A review by rumii
Among Flowers: A Walk in the Himalaya by Jamaica Kincaid

1.0

I was so disappointed with this book. Not in its writing, Kincaid’s writing is beautiful and easy to drop into, but in Kincaid herself. While the descriptions of the nature around her and of her inner world were appealing and read beautifully as a travel account, her attitude towards the Nepalese people that  make her trip possible were revolting. She makes no effort to remember their names, explicitly saying they were too long and hard, instead referring to them by their ‘roles’; the person in charge of cooking is simply Cook and the person in charge of carrying the table they eat on is Table. The complaints she makes about them and their work are so blind to her role in relation to them and the privilege she is  hiking the himalayas in. In the same section she will wonder at how someone could carry such weights up the mountain then complain that they lagged behind. Grow up! Carry the stuff yourself if you want it around you at your call. Her americanness is so evident and really surprises me as I expected her Caribbean ancestry would give her insight and understanding.