Snodgrass (Lenoir-Rhyne College, Hickory, North Carolina) presents a resource text to assist general readers, students, teachers, and librarians in understanding Jamaica Kincaid's contributions to feminist, American, postcolonial, and world literature. Offering an introduction and guided overview of Kincaid's characters, plots, humor, symbols, and classic themes, the 84 A-to-Z entries combine commentary from interviewers, feminist historians, and book critics with numerous citations from primary and secondary sources and comparative literature. The text also includes a detailed chronology of Kincaid's life, West Indies heritage, and works; annotated charts elucidating five family trees of fictional clans found in her writing; a glossary of terms from cookery, herbalism, gardening, and customs; and a detailed list of 43 topics for book club discussion, writing, or research. Annotation ©2008 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)