General Books - Fiction, Literature & Poetry
> The Anthony C. Winkler Collection
Dog War
Anthony C. Winkler
“Winkler has a fine ear for patois and dialogue, and a love of language that makes bawdy jokes crackle.”
The New Yorker
“Winkler’s wit, his ear for dialect and the sublime creation that is Precious add up to one howlingly funny book.”
Publisher’s Weekly
“A family comedy par excellence, Winkler negotiates the fine line between laughing with and at a character with aplomb … Winkler’s timing is well honed, and this comedy of cultural and generational clashes hits the right note nearly every time.”
Jonathan Messinger, Time Out
"Every country (if she's lucky) gets the Mark Twain she deserves, and Winkler is ours, bristling with savage Jamaican wit, heart-stopping compassion, and jaw-dropping humour all at once. And Dog War is his Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, except Precious is no yankee. She's a willful, stubborn, unintentionally funny Jamaican everywoman suddenly thrust into an America that's the opposite, always bending, twisting, and changing into shapes as confounding as they are hilarious. You don't read Dog War, you wait for the sparks to fly and hope they don't commit you for laughing out so loud for so long."
Marlon James, author of John Crow's Devil
"When was the last time you laughed out loud at a book, and I mean the hold-your-sides, near-hysterical-with-joy kind of laughter? Dog War is a pitch-perfect and truly uplifting read, wonderfully written with a flourish and an art that is like the best conversation. Winkler is the Prozac of literature, the true feel-good factor we seek in Oprah and the likes. You want to help somebody? . . . Give them Dog War, they'll be forever in your debt."
Ken Bruen, author of The Guards
“In reading the hilarious Dog War, I’ve discovered my new favorite author. His writing is fresh and funny, thoroughly Jamaican, and satirically funny.”
INK19
In a new and highly original take on Jamaican life, Winkler, the Caribbean's unrivalled master of adult comedy, introduces the estimable Precious, a large-bottomed, meltingly juicy Christian Jamaican woman with unshakeable ideas on the right and proper behaviour for Christian Jamaican women, their husbands, and men and dogs in general. But when her husband dies unexpectedly, Precious finds her ideas on proper behaviour assailed on every side. Precious spends many hours under her bed, checking proprieties with Jamaican Jesus, and on top of her bed, checking improprieties with the factotum Mannish, who is suffering the penalties of stealing camels in a previous life. Obliged to get a job as a dog-maid, however, Precious is outraged to discover that most improper of all are the attentions of her mistress's preposterously pampered pet, Riccardo.
About the author
Anthony C. Winkler was born in Jamaica, and was educated in Jamaica and America. His first novel, The Painted Canoe, was published in Jamaica in 1984. The Lunatic followed in 1987, and Winkler also wrote the screenplay for a highly successful film of this novel.
Other works include The Great Yacht Race (1992), Going Home to Teach (1995) and The Duppy (1997). In 1999 his original screenplay The Annihilation of Fish, was filmed in Los Angeles. Starring opposite James Earl Jones with Margot Kidder, Lynn Redgrave won Palm Beach Best Actress for her role as Poinsettia. He resides with his wife, Cathy, in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.