Seething with anger “Autobiography of my mother” is a poweful book by Jamaica Kincaid, who blends in the political with the personal in one continuous narrative. The story of Xuela who is part carib, part African, part white who was handed off to the laundress like a bundle of clothes by her father at birth because her mother died is an outburst against colonialism.
First and foremost I had to look up who were the Carib people. Sure enough, here was one more tribe that was a dealt a cruel blow by the great Columbus. Ironical that I finished the book the same day Howard Zinn died. Only about 3000 Caribs are left according to Wikipedia and they are mostly in Dominica which is where this story is set.
Having been dealt with such a card at birth, Xuela's life just takes more cruel turns and in that process she seems to become more hardened and chooses a life of loneliness and independence. Denied her mother's life and love, she refuses to give life and love to anyone else and withdraws from friendship and romance.
The puzzling thing about the book I am unsure how I feel about Xuela. She has very strong traits, absolutely fearless, completely in control, refuses to belong to anyone, any race, any nation, but her absolute coldness is unnerving.
Loss of a mother and lack of love at birth had made her fearless as the only thing that the child fears happened to her at birth. I guess she never again wanted to experience fear or lack of control and that kinda explained to me why she refused to bear a child, love a man, befriend a woman or care for anything and instead chose a life of loneliness, spent waiting for the one thing that was greater than her the thing to which she can submit - death.
The prose speaks like poetry yet at the same time is honestly brutal and made me feel uncomfortable as i tried to understand the story of resistance and survival of one woman.
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