Talk Stories

Talk Stories is a collection of Jamaica Kincaid's original writing for The New Yorker's "Talk of the Town," composed during the time when she first came to the United States from Antigua, from 1978 to 1983. Kincaid found a unique voice, at once in sync with William Shawn's tone for the quintessential elite insider's magazine, & (though unsigned) all her own--wonderingly alive to the ironies & screwball details that characterized her adopted city. She meets Miss Jamaica, visiting from Kingston, & watches Tammy Wynette autograph a copy of Lattimore's Odyssey; she learns the worlds of publishing & partying, of fashion & popular music, & how to call cauliflower a crudite. The book also records Kincaid's development as a young writer--the newcomer who sensitively records her impressions here takes root to become one of our most respected authors. "I recently reread all eighty-five of Kincaid's Talk stories, & I was surprised by what I found in them--surprised, delighted, and, most of all, embarrassed for my younger self ... it's taken me a few years to appreciate that there are times when it's enough for writing, like sleep & sex, to exist just for the pleasure it gives." --CRAIG SELIGMAN, The Threepenny Review.Kincaid, Jamaica is the author of 'Talk Stories' with ISBN 9780374272395 and ISBN 0374272395.