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Bezig met laden... Lucy (Contemporary Fiction, Plume) (origineel 1990; editie 1991)door Jamaica Kincaid
Informatie over het werkLucy door Jamaica Kincaid (1990)
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In this short novel, 19-year-old Lucy leaves her home in Antigua and comes to America to be an au pair for a family of four young children. The book is set over the stretch of a year and follows her experiences as a new immigrant. Lucy has come to America to get away from stifling relationships and a particularly toxic relationship with her martyr of a mother, but she cannot really connect with anyone, drifting through relationships with men and even holding her only friend, Peggy, at armâs length. I felt I wanted to know more about why she left home, filled her with the rage that seethes through her, numbing her from seizing the day, enjoying the wonderous moments of her life, and wallowing in her never-named unfulfilled expectations. The most interesting observation to me: âEveryone knew that men have no morals, that they do not know how to behave, that they do not know how to treat other people. It was why men like laws so much; it was why they had to invent such things--they need a guide.â Food for thought for sure. Lucy utvandrar frĂ„n en liten karibisk ö till New york för att arbeta som barnflicka. Hennes skarpsynta observationer av omvĂ€rlden Ă€r mycket trĂ€ffande. Skillnader i kultur, klass och hur mĂ€nniskor beter sig mot varandra Ă€r riktigt bra. Lucy sjĂ€lv bĂ€r med sig ett mörkt förflutet och hon gestaltas inte som nĂ„gon allt igenom sympatisk person. Sammanfattningsvis Ă€r det förbaskat vĂ€lskrivet och bra litteratur. âBut mostly I had books - so many books, and they were mine; I would not have to part with them. It had always been a dream of mine to just own a lot of books, to never part with a book once I had read it.â Vad kan jag sĂ€ga? Kincaid gör det igen. RĂ„, Ă€rlig och vĂ€rd att aldrig glömmas bort. geen besprekingen | voeg een bespreking toe
Onderdeel van de uitgeversreeks(en)
The coming-of-age story of one of Jamaica Kincaid's most admired creations. 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. Lewis and Mariah are a thrice-blessed couple-handsome, rich, and seemingly happy. Yet, almost at once, Lucy begins to notice cracks in their beautiful façade. 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 unraveling 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 clear-sightedness and ferocious integrity-a captivating heroine for our time. Geen bibliotheekbeschrijvingen gevonden. |
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Google Books — Bezig met laden... GenresDewey Decimale Classificatie (DDC)813Literature English (North America) American fictionLC-classificatieWaarderingGemiddelde:
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Lucy is not likeable for at least half of this short book. She is full of anger and contempt, not just for rich people, but for everything she encounters. She deliberately hurts people with the barbs of her tongue. She scorns the kind gestures and the confidences of her female employer, Mariah.
I hated her. I hated Lucy for her nastiness, her anger, her refusal to relax her guard. She was a black girl from a tropical island who'd been given a chance to better herself, and she just didn't care. "She should be more grateful", I thought, several times.
Do you hear it? I heard it. I thought she should be grateful. I wanted the young black girl to be better behaved because she had a job as a domestic worker, a servant by another name, for a family who treated her well. I wanted her to be nicer to the white family she worked for. I didn't know that white privilege runs through my veins, that casual racism is part of my makeup. In this week of Harry and Meghan's interview with Oprah, I was proud that I didn't treat black people any different than white people, people with skin like mine. I was wrong.
So this book was an eye-opener. I was not prepared to find my thoughts about race were suspect. It was the first warm day of not-quite spring. There was a warm breeze. It was a nice day in my all-white neighbourhood. The things you learn when you read. Do all white people feel like I do? Is it a sign of growth that I now recognize that my inner monologue is not as lofty as I believed yesterday, that nice warm day? Or is that just more white privilege, another way of saying "I understand the problem of racism because I've been woken up by a novella"? I don't know. Food for thought. I have much to learn, and much to unlearn too.
The book got four stars because I was profoundly uncomfortable with the vivid sex scenes. They were very well written; they aroused me, and I felt ashamed for the sensations of my body during a description of sex involving a nineteen year old girl. ( )