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. Annie's voice--urgent,
demanding to be heard--is one that will not soon be forgotten by
readers.
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. "For I could not be sure," she
reflects, "whether for the rest of my life I would be able to tell when
it was really my mother and when it was really her shadow standing
between me and the rest of the world."
