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February 2009 · Readings · Previous · Next   PDFPDF

The estrangement

By Jamaica Kincaid

By Jamaica Kincaid, from the May & June issue of AARP The Magazine. Kincaid’s most recent book is Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya._

Three years before my mother died, I decided not to speak to her again. And why? During a conversation over the telephone, she had once again let me know that my accomplishments—becoming a responsible and independent woman—did not amount to very much, that the life I lived was nothing more than a silly show, that she truly wished me dead. I didn’t disagree. I didn’t tell her that it would be just about the best thing in the world not to hear this from her.

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SEE ALSO: Antigua; Biography; Family relationships; Kincaid, Jamaica; Women authors, American
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December 2009

THE GENERAL ELECTRIC SUPERFRAUD
Why the Hudson River Will Never Run Clean
By David Gargill

THE MASTER OF SPIN BOLDAK
Undercover with Afghanistan’s Drug-Trafficking Border Police
By Matthieu Aikins

MERMAID FEVER
A story by Steven Millhauser

UNDERSTANDING OBAMACARE
By Luke Mitchell

Also: Dave Hickey and Wendell Berry

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