A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid is a work of creative nonfiction originally published in 1988. Kincaid shares memories of her home country, Antigua, both while it was under colonial rule and self-governance. She illustrates how life has and hasn’t changed for Antiguan citizens because of government corruption, the legacies of slavery, and the preoccupation with tourism over public welfare. Though the book won no awards, Kincaid has won a plethora of awards for her other writings. The book received polarizing reviews for its frank depiction of Antiguan life and its blunt anger toward English colonizers and tourists. After its publication, Kincaid was unofficially banned from Antigua for five years because of the text’s depiction of government corruption.

This guide follows the Farrar, Straus and Giroux first edition paperback published in 2000.

Plot Summary

A Small Place is roughly divided into four sections, as Kincaid explores contemporary life in Antigua and the island’s history. Opening the text, Kincaid places the reader in the shoes of a tourist on holiday in Antigua. The tourist (“you”) sees the island’s deteriorating infrastructure but refuses to inquire into the reasons for it because of selfish concern with personal enjoyment. Antiguans and their daily struggles with poverty and government corruption are invisible to tourists, who only interact briefly with the island. Kincaid criticizes tourists for profiting from the banality and despair of Antiguans, who can’t escape their everyday lives. She also accuses English tourists of finding pleasure in being from the nation of conquerors.

Kincaid moves into her recollections of Antigua from when the island was still under colonial rule. Her childhood centered on celebrating England and those who enslaved her people, which makes her irrevocably angry. Institutions and streets continue to be named after English criminals, acting as perpetual reminders of everything her ancestors lost. Kincaid looks back at the racism that Black Antiguans endured from white inhabitants, and she exposes how these people did not meet the glorified image of English civility they promoted. She refuses to accept any reparations from England because the only true solace would involve turning back time to prevent the British Empire.

Modern Antigua, Kincaid admits, is in distress because of government corruption—behaviors that Antiguan politicians (among others) learned from the English. Emblematic of this is the deteriorating library: Once a place offering free education to Antiguans, the library has been left to rot in favor of commercial development promoting tourism. Kincaid surveys the way government officials abuse their positions to gain personal wealth at the expense of Antiguan citizens, from business monopolies and drug trafficking to taking bribes and misappropriating funds. Kincaid thinks the small size of the island warps Antiguans’ perspectives to the point that they don’t question why the government is corrupt because they don’t understand that corruption is the result of a wider string of events. To Kincaid, Antiguans feel stuck in the conditions of their lives and hope that a revolutionary will come along to help them.

Kincaid concludes the text by describing how the artificial-seeming beauty of Antigua prevents its people from envisioning changes to their lives, or the possibility for change. She briefly recounts the discovery of Antigua and how African peoples were enslaved on the island. Although Antiguans are a free people now, Kincaid observes that in many ways their lives are still the same as under colonialism and slavery.