Two Quick Book Notes

First, I finished Father/Land, Frederick Kempe's tracing of his German family's roots, and his trying to understand post-war Germany and Germans. I did not enjoy the book. Found it a bit too anecdotal, and thought the writing plebian. Some interesting parallels between West and East Germans (but all German books focus on that these days) and moderately interesting stories of cousins and uncles and the like. But I don't think I gained a lot.

I also read a very different book, Jamaica Kincaid's Autobiography of my Mother. Kincaid can really write; she is a poetic writer, and the book is short enough that you don't get tired of the style, and don't get to the point (which would come) where you feel it contrived. On the other hand, this novel (not an autobiography), told in the first person by a girl growing up in odd family circumstances on the island of Domenica, starts of PG-13, and about half way through becomes X-rated. I did not really expect that. Does it add to the story? Perhaps, because it becomes the story, but I felt it was laid on a bit heavy.

Still, I would like to look at other things she has written to see how similar, or different, they are.