Book Review: See Now Then by Jamaica Kincaid

This was a book that was slightly hard for me to wrap my head around. It was written using the stream of consciousness mode, and centres around a family: Mr. and Mrs. Sweet, as well as their two children, Heracles and Persephone. They should have been a happy family, yet in reality, they all hate each other. And the reader somehow goes into each of the family member's minds and get privy to their internal thoughts, which are just full of hate and avarice. I suppose that's what happens when there is a family that is still together, even though the love has all fallen apart.

And the thing is, I actually don't know whether I like or hate this book. It was an interesting read, and the narrative mode was rather novel and not the typical one you would encounter in a novel. The subject matter is rather quotidian: I mean, there are so many families out there that are breaking apart, so this is nothing out of the ordinary. But there are nevertheless elements that I find fascinating.

I have to say that I liked the way the temporal axis was manipulated. The novel's title has a reference to the present and the past, now and then. And this dual reference appears all throughout the book. It provides a great contrast on how things were versus how things are now. And there are several points in the novel where this has been highlighted.

I also liked its succinct length. It had a point, I suppose, and it didn't drag the point along hundreds of pages. This one is clocking just around 180 pages, and so it was the perfect length to make the point the book wanted to make.

I suppose I am ambivalent about this book in the end. I wanted to read it as this would be the first novel I have read from an Antiguan author. I liked the novel narrative mode. But I don't feel compelled to seek out the author's other books, after reading this one. I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

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