Talk Stories

Jamaica Kincaid's collected writings for The New Yorker' s "Talk of the Town" record her first impressions of snobbish, mobbish New York. 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 arrived in the United States from Antigua, from 1978 to 1983. Kincaid developed a unique voice, both in sync with William Shawn's tone for the quintessential elite magazine and (though unsigned) all her own-wonderingly alive to the ironies and screwball details that characterized her adopted city. The book also reflects 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.