Gordon Williams, Gleaner writer
Anthony Winkler has more than fond memories of Jamaica. His appreciation of the island's culture is fully played out in his novels.
In the living room of his home, nestled in a leafy cul-de-sac of middle class American South, Anthony C. Winkler eagerly offers putting lessons to a golf novice on a late summer afternoon.
"Yu accuracy good," says the Jamaican-born 62-year-old author, as the first three shots hastily bounce up and over the portable 'hole' on the carpet under the watchful gaze of his black, wooly 'grand-puppy' Samantha.
"But yu haffi pace the ball right."
Even after decades living in the United States, Winkler's 'yaad' accent - occasionally spiced by colourful expletives - still pops out at every desirable turn. It happens mostly when discussing his lifelong romance with Jamaica and his desire to tell everyone about his beautiful country and people through novels, short stories and plays. His growing legion of fans wishes his work would hit bookshelves more quickly. Wink-ler understands, but he paces himself.
Have something going
"If you plan to be in the business of writing novels," Winkler explains while running his hands through a head of grey hair, leaning back in his office chair with legs propped up on a table, "then you always have to have something going, something in the works, back to back, because you never know when one is going to come out."
He has written often enough, beginning with his first novel The Painted Canoe in the mid-1980s. His second, The Lunatic (1987), was made into a popular film in Jamaica during the 1990s. That was followed by works such as Going Home To Teach and The Duppy. But Dog War, Winkler's latest novel released this summer, is not really new at all. That was written well over a decade ago.
Yet, the lengthy shelving of Dog War hardly dilutes the fresh fun of this hilarious tale about a Jamaican woman wrestling with her beliefs. Precious Higginson's 'battle' with her family, friends and employer (and her dog) takes her from Jamaica's shores to the United States (U.S.) and back. And Winkler paves every step with delicious laugh-out-loud prose that offers a wide-angled view of Jamaica's culture, ranging from Precious's connection with her 'Jamaican Jesus' under the bed to her constant fear of retribution for sins. The book also charts her relationship with dogs - local and foreign mutts alike - which reveals her as a character who is at once vulnerable and simple, yet defiantly complicated and ultimately proud.
"She goes through a transformation," Winkler says of the journey taken by the main character in Dog War. "She is cowardly. Before, she thinks she can protect herself by following the moral scriptures she reads. And it is a façade. You can't protect yourself against capriciousness, because the world is a capricious place.
Control
"So what she learns is that there are things that are out of her control; she can't control, no matter what she does. So she might as well relax and enjoy life because one day, something may fall on her head, a rock stone or a tin can. So she comes to that realisation, which is what the whole book is trying to get to."
Precious, the author says, was found "in my head", created with the "characteristics of a typical Jamaican woman". Nothing more. Yet, Winkler's own story appears to link more closely to Precious's struggles than he would readily admit. For him, it was not easy growing up white in Jamaica, nor was it making a life in the U.S. Winkler also confesses that rolling through turbulent colonial and post-colonial times of the 1950s and 1960s in Jamaica allowed him to both benefit from and despise race and class barriers, then at their most fortified. However unpleasant it may have been to be bullied while a student at Cornwall College, Winkler's complexion did manage to open a few doors. At times he slid in.
"The only time I accepted it was when it came to putting a little cream in your coffee honey," he said with a loud laugh.
"I was the cream."
While he didn't like the system, Winkler was forced to accept it, fully aware it could backfire as well.
"It bothered me," he says without the slightest smirk. "It bothered me like hell."
Talent
It hurt him too. At age 12, Winkler discovered he had a talent for writing. After being expelled from Cornwall College at 15, he got a job with an insurance company even he admits he did not deserve. Then there was the flip side. A short story published in a local newspaper earned the attention of the editor. Winkler said the editor, a black Jamaican, wanted to offer him a job, but changed his mind when he discovered the boy was white.
"The skin," he said, rubbing on of his forearm, "works and sometimes it doesn't work."
It turns out writing has worked wonderfully well for Winkler. He authors English textbooks for a living - 13 in all - but novels and short stories are his passion. The posters of books and films he has been involved with, plus awards received for his work, line the walls of his home. Jamaica, which he visits a few times a year, remains his favorite subject and he is proud of what Jamaicans have accomplished.
"I will say about Jamaicans, and every field that they get into, writing included, when they are good, they good," says the former president of the Atlanta Jamaican Association. "They're really good."
So too is Dog War, where Precious wears Jamaica's cultural armour well, even when battling nasty stereotypes - plus a horny mutt who likes to pee on her foot and a boss who thinks that's a sign of trust.
Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in the United States.
