The Autobiography of My Mother

By: Jamaica Kincaid

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 6 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

From the recipient of the 2010 Clifton Fadiman Medal comes an unforgettable novel of one woman's courageous coming of age.

Powerful, disturbing, and stirring, Jamaica Kincaid's novel is the deeply charged story of a woman's life on the island of Dominica. Xuela Claudette Richardson, the 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.

Jamaica Kincaid takes us from Xuela's childhood in a home where she can hear the song of the sea to the tin-roofed room where she lives as a schoolgirl in the house of Jack La Batte, 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 intensely physical world is redolent of overripe fruit, gentian violet, sulfur, and rain on the road. It seethes with her sorrow, her deep sympathy for those who share her history, her fear of her father, and her desperate loneliness. But underlying all is "the black room of the world" that is Xuela's barrenness and life without a mother.

The Autobiography of My Mother is a story of love, fear, loss, and the forging of character, an account of one woman's inexorable evolution, evoked in startling and magical poetry.

©2016 Jamaica Kincaid (P)2016 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

It’s a Must Read!!!

I loved the narrator’s voice. It captured to essence of Jamaica Kincaid ‘s culture. The book is a mesmerizing account of multiculturalism, loss, independence, and freedom. It moved me on a personal level as she reclaimed her body and her professed self love!

Drags

I Struggled to finish it.. tend to drag. very wordy when it didn't have to be.

just ok for me...

I struggled to finish this one...the way the story is written I found it to be a bit difficult to follow.

Yes!

Awesome book kept me interested! Had to read it for class and ended up really enjoying it.

strange and disturbing

This was a disturbing story. I felt sad and moved by the lack of love in her life as well as her mother's life 💔

Classic Jamaica Kincaid

I absolutely love the writings of this author and have read most of her books. This was my first listen of one of her audio books and it was just as delightful. Perfect performance.

Meaningful!

I thought this book was very deep and meaningful on so many levels. It really does give one a pause in thought throughout this book. The narrator did a great job of this reading as well!

Sad and insightful

Beautifully written and performed, but heartbreaking. Prepare to feel sorry for a character who feels or pity for herself and little connection to others. I know people like this, which made it all the more painful, but also insightful.

Interesting life experiences

I king of enjoyed the book. It wasn’t easy and at times hard to follow. It’s like the character refused to try and live outside her own negativity. It was interesting and sad to see how they live and the sad way they treat each other.

Awful Book

The title of this book is a bit deceptive. It starts off telling a little about her mother then for hours the author goes into graphically describing her many instances of sexual self gratification coupled with all the people in her life whom she despised. Towards the end she starts talking again a little about the mother she never knew. I kept reading hoping it was going to get better but it never did. Complete waste of my time.