BOOK REVIEW BY BOB BERLINGHOF
OCTOBER 2010
CARIBBEAN COMPASS
PAGE 32
Wacky Characters in a Sublime World
life, causing untold resentment towards the oblivious tourist. The clueless white clings to the idea that he has a real Jamaican friend while behind his back his “friend” is plotting his demise. Winkler does not take sides and gives the tourist the benefit of good intentions, while the poor tortured Jamaican contemplates the ultimate evil after years of hidden resentment. Since seeing the film of The Lunatic two decades ago, I have yet to read Winkler’s original novel, and I look forward to reading that and his other novels some day: The Painted Canoe, The Great Yacht Race, Going Home to Teach, and The Duppy. The title story of this collection, ‘The Annihilation of Fish’, was filmed in 1999 starring James Earl Jones and Lynn Redgrave. Born in Kingston, Anthony Winkler has made a living freelance writing in the USA and by writing academic texts, but his ear is finely tuned to Jamaica’s patois, spirit, peculiar manners, and dark humor. This book is available at bookstores or from www.macmillan-caribbean.com.
The Annihilation of Fish and Other Stories, by Anthony C. Winkler, Macmillan Caribbean Writers, ©2004, 166 pages. ISBN 1 4050 2639 1 Author Anthony Winkler has written 20 stories in this slim paperback which will amuse and delight the reader. This is the first book I have seen of his in print since I saw the film version of his earlier novel, The Lunatic — quite possibly the funniest film ever produced in the West Indies. Though these stories fall short of that masterpiece, there are quite a few that stay with the reader due to Winkler’s vivid, often wacky characters, who live in a sublime world of their own. The stories encompass Jamaicans from all walks of life, from the poorest “Butus” to prosperous emigrants living in the USA. Winkler offers us the superstitions, dreams, fears, and foibles of his characters for the reader to savor, at times employing magic realism to make us wonder about the bubbles we inhabit. The opening story is a romp about a “tourist” couple who turn out to be aliens, and the bewildered junior constable who has written a detailed Preliminary Report of the bizarre incidents he witnesses. After being struck by a truck and coming back to life, the male “tourist” leads a lively theological discussion with the incredulous crowd that has gathered to gawk at the dead man, resulting in their burning a nearby church. There are several levels of satire working here, as the clueless policeman is both witty observer and comic foil. The next selection, ‘The Story of the Fifth Boy’, is a sobering tragedy that unfolds in the memory of the protagonist’s youthful indiscretions and shattered innocence. It is not the only wistful story, but by far the book’s most serious. ‘Unconventionality’ is a hilarious examination of one couple’s religious faith when their Catholic priest takes a dim view of their harmless bedtime habit, and ‘A Sign of the Times’ is an ode to the hypocrisy of middle class Jamaicans. There are stories of men physically wrestling with the Devil (‘The Annihilation of Fish’), of writing letters to a cow, and of shooting a poor tomato thief dead. A woman is consumed by the idea that her bottom is too fat, and in another story a wealthy matron living in the States is haunted by the idea of an avenging dog coming after her. ‘The Happy Days of Dog Eat Dog’ is an amusing story of class, privilege, and bribery in the era of socialism, and its title refers to the good old days when a wealthy man could bribe officials with no problem. The corruption doesn’t change, only its nature. One of my favorite stories, called ‘New Banana’, examines in exquisite detail the mixed feelings and misunderstandings between a repeat tourist (who feels he’s hipper than other tourists) and a local waiter over their 20-something-year relationship. The central irony is that the white man’s unique nickname for his young waiter, ‘New Banana’, is picked up by the older staff, and it follows the waiter for the rest of his
PROUDLY SPONSORED BY PETIT ST. VINCENT RESORT
DOLLY’S DEEP SECRETS
• The hawksbill has a narrow head with a hooked beak and two pairs of prefrontal scales in front of its eyes. The Green turtle has a roundish head with no beak and only one pair of prefrontal scales. BRUCKNER/NOOA
y name i Hello! hMome is in tshDolly e sea. and my by Elaine Ollivierre
Unscramble the letters below to find a sea creature whose favourite food is seagrass. What is it? LUNTEREGRET Of all the hard-shelled marine turtles, this is the largest. It averages 440 pounds (200kg) when fully grown although the largest one on record weighed over 800 pounds (395 kg). It grows to a length of about 3 to 5 feet (1.5 metres). This is the Green turtle (Chelonia mydas), so called because the fat under its shell is greenish in colour. Baby turtles do eat small marine creatures such as crabs and jellyfish, but when they grow they turn to marine vegetation. The adult Green turtle is the only turtle that is a herbivore, feeding only on seagrass and algae. How can you tell the difference between a Green turtle and a hawksbill, for example? We’ll make a list. • The Green turtle’s shell (carapace) is smooth and usually light brown in colour. The sections of a turtle shell are called scutes and the Green turtle has five approximately hexagonal scutes down the centre of the shell from neck to tail (vertebral scutes). The hawksbill shell is darker in colour and has overlapping vertebral scutes. • The underside of the turtle is called the plastron. A hawksbill’s plastron is a darker yellow than a Green turtle’s.
• The Green turtle has one claw on each front flipper: the hawksbill has two. Green turtles migrate long distances between feeding grounds and nesting sites. Every two or three years, females come ashore on sandy beaches and dig out pits with their strong flippers. Each lays 100 to 200 eggs. The eggs hatch around 40 to 80 days later and the baby turtles head for the water. Predators like gulls and crabs snatch them up before they reach the water so it’s a very dangerous journey for the hatchlings. Some scientists think that juvenile turtles then spend the next four or five years in the deep ocean before they come back to the seagrass meadows near the shore. Although Green turtles are on most endangered lists, it is still legal to catch and eat them during open season in the territories of the Caribbean. However, it’s important to protect them in the closed season, not only for the turtles but also for the seagrass. The gardening activities of the turtles help to maintain the health of the island shorelines.