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Lucy
Lucy: A Novel | Jamaica Kincaid
Lucy, a teenage girl from the West Indies, comes to America to work as an au pair for a wealthy couple. She begins to notice cracks in their beautiful faade at the same time that the mysteries of own sexuality begin to unravel. Jamaica Kincaid has created a startling new heroine who is destined to win a place of honor in contemporary fiction.
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Kerrbearlib
Lucy: A Novel | Jamaica Kincaid
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Re-reading this amazing book.

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readordierachel
Lucy: A Novel | Jamaica Kincaid
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Pickpick

I loved this. A young woman travels from the West Indies to be an au pair for an American couple's 4 daughters. She paints the family with a critical eye, develops friendships, explores her sexual desires, and reckons with her feelings for the mother and place she left behind. 👇🏽

readordierachel The wounds of colonization and familial relationships are laid bare. It's a slim volume, but I savored it over the course of a few weeks, reading and rereading passages. Incisive, cutting, and beautifully written. 5y
erzascarletbookgasm Great review 👍 5y
Suet624 💕💕💕 5y
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Cathythoughts Nice review & cover 5y
readordierachel @Cathythoughts Thank you. I really like the cover too 💕 5y
75 likes7 comments
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readordierachel
Lucy: A Novel | Jamaica Kincaid
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"Along the paths and underneath the trees were many, many yellow flowers the size and shape of play teacups, or fairy skirts. They looked like something to eat and something to wear at the same time; they looked beautiful; they looked simple, as if made to erase a complicated and unnecessary idea. I did not know what these flowers were, and so it was a mystery to me why I wanted to kill them."

Hot damn. So far this is amazing.

merelybookish Wasn't expecting that turn at the end! Writing is excellent! 👌 5y
BiblioLitten Whoa! The last line... subtly slipped in but lethal😅 Reminded me of a research article I read long back where they analysed why people look at cute babies/kittens/puppies and say they wanted to eat them up. 😬 5y
readordierachel @merelybookish The writing *is* excellent. I'm stopping to reread passages on nearly every page. 5y
readordierachel @BiblioLitten Interesting! I've never stopped to think about that before. It's a really weird thing to say! 5y
71 likes3 stack adds4 comments
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MrBook
Lucy: A Novel | Jamaica Kincaid
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Some replacements for my #Immigration and #NationalLiteracyMonth Display! 😁

Have you read any of these?!

#LitsyLovesLibraries #MrBooksDisplays

Leftcoastzen The Jungle 5y
plemmdog I had to read The Jungle in 1981 American history class. There‘s a gross meat packing incident that high schoolers just loved, of course 5y
AmyRebecca I've read the Jungle and Dreaming in Cuban 5y
62 likes2 stack adds3 comments
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sofiaga
Lucy: A Novel | Jamaica Kincaid
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I just started this book and I can tell Jamaica Kincaid is an incredible writer.

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PerksOfBeingABookworm
Lucy: A Novel | Jamaica Kincaid
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This weekend's book haul 😍 I'm probably most excited for the Kincaid books and Woman in Cabin 10 (although my wife called dibs on reading that one first).

Reviewsbylola Cabin 10 is a wild ride and the cruise setting is fun. 🚢 7y
30 likes1 comment
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ValerieAndBooks
Lucy: A Novel | Jamaica Kincaid
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Pickpick

Lucy is an au pair from the West Indies who adjusts to America and the family she works for. She's opinionated and sometimes speaks her mind. She also recalls her childhood back home and conflicted feelings about her mother. And, she deals with her own sexuality. Author Jamaica Kincaid manages to distill all this in 164 pages. While Lucy isn't always likeable, she is definitely unforgettable. Read this for Letter K (author) for #LitsyAtoZ.

misslala This is on my TBR list. It's good to know it's choice. 👍 7y
ValerieAndBooks @misslala it's short enough that at least you'll be able to decide quickly whether you want to stay with it. I'll be keeping my eye out for her other books, too. 7y
56 likes5 stack adds2 comments
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ValerieAndBooks
Lucy: A Novel | Jamaica Kincaid
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Lucy makes a good point. Also (my thoughts) people will say they have an Native-American ancestor without considering what it might have meant to that ancestor back then (was he/she oppressed?) and/or what it is like to be one today.

Leftcoastzen Great point! 7y
Lindy I feel sad when I look at my ancestry chart and see the sole Indigenous person, an 18th century woman identified only by her first name (Anne) and the fact that she was Huron. Sad to know so little about her, and I can guess that Anne was likely not her original name. 7y
mrsmarch I'm so sad when I see people insisting they have Native ancestry when I know they don't -- my half-second-cousin swears our great-grandmother was part Penobscot, but I know Ethel's ancestry backward and forward, she wasn't the least bit. But she's so upset I proved her wrong! (edited) 7y
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ValerieAndBooks @Lindy that is so haunting, isn't it? Just can't help but wonder how/why Anne left her culture... 7y
ValerieAndBooks @mrsmarch I know what you mean. Some people just don't want to let go of their idea of a certain past. 7y
Lindy @ValerieAndBooks I hope love was the reason, but the reality is that women often had (and still have) little choice in their circumstances. 7y
mrsmarch @ValerieAndBooks I'm not sure, given her politics, she would value Native ancestry properly, so all's well I guess. My MIL believed she had Native ancestry but when DNA testing showed otherwise, she started to reframe the stories to fit the new facts, and she's probably much closer to the truth now. Makes me wonder how a French Canadian girl wound up in a mission school for Native children, but that's history's mysteries for you. 7y
ValerieAndBooks @Lindy so many unanswered questions about our ancestors, especially the females! 7y
ValerieAndBooks @mrsmarch yet more mystery! Maybe she was orphaned and as a result somehow ended up at the school? 7y
mrsmarch @ValerieAndBooks Orphaned/abandoned, taken, the daughter of a fur trapper who was friendly with the local indigenous tribe whose mother had died (we know her father was still alive after she left for the school) so she stayed with the tribe and went to the same school as the children. We may never solve it. 7y
51 likes1 stack add10 comments
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OffTheBeatenShelf.com
Lucy: A Novel | Jamaica Kincaid
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I'm really sad one of my local used bookstores is closing, but I did score this sweet stack in their "fill a bag for $15" sale. And that's not including the big stack my fiancé got too!

BookishMarginalia That's indeed an excellent #bookhaul! 🙌🏼🙌🏼🙌🏼 8y
ErikasMindfulShelf Great haul!! 8y
coffeenebula Half price in Clintonville? 8y
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LeahBergen I loved The Widow of the South. 8y
CherylDeFranceschi Great haul! 8y
Bandrea You got some great books! 8y
OffTheBeatenShelf.com @coffeenebula unfortunately. 😥 it's pretty well cleaned out. There were a ton of people in there last night. 8y
36 likes7 comments
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Rabbitandraven
Lucy: A Novel | Jamaica Kincaid
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"Columbus never set foot there but only named it in passing...He could not have known that he would have so many things to name and I imagined how hard he had to rack his brain after he ran out of names honoring his benefactors..." An excellent example of Lucy's gift of sizing up and cutting down.

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