Read the first chapter of "Mr. Potter" by Jamaica Kincaid
There's an easy, lulling pace to the Caribbean. "The sun was in its usual place, up above and in the middle of the sky..." begins Jamaica Kincaid, leading us once again down a path, on her island of Antigua.
With tropical ease the journey begins, but soon clouds appear, darkening and complicating her newest family portrait, Mr. Potter. Mr. Potter is the father she never knew, a taxi-driver, a man who cared little for the world, or for his women, a man about whom most of the world cared little. But he matters to Kincaid. And here she wills him back to life, the man who brought her into existence.
It's revenge and catharsis, presence and absence. The Antigua sun is in the middle of the sky, and Kincaid focuses it on Mr. Potter, mercilessly.
Jamaica Kincaid will be reading tonight at the Boston Public Library at 6:00 pm
