Bøger af Jamaica Kincaid

Celebrating Fifty Years of Picador BooksIn this acclaimed travel memoir Jamaica Kincaid chronicles a spectacular and exotic three-week trek through the Himalayan land of Nepal, where she and her companions are gathering seeds for planting at home. The natural world and, in particular, plants and gardening are central to Kincaid's work. Among Flowers intertwines meditations on nature and stunning descriptions of the Himalayan landscape with observations on the ironies, difficulties and dangers of this magnificent journey.For Kincaid and three botanist friends, Nepal is a paradise, a place where a single day's hike can traverse climate zones, from subtropical to alpine, encompassing flora suitable for growing at their homes, from Wales to Vermont. Yet as she makes clear, there is far more to this foreign world than rhododendrons that grow thirty feet high. Danger, too, is a constant companion - and the leeches are the least of their worries. Unpredictable Maoist guerrillas live in these perilous mountains, and when they do appear - as they do more than once - their enigmatic presence lingers long after they have melted back into the landscape. And Kincaid, who writes of the looming, lasting effects of colonialism in her works, necessarily explores the irony of her status as memsahib with Sherpas and bearers.A wonderful blend of introspective insight and beautifully rendered description, Among Flowers is a vivid, engrossing, and characteristically frank memoir from one of the most striking voices in contemporary literature.Part of the Picador Collection, a new series showcasing the best in modern literature.

Den caribiske teenagepige Lucy kommer til New York for at arbejde som au pair hjemme hos Lewis og Mariah og deres fire børn. Parret lever på overfladen et velsignet liv, de er smukke, rige og fremstår glade. Men alligevel fornemmer Lucy fra starten revner i facaden. Med en blanding af vrede og medfølelse gransker Lucy fejlslutninger og sandheder i sine arbejdsgiveres tilværelse og sammenligner dem med virkeligheden hvor hun kommer fra. Lucy har ingen illusioner om sin fortid, men er heller ikke indstillet på at blive ført bag lyset af den amerikanske drøm. Selv bærer Lucy på en fortælling om opbrud fra hjemmet og et stærkt ønske om at skabe sin egen skæbne – en fortælling som ingen andre end hun selv kender til. Lucy er en af Kincaids mest læste romaner, et stærkt og originalt portræt af en ung kvinde som opdager og opfinder sig selv.Lucy er smukt oversat af Camilla Christensen og udkom første gang på dansk i 1993.

Annie John er et lykkeligt, ubekymret barn på Antigua i Caribien. Som tiårig er hendes yndlingsbeskæftigelse at sidde og se på, mens hendes mor finder minderne frem fra den gamle kuffert som rummer hele hendes tilværelse. Men Annie er ikke ti år gammel for evigt. Hun forandres, og den kærlighed hun kendte i moderens omsorg bliver til modvilje og uforsonlighed. Annie John er et både smukt og smerteligt portræt af en ung piges opvækst, hendes længsel efter at finde og forstå sig selv, og en fortælling om det lille skridt fra kærlighed til afsky, som det kan udspille sig i en familie.

Den caribiske teenagepige Lucy kommer til New York for at arbejde som au pair hjemme hos Lewis og Mariah og deres fire børn. Parret lever på over- fladen et velsignet liv, de er smukke, rige og fremstår glade. Men alligevel fornemmer Lucy fra starten revner i facaden. Med en blanding af vrede og medfølelse gransker Lucy fejlslutnin- ger og sandheder i sine arbejdsgiveres tilværelse og sammenligner dem med virkeligheden hvor hun kommer fra. Lucy har ingen illusioner om sin fortid, men er heller ikke indstillet på at blive ført bag lyset af den amerikanske drøm. Selv bærer Lucy på en fortælling om opbrud fra hjemmet og et stærkt ønske om at skabe sin egen skæbne – en fortælling som ingen andre end hun selv kender til. Lucy er en af Kincaids mest læste romaner, et stærkt og originalt portræt af en ung kvinde som opdager og opfinder sig selv.Lucy er smukt oversat af Camilla Christensen og udkom første gang på dansk i 1993.

