In this episode, writers V. V. Ganeshananthan and J. Robert Lennon join host Catherine Nichols to discuss Jamaica Kincaid's 1990 novel Lucy. The novel is about a girl who travels from Antigua to the United States to be an au pair for a wealthy white family, and forms a close relationship to the mother of the family, reacting against her relationship with her own mother. The conversation addresses the novel's complex treatment of race and the concept of white innocence, its prescient interest in environmental issues, and its morally ambiguous, triumphantly selfish narrator. V.V. "Sugi" Ganeshananthan, who was a student of Kincaid, speaks about what Kincaid was like as a teacher and mentor.

V.V. "Sugi" Ganeshananthan is an American fiction writer, essayist, and journalist. Her work has appeared in many leading newspapers and journals, including Granta, The Atlantic Monthly, and The Washington Post. Her novel Love Marriage, which was longlisted for the Orange Prize.
J. Robert Lennon is the author of nine novels, including Familiar, Broken River, and Subdivision, and the story collections Pieces for the Left Hand, See You in Paradise, and Let Me Think. He lives in Ithaca, New York.
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