Judd is a freelance writer and book reviewer for Salon and the New York Times Book Review. In the following essay, she discusses the ways in which Kincaid uses various stylistic devices to explore and illustrate the dynamics of familial distance within her memoir My Brother.

"Desire," wrote Longinus, a philosopher in ancient Greece, "is full of endless distances." In My Brother, Kincaid makes a related but highly personal point: "I am so vulnerable to my family's needs and influence that from time to time I remove myself from them. I do not write to them. I do not pay visits to them. I do not lie, I do not deny, I only remove myself." My Brother is Kincaid's account of both the strong desire she feels for her family when separated from them and of the time she spends back in their orbit. From the safe...