Annie John

By: Jamaica Kincaid

Narrated by: Robin Miles

The essential coming-of-age novel by Jamaica Kincaid, Annie John is a haunting and provocative story of a young girl growing up on the island of Antigua. Kincaid's novel focuses on a universal, tragic, and often comic theme: the loss of childhood.

An adored only child, Annie has until recently lived an idyllic life. She is inseparable from her beautiful mother, a powerful presence, who is the very center of the little girl's existence. Loved and cherished, Annie grows and thrives within her mother's benign shadow. Looking back on her childhood, she reflects, "It was in such a paradise that I lived."

When she turns twelve, however, Annie's life changes, in ways that are often mysterious to her. She begins to question the cultural assumptions of her island world; at school she instinctively rebels against authority; and most frighteningly, her mother, seeing Annie as a "young lady," ceases to be the source of unconditional adoration and takes on the new and unfamiliar guise of adversary.

At the end of her school years, Annie decides to leave Antigua and her family, but not without a measure of sorrow, especially for the mother she once knew and never ceases to mourn.

©1983, 1984, 1985 Jamaica Kincaid (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc./Blackstone Publishing

Connections to my Coming of Age

It's confusing but also understanding to me her feelings on some ends and I found this story to be well written and serene in a way.

Amazing

I liked how it showed a girl turning into a young woman. How she struggled with her relationship with her mother. Then how it turned out for the best in the end