Moderrollen udforskes i en rå coming-of-age-fortælling, hvor en moderløs opvækst bliver selve livets præmis.Xuela Claudette Richardson mister sin mor i samme øjeblik, hun kommer til verden, og må derfor famle sig igennem tilværelsen uden den kvinde, hun deler navn med.Hun vokser op i et hjem, hvorfra hun kan høre bølgernes brusen, og under sin skolegang flytter hun ind i et værelse med bliktag i Jack LaBattes hus. Jack bliver hendes første elsker, og siden forelsker hun sig i stevedoren Roland, som stjæler irsk linned til hende fra de skibe, han aflæsser. Men i sidste ende gifter Xuela sig med den engelske læge, Philip Bailey.Xuelas verden er intenst sanselig med dufte af overmodne frugter, krystalviolet, svovl og regnvåde vejbaner, og den syder af Xuelas sorg over sin mor, frygt for sin far og en altomsluttende ensomhed. Og under alt andet løber den strøm, som Xuelas liv vugger på: moderløsheden og barnløsheden.Selvbiografien om min mor er en lyrisk fortælling om kærlighed og karakterdannelse og en meditation over livet og døden på øen Dominica.

Moderrollen udforskes i en rå coming-of-age-fortælling, hvor en moderløs opvækst bliver selve livets præmis.Xuela Claudette Richardson mister sin mor i samme øjeblik, hun kommer til verden, og må derfor famle sig igennem tilværelsen uden den kvinde, hun deler navn med.Hun vokser op i et hjem, hvorfra hun kan høre bølgernes brusen, og under sin skolegang flytter hun ind i et værelse med bliktag i Jack LaBattes hus. Jack bliver hendes første elsker, og siden forelsker hun sig i stevedoren Roland, som stjæler irsk linned til hende fra de skibe, han aflæsser. Men i sidste ende gifter Xuela sig med den engelske læge, Philip Bailey.Xuelas verden er intenst sanselig med dufte af overmodne frugter, krystalviolet, svovl og regnvåde vejbaner, og den syder af Xuelas sorg over sin mor, frygt for sin far og en altomsluttende ensomhed. Og under alt andet løber den strøm, som Xuelas liv vugger på: moderløsheden og barnløsheden.Selvbiografien om min mor er en lyrisk fortælling om kærlighed og karakterdannelse og en meditation over livet og døden på øen Dominica.

In this travel memoir, the acclaimed novelist Jamaica Kincaid chronicles a three-week trek through Nepal, the spectacular and exotic Himalayan land, where she and her companions are gathering seeds for planting at home. The natural world and, in particular, plants and gardening are central to Kincaid's work; in addition to such novels as Annie John and Lucy, Kincaid is the author of My Garden (Book): a collection of essays about her love of cultivating plants and gardens throughout her life. Among Flowers intertwines meditations on nature and stunning descriptions of the Himalayan landscape with observations on the ironies, difficulties, and dangers of this magnificent journey.For Kincaid and three botanist friends, Nepal is a paradise, a place where a single day's hike can traverse climate zones, from subtropical to alpine, encompassing flora suitable for growing at their homes, from Wales to Vermont. Yet as she makes clear, there is far more to this foreign world than rhododendrons that grow thirty feet high. Danger, too, is a constant companion-and the leeches are the least of the worries. Unpredictable Maoist guerillas live in these perilous mountains, and when they do appear-as they do more than once-their enigmatic presence lingers long after they have melted back into the landscape. And Kincaid, who writes of the looming, lasting effects of colonialism in her works, necessarily explores the irony of her status as memsahib with Sherpas and bearers.A wonderful blend of introspective insight and beautifully rendered description, Among Flowers is a vivid, engrossing, and characteristically frank memoir from one of our most striking voices.

The "revelatory" (The New York Review of Books) story of an ordinary man, his century, and his home. Jamaica Kincaid's first obsession, the island of Antigua, comes vibrantly to life under the gaze of Mr. Potter, an illiterate chauffeur who makes his living along the wide, open roads that pass the only towns he has ever seen. The sun shines squarely overhead, the ocean lies on every side, and suppressed passion fills the air.As Mr. Potter's narrative unfolds in linked vignettes, his story becomes the story of a vital, damaged community. Amid his surroundings, he struggles to live at ease: to purchase a car, to have girlfriends, and to shake off the encumbrance of his daughters-one of whom will return to Antigua after he dies and tell his story with equal measures of distance and sympathy.In Mr. Potter, Kincaid breathes life into a figure unlike any other in contemporary fiction, an individual consciousness emerging gloriously out of an unexamined life.

