At the Bottom of the River – Old Paper & Cats, Reviews by S. Hargrave

False Spring

The snow started melting and the sun started to come out too often and, even though I am Canadian and should know better, I let myself get my hopes up. I let myself take the duvet off the bed and put some of the winter things away. I let myself accept that the seasons were changing. Then the same thing happened that happens every year: It got cold again. The snow started again. And so winter continues and will until March or April, just like every year. I am grateful that we seemed to have gotten the mildest of the mildest of the incoming cold weather. The area has been experiencing a lot of snowstorms but we haven’t even gotten enough snow to have to shovel.

Beside a calico tabby is a small white paperback book: At the Bottom of the River by Jamaica Kincaid.

A Transitional Selection

I was late to the Black History Month party, but I have found a selection that is both a great book for February and for Women’s History Month in March. It’s At the Bottom of the River by Jamaica Kincaid. Kincaid grew up in the Caribbean and takes us there for the short stories of this book. The narratives are more than just about culture and customs; they are about the rhythms of life and how people fit into the natural world and their roles in each other’s lives.

A calico tabby puts her white paws against the side of Jamaica Kincaid's At the Bottom of the River.

Between Poetry and Prose

It’s important that one does not expect completely linear stories when one picks up a Kincaid work. Her narratives exist somewhere in the space between prose and prose poetry — especially when it comes to stories like ‘Girl’ or ‘My Mother’. Kincaid is chasing and pinning down a feeling more than describing events or constructing a plot progressing. What this leads to is haunting and beautiful sentences, phrases, and paragraphs that it is best to let yourself feel and experience rather than force a structure upon.

A calico tabby rolls belly-up beside a small paperback book with a simple white and blue cover.

Powerful Themes

Kincaid very much demonstrates that you don’t need a rigid structure to lend your message power and poignancy. ‘Girl’, specifically, is a list of things that people tell girls — from ‘don’t walk barehead in the hot sun’ to ‘this is how you behave in the presence of men’. It’s a piece exploring the countless messages women are given, the unwanted advice, and how oppressive female existence is as well as how complicated. Nowhere in this list is a woman or girl allowed to be themselves or to have much in the way of fun.

A calico tabby lays on a copy of At the Bottom of the River.

‘My Mother’ examines the intimacy and intricacy of the bond between parent and child in all of its facets. It does so in a way that would not be possible with a traditional structure or without using lyrical language and fantastical metaphor to put feeling first and literal interpretation in the back seat.

A calico tabby lies contentedly on a rug. At her back is a small book, a copy of At the Bottom of the River.

There Is Less Snow Now

The biggest benefit false spring has left us is that the snowbanks have really taken a hit and lost a lot of their height. I no longer feel like I have to struggle to see the traffic on our street and we can once again jog without feeling like we’re sliding in slush. But our driveway still has a bit of a tilt to it and my lovely spouse is still backing out into one of the snowbanks at least half of the time.