The Tzer Island book blog features book reviews written by TChris, the blog's founder.  I hope the blog will help readers discover good books and avoid bad books.  I am a reader, not a book publicist.  This blog does not exist to promote particular books, authors, or publishers.  I therefore do not participate in "virtual book tours" or conduct author interviews.  You will find no contests or giveaways here.

The blog's nonexclusive focus is on literary/mainstream fiction, thriller/crime/spy novels, and science fiction.  While the reviews cover books old and new, in and out of print, the blog does try to direct attention to books that have been recently published.  Reviews of new (or newly reprinted) books generally appear every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Reviews of older books appear on occasional weekends.  Readers are invited and encouraged to comment.  See About Tzer Island for more information about this blog, its categorization of reviews, and its rating system.

Entries in Anthony C. Winkler (1)

Thursday
Feb032011

Dog War by Anthony C. Winkler

Published by Akashic Books on June 1, 2007,  first published in the UK by Macmillan Carribbean in 2006.

Precious is 47 years old, content with her life in Runaway Bay and with her marriage to Theophilus. As a dutiful wife, however, she agrees to move to the country so that Theophilus can enjoy a view of the mountains. When Theophilus dies in a traffic accident, Precious must begin her life anew, and she doesn't want to live it in her country home where (despite the company of Red Dog and White Dog) she feels isolated, convinced that rapists and murderers will attack her at night (and worried that her corpse won't be dressed properly when it's eventually discovered). Dog War follows Precious as she tries living in Kingston with her son the dentist (where she is at war with her daughter-in-law) and in Miami with her daughter the cop (where she must fend off the unwelcome attention of her son-in-law) before taking a housekeeping position in Fort Lauderdale. There Precious must cope with a wealthy widow who takes a greater interest in the rights of animals than the needs of people, with the widow's spoiled, amorous dog, and with a chauffeur who is convinced that he is repaying a debt for camels he stole in a life he lived seven hundred years earlier. Despite clinging to her beliefs (reinforced by her consultations with Jamaican Jesus underneath her bed), Precious manages to learn some difficult but valuable lessons about life by the time the novel ends.

Dog War is a very funny book. Nearly every page made me laugh out loud; on some pages nearly every paragraph made me laugh out loud. The characters are charming; to the extent that they are stereotypes, Anthony Winkler somehow found a way to make them fresh. The story is sweet and the lessons it teaches are familiar but nonetheless valuable. The pace is quick and the novel is the perfect length; it tells a fun story without trying to do too much. There isn't anything terribly profound about Dog War, but the novel is meant to make you smile and to nod at its conventional wisdom, not to change your life. On that basis, it succeeds admirably.

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