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 arm’s 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: “Everyone 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.” Food for thought for sure. ( )

A young au pair from the Caribbean, working in New York grows into womanhood and finds her place in the world, but not easily. ( )

Lucy utvandrar från en liten karibisk ö till New york för att arbeta som barnflicka. Hennes skarpsynta observationer av omvärlden är mycket träffande. Skillnader i kultur, klass och hur människor beter sig mot varandra är riktigt bra. Lucy själv bär med sig ett mörkt förflutet och hon gestaltas inte som någon allt igenom sympatisk person. Sammanfattningsvis är det förbaskat välskrivet och bra litteratur. ( )

“But 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.”

Vad kan jag säga? Kincaid gör det igen. Rå, ärlig och värd att aldrig glömmas bort. ( )

Lucy is an insightful novel of a young au pair's first year away from her Caribbean home. As an au pair to a wealthy family she learns of first-world problems and gradually begins to resolve her own feelings about her past and her family, particularly her mother--and begins to break away to create a home and a life of her own. ( )