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.