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At the Bottom of the River
 
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At the Bottom of the River (Paperback)

by Jamaica Kincaid (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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At the Bottom of the River + A Small Place + Lucy: A Novel
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Kincaid's first collection focuses on a nameless, blossoming Caribbean girl. According to PW , "The voice--incantatory, lyric, rhapsodic--is closer to the condition of poetry and music than to fiction in any of its ordinary registers."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
"... will hum on your shelf... choked with love to incite envy, too humble for admiration, and ... startling to escape astonishment." -- Derek Walcott

"This book will burn on your shelf. It is too choked with love to incite envy, too humble for admiration, and still too stratling to escape astonishment."--Derek Walcott
-- Review

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

  • Paperback: 96 pages
  • Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux; 1st edition (October 15, 2000)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0374527342
  • ISBN-13: 978-0374527341
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.5 x 0.3 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #510,458 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #9 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > Authors, A-Z > ( K ) > Kincaid, Jamaica
    #14 in  Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > African American > Kincaid, Jamaica

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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (5)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant!, November 20, 1999
By Sarah Payne (Virginia) - See all my reviews
Just as a diamond's facets make it shine, At the Bottom of the River is composed of disparate glimpses of brilliance. Short short stories in a unifying vein of carribean color, these pieces are mystical, sensual and poetic. The cadence of Kincaid's language takes hold of you-- you don't read this book so much as you surf it. . . you breathe it. . . you feel it resonate within you long after it's over.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Love, sadness, and growing up in the Caribbean, May 2, 2004
By Debbie Lee Wesselmann (the Lehigh Valley, PA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)         
Jamaica Kincaid's AT THE BOTTOM OF THE RIVER is a study of voice and language that first brought the author recognition beyond the pages of literary journals. These ten stories, all but the last extremely short, are set in an intense Caribbean landscape where a girl comes of age in the shadow of her mother; they are hallucinatory, tense, and indirect, leaving much for the reader to interpret. For example, the first story, "Girl", is a monologue spoken by the mother giving advice ("this is how you set a table for dinner") interspersed with comments degrading the daughter. The two italicized, one-sentence responses from the daughter speak volumes about this complicated relationship. "What I Have Been Doing Lately" is a dream-like narrative that lists what the narrator is (probably not) doing and, in the process, illustrates the emotional state of someone so sad that she just wants to lie in bed. "At the Bottom of the River", the final, longest, and most traditional of the stories, implies the past and future of the narrator through visions seen "at the bottom of the river."

Kincaid's style combines the effect of the simple but perfect word with the lilt of Caribbean rhythms. On the surface, these stories are not difficult to read, but they can be challenging to understand for the reader accustomed to more traditional methods of storytelling. The collection is about as short as a book can get, and so the stories can be read in one sitting, back to back, although their absorption can take much longer.

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12 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Strange, December 8, 1999
By Kevin Sim (Singapore) - See all my reviews
A book that drifts from page to page, from consciousness to consciousness.

Reading the book is liking trying to look at things at the bottom of the river, which continuously get distorted by the movement of the water, the interplay of light reflected on the surface and shadows at the bed, and things that sometimes drift into view and out - with and for no apparent reason.

Quite an interesting experience.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing Collection of Stories
I did not like this book. While the language was lyrical and interesting, I had a
lot of difficulty following the story lines. Read more
Published 2 months ago by B. Brody

3.0 out of 5 stars Ordinary but also Extraordinary
I got this book because it is one of the required books I need for my college class. When I began reading the book, I didn't like nor dislike the book because it is a strange book... Read more
Published on January 17, 2007 by Pachy S.

4.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking Lyricism & Abstract Imagery
'At the Bottom of the River' is a lyrical collection of some of Jamaica Kincaid's most provocative writing. Read more
Published on September 1, 2004 by Syed Rafay Ahmed

5.0 out of 5 stars A Genius Mind
At the Bottom of the River is a lovely rendition of a writer's mind, leisure, vision, appeal, hope, awareness and understanding. Read more
Published on April 5, 2004 by vannie osborne

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely
Kincaid's stories have a distinct voice and accent, which perpetuate the subversion of standard rules prescribed by centres of authority. Read more
Published on December 20, 2003 by Tamkin Hussain

5.0 out of 5 stars Prose Like Water
In its strangeness is its beauty.
I won't pretend to have understood this book. At times I'd put it down and think, huh? Read more
Published on May 29, 2002 by Nadine Seide

1.0 out of 5 stars At the bottom of the River, a review by Dylan
At the Bottom of the river isn't, in my perspective, a very good book. I gave it one star. I gave it one star because there isn't really a plot, main character (at least with a... Read more
Published on April 24, 2001

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