📕 Jamaica Kincaid, A Small Place
For almost not a day goes by that I don't hear about some dictator, some tyrant from somewhere in the the world, who has robbed his country's treasury, stolen the aid from foreign governments, and placed it in his own personal and secret Swiss bank account; not a day goes by that i don't hear of some criminal kingpin, some investor who has a secret Swiss bank account. But maybe there is no connection between the wonderful life that the Swiss lead and the ill-gotten money that is resting in Swiss bank vaults; maybe it's a coincidence. The Swiss are famous for their banking system and for making superior timepieces. Switzerland is a neutral country, money is a neutral commodity, and time is neutral, too, being neither here nor there, one thing or another.
A Small Place is a book that feels extremely intimate to me. Jamaica Kincaid writes in anger, dissecting the imperialist exploitation of Antigua and Barbuda, she names every party responsible, both external to the miniscule island nation, and internal. She draws out the relations between the wealth of Europe and a select few on Antigua, and the poverty and disposession that ails the isle. And in that anger, humour weaves its way in, bitter irony at the state of the world, relentless goading directed to those who fail to apprehend the politcal and economic constitution of the world, or refuse to. Levity in rage is an entanglemant i am closely acquainted with.
My favourite part of the book, however, was when Kincaid spoke of stealing books from the library. Now, i would never have had the courage to steal from a library myself, but i do remember my expeditions to the annual book fair, where a few of my friends and i would surreptitiously ransack the place, competing to find out who could steal the most. For myself, i remember, in 2018, i stole twenty, it was a windfall! Enough to last at least four months. I think i've read those books to absolute shreds, they still live on my shelves, their pages covered in caterpillars of notes and annotations.
It is rare for me to find elements of my worldview so sharply reflected in a book, though, of course, Kincaid and i do have our differences, subtle though they may be.