Jamaica Kincaid's collected writings for The New Yorker's "Talk of the Town" record her first impressions of snobbish, mobbish New York.Talk Stories is a collection of Jamaica Kincaid's original writing for The New Yorker's "Talk of the Town," composed during the time when she first arrived in the United States from Antigua, from 1978 to 1983. Kincaid developed a unique voice, both in sync with William Shawn's tone for the quintessential elite magazine and (though unsigned) all her own-wonderingly alive to the ironies and screwball details that characterized her adopted city. The book also reflects Kincaid's development as a young writer-the newcomer who sensitively records her impressions here takes root to become one of our most respected authors.

The coming-of-age story of one of Jamaica Kincaid's most admired creations--newly available in paperbackLucy, a teenage girl from the West Indies, comes to North America to work as an au pair for Lewis and Mariah and their four children. Lewis and Mariah are a thrice-blessed couple--handsome, rich, and seemingly happy. Yet, alomst at once, Lucy begins to notice cracks in their beautiful facade. With mingled anger and compassion, Lucy scrutinizes the assumptions and verities of her employers' world and compares them with the vivid realities of her native place. Lucy has no illusions about her own past, but neither is she prepared to be deceived about where she presently is. At the same time that Lucy is coming to terms with Lewis's and Mariah's lives, she is also unravelling the mysteries of her own sexuality. Gradually a new person unfolds: passionate, forthright, and disarmingly honest. In Lucy, Jamaica Kincaid has created a startling new character possessed with adamantine clearsightedness and ferocious integrity--a captivating heroine for our time.

Kincaid gathers a sparkling selection of new and beloved poetry and prose about each author's favorite flora. The passion for gardening and the passion for words come together in this inspired anthology, a collection of essays and poems on topics as diverse as beans and roses, by writers who garden and gardeners who write.Among the contributors are Daniel Hinkley on hellebores; Marina Warner, who remembers the Guinée rose; and Henri Cole, with the poems "Bearded Irises" and "Peonies." Ian Frazier pulls weeds in "Memories of a Press-Gang Gardener," and Michael Pollan defends a gothic cousin of the sunflower in "Consider the Castor Bean"; Ken Druse stalks the sexy jack-in-the-pulpit, and Elaine Scarry contemplates steep slopes of columbine. Most of the pieces are new, but Colette, Katharine S. White, William Carlos Williams, and several other old favorites also make appearances.Jamaica Kincaid, the much admired writer and a passionate gardener herself, has assembled this diverse crew and provides a spirited introduction. A wonderful gift for green thumbs, My Favorite Plant is a happy collection of fresh takes on old friends.

An adored only child, Annie has until recently lived a peaceful and content life. She is inseparable from her beautiful mother, a powerful and influential presence, who sits at the very centre of the little girl's existence. Loved and cherished, Annie grows and thrives within her mother's shadow.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 makes rebellious friends and frequently challenges 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.A haunting and tragicomic tale of the end of childhood, Annie John is told with Jamaica Kincaid's trademark candour and complexity, and is a true coming-of-age classic.

Lucy, a teenage girl from the West Indies, comes to North America to work as an au pair for Lewis and Mariah and their four children. At first glance Lewis and Mariah are a blessed couple - handsome, rich, and seemingly happy. Almost at once, however, Lucy begins to notice cracks in their beautiful facade.With a mixture of anger and compassion, Lucy scrutinizes the privileged, facile world of her employers while comparing it to the vivid realities of her home in the Caribbean. Lucy has no illusions about her own past, but neither is she prepared to be deceived about where she presently is.In this environment a new person unfolds: passionate, sexually forthright, and disarmingly honest. In Lucy, Jamaica Kincaid has created a startling new character: a captivating heroine possessed with clear-sightedness and ferocious integrity.Part of the Picador Collection, a new series showcasing the best of modern literature.

At the Bottom of the River is Jamaica Kincaid's first published work, a selection of inter-connected prose poems told from the perspective of a young Afro-Caribbean girl.Collecting pieces written for the New Yorker and the Paris Review between 1978 and 1982, including the seminal 'Girl', these stunning works announced a fully-formed, generational talent and firmly established the themes that Kincaid would continue to return to in her later work: the loss of childhood, the fractious nature of mother-daughter relationships, the intangible beauty of the natural world, and the striving for independence in a colonial landscape.Powerful and lyrical, this is an unforgettable collection from a unique and necessary literary voice.Part of the Picador Collection, a new series showcasing the best of modern literature.

Originally featured in the New Yorker's 'Talk of the Town' column, these are Jamaica Kincaid's first impressions of snobbish, mobbish New York.

A story of a marriage, Jamaica Kincaid's See Now Then is one of her most emotionally and thematically daring works.

One of the most important literary voices of the twentieth century on one of her greatest loves - gardening.

