1/2021 Autobiographical essays taken from the New Yorker magazine's Talk of the Town column from 1974-83. Some are local gossip column style, some are sociology disguised as gossip, and some are travel writing disguised as sociological gossip. The first essay, which Jamaica Kincaid didn't expect to be printed without more editing, ends with an excellent carnival clowning joke referencing Malcolm X. The subsequent columns are more sedate, as one would expect from a marginalised writer trying to fit into the mainstream, but all of them are professionally written and retain more interest than might be imagined for essays printed as 1970s gossip columns.

Quotes

Carnival clowning, 1974: "As Lord Kitchener said to me, 'accessibility is the key to success.' After that I had a large hunk of Shabazz Bean Pie. I say without reservation, this is the No.1 Third World dessert. In fact, every time I have some of it I think kindly of Mr Shabazz and everybody with an 'X' after his name."

Advice from editors, 1979, lol: "A fiction writer can write about anorexia nervosa, abortion, death, and homosexuality in hard-cover books for young adults but not in soft-cover books for young adults."

Lmao, 1981: "The other day, the people at the Ford Motor Company threw a cocktail party for Anne and Charlotte Ford at the new Palace Hotel. Almost all the guests there looked as though they never drove themselves anywhere or, if they did, they didn't actually have to." ( )