book. The angst that Lucy felt is so familiar to young women who immigrate from one country to another. I could feel all of her resentment and rage, her joy and her hopes her fitting in and not fitting in. I laughed and cried when I read and reread this book. As a matter of fact I think I will reread it again...

Lucy is a well written book about a young girl coming of age, separated from her home and all that is familiar to her. The book deals with issues like displacement, sex, mothers, and rage. I was tempted to dismiss this book as pointless after reading it for the first time, but something about this book stayed with me. Like the ocean Lucy lived by and the Great Lake she visits, there is more to this book than just the waves on the surface. I recommend reading this book more than once and delving deeper than the first layer, you won't be disappointed.

I'm from the Caribbean and it is ironic that I had never heard of Jamaica Kincaid until I was in college. For that particular class we studied an excerpt from Annie John called the Circling Hand. That book was so great I searched and found more books by Mrs. Kincaid. Lucy was next. I absolutly loved this book. The angst that Lucy felt is so familiar to young women who immigrate from one country to another. I could feel all of her resentment and rage, her joy and her hopes her fitting in and not fitting in. I laughed and cried when I read and reread this book. As a matter of fact I think I will reread it again...