Jamaica Kincaid's poetic and affecting story of an ordinary man attempting to make a home on the island of Antigua.

Jamaica Kincaid's poweful and moving account of the life and death of her younger brother.

The Best American series has been the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction since 1915. Each volume's series editor selects notable works from hundreds of periodicals. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the very best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected--and most popular--of its kind. The Best American Travel Writing 2005 includes William Least-Heat Moon • Ian Frazier • John McPhee • William T. Vollmann • Simon Winchester • Tom Bissell • Madison Smartt Bell • Timothy Bascom • Pam Houston • and othersJamaica Kincaid, guest editor, is the author of numerous award-winning works, including the memoirs My Brother and The Autobiography of My Mother and the novel Annie John. Her travelogue Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalayas appeared in 2005. She lives in Vermont with her two children and a garden, in which she travels a great deal.

One of our finest writers on one of her greatest loves.Jamaica Kincaid's first garden in Vermont was a plot in the middle of her front lawn. There, to the consternation of more experienced friends, she planted only seeds of the flowers she liked best. In My Garden (Book): she gathers all she loves about gardening and plants, and examines it generously, passionately, and with sharp, idiosyncratic discrimination. Kincaid's affections are matched in intensity only by her dislikes. She loves spring and summer but cannot bring herself to love winter, for it hides the garden. She adores the rhododron Jane Grant, and appreciates ordinary Blue Lake string beans, but abhors the Asiatic lily. The sources of her inspiration -- seed catalogues, the gardener Gertrude Jekyll, gardens like Monet's at Giverny -- are subjected to intense scrutiny. She also examines the idea of the garden on Antigua, where she grew up. My Garden (Book): is an intimate, playful, and penetrating book on gardens, the plants that fill them, and the persons who tend them.

From "The Talk of the Town," Jamaica Kincaid's first impressions of snobbish, mobbish New YorkTalk Pieces is a collection of Jamaica Kincaid's original writing for the New Yorker's "Talk of the Town," composed during the time when she first came to the United States from Antigua, from 1978 to 1983. Kincaid found a unique voice, at once in sync with William Shawn's tone for the quintessential elite insider's magazine, and (though unsigned) all her own--wonderingly alive to the ironies and screwball details that characterized her adopted city. New York is a town that, in return, fast adopts those who embrace it, and in these early pieces Kincaid discovers many of its hilarious secrets and urban mannerisms. She meets Miss Jamaica, visiting from Kingston, and escorts the reader to the West Indian-American Day parade in Brooklyn; she sees Ed Koch don his "Cheshire-cat smile" and watches Tammy Wynette autograph a copy of Lattimore's Odyssey; she learns the worlds of publishing and partying, of fashion and popular music, and how to call a cauliflower a crudite.The book also records Kincaid's development as a young writer--the newcomer who sensitively records her impressions here takes root to become one of our most respected authors.

Forfatteren Jamaica Kincaid har et stort forfatterskab bag sig. Hun er en af favoritterne til Nobelprisen i litteratur, og som tænker er hun en stor fornøjelse at lytte til og lade sig inspirere af.Kincaid er optaget af at opløse tidsbegrebet, hun elsker sin have, og skønheden i planter, viden og sprog.Dette afsnit består af en kort introduktion til forfatteren, og derefter en samtale mellem Line Miller, forlagschef for oversat litteratur Politikens Forlag og Jamaica Kincaid.

Powerful, disturbing, stirring, Jamaica Kincaid's novel is the deeply charged story of a woman's life on the island of Dominica. Xuela Claudette Richardson, daughter of a Carib mother and a half-Scottish, half-African father, loses her mother to death the moment she is born and must find her way on her own. Kincaid takes us from Xuela's childhood in a home where she could hear the song of the sea to the tin-roofed room where she lives as a schoolgirl in the house of Jack Labatte, who becomes her first lover. Xuela develops a passion for the stevedore Roland, who steals bolts of Irish linen for her from the ships he unloads, but she eventually marries an English doctor, Philip Bailey. Xuela's is an intensely physical world, redolent of overripe fruit, gentian violet, sulfur, and rain on the road, and it seethes with her sorrow, her deep sympathy for those who share her history, her fear of her father, her desperate loneliness. But underlying all is "e;the black room of the world"e; that is Xuela's barrenness and motherlessness. The Autobiography of My Mother is a story of love, fear, loss, and the forging of a character, an account of one woman's inexorable evolution evoked in startling and magical poetry.