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Lucy: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Jamaica Kincaid
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Category: Book
List Price: $13.00
Buy Used: $2.73
You Save: $10.27 (79%)
New (41) Used (45) Collectible (1) from $2.73
Rating:  22 reviews
Sales Rank: 91534
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 176
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 5.1 x 0.5
ISBN: 0374527350
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780374527358
ASIN: 0374527350
Publication Date: September 4, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Help save a tree. Buy all your used books from Green Earth Books. Read -> Recycle -> Reuse!
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Product Description
The coming-of-age story of one of Jamaica Kincaid's most admired creations--newly available in paperback
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, 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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 17 more reviews...
 Beautiful and engaging. March 8, 2007
Kincaid's writing style is deceptively simple. There is more to Lucy than the adolescent malcontent, and layers of meaning thrive beneath every lyrical line. The cyclical nature of the story resists typical linear development - there IS character growth and plot development. 'Lucy' will be a boring read if you're a lazy reader: look deeper.
 Boring, Lame, Unstimulating March 7, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Lucy, by Jamiaca Kincaid, was one of the most boring books that I have ever been subjected to. It made me want to cry, and not from tears. Rather, it was from the boredom and wasting away of life that I experienced while reading. Lucy is a depressed and somber character that fails to find happiness, because she is not searching for it. Depressing. I know.
 3 and a 1/2 stars September 22, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
One thing you should know before picking up this book is that the main character, Lucy, is an extremely f**ked up kid who, overall, is wholly unlikeable. That being said however, the book does have its strong points. Lucy is a girl from the West Indies who comes to North America as an au pair. Her journey through the book not only shows us some of the prejudices she must endure, but more ironically shows the extremes of her own prejudices.
I found a lot of the book to be seemingly hopeless and exasperating, but it is also an eye opener in the realm of the subjugated. There is also something of a ray of hope at the book's finish.
Lastly, this book is very much manifested from some of the author's own experiences as a native of Antigua and it would really do a reader good to read Jamaica Kincaid's easily readable yet extremely angry essay, "On Seeing England for the First Time," before delving into this book.
"Lucy" is short and worth the time it takes to finish as I believe the story is more defined by what is furtively omitted (yet alluded to) than what is actually displayed in black and white.
Jamaica Kincaid is Amazing August 29, 2005
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
After reading "Annie John," I was excited to read another book by Jamaica Kincaid for a class on Immigration. Jamaica Kincaid's style is soothing and simplisticly poetic. I loved reading "Lucy" for this same style I saw in "Annie John." Kincaid is amazing because she is not afraid to explore the taboo or the sexual nature of adolescence in the full glory of its complexity. Reading "Lucy" leaves the reader feeling empowered and somewhat lucid, while enticing them to remember the secrets of their own young experimentational development.
 Yet another mindless book for the masses July 26, 2004
10 out of 17 found this review helpful
I wanted to love Jamaica Kincaid -- I really did. I first picked up Lucy expecting to love it because I had heard such wonderful things about Kincaid.
What a pathetic disappointment.
The novel drones on with no purpose and little plot. The writing is on the level of a pre-teen novel. In fact, had I read this when I was 13, it would have been incredible. Unfortunately, I'm not 13 anymore.
The overarching flaw in Lucy is that the reader has absolutely no reason to care about the title character. She hates her new home -- for no reason. She hates her old home -- for no reason. She hates everyone she meets -- for no reason. At least once in every section she mentions how she either hates something or how something doesn't meet her approval -- however, we are never given a reason for her disdain or her high standards. In fact, we are given the opposite -- we are continually reminded of how ignorant Lucy is by her incessant complaining and idiotic comments.
The character is supposed to be powerful and honest and courageous. In reality she is self-absorbed, ignorant, and dull.
I really did want to like this book. Unfortunately, it's the kind of novel that will be praised by people who don't know any better -- who praise books simply because Oprah liked them.
If you've got nothing better to read when you go to the beach one day, it's fine -- just don't expect to be impressed or empowered by it. It's nothing more than a dimestore rag.
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