This is undoubtedly the funniest book I have ever read. 10 years ago in my college dorm through peals of laughter, which had everyone thinking I had gone mad - as mad as Aloysius - I read this tale in 24 hours. Since then I have reread the book several times and given copies as gifts for a variety of occasions. Each time, the response of belly ripping laughter has been the same.

This is a true depiction of the quintessential Jamaican rural mad man. Those of us who grew up in rural Jamaica know an Aloysius. The theme might seem like a simple silly Jamaican comedy, but the writing style is eloquent and easy. Tony does not skip a beat.

I have two criticisms; the first is that we end on an anti-climax as if the writer ran out of ideas or he became tired of writing. Therefore I felt that the tale ended too abruptly. Then again, this feeling could also be due to my desire to have this story go on and on. My second criticism is that I sensed a touch of Condescension by the narattor to ordinary poor country folk. In the Jamaican context, the church going old woman who slept with the mad man would hardly have done such a thing. But then again this is fiction. I guees the problem for me is that when fiction mimics real life so closely, one wants consistency throughout. Nevertheless, I give this five stars - and more - every time I read it.

Also recommended: Slip Stream, by Rachel Manley, Orange Laughter, by Leone Ross, Mine Boy by Peter Abrahams.

mi laugh until mi bawl wid tears running down mi cheek, as a jamaican I think Anthony winkler went in the mind of a madman to wirite the book. The book has brought me closer to my roots, there are chapters in the book that I can relate to espcially the backras.

There isn't much of a tradition of the comic novel in the West Indies. (Naipaul, I suppose, and a couple of others.) Winkler seems in a fair way to be creating a tradition all on his own by combining magical realism and traditional humour.

Just seeing his name on the book spine was enough to make me pick up the book.

Over the years, Anthony C. Winkler's rollicking novels of Jamaican life have given me considerable pleasure and insight into Caribbean sensibility. He writes with a great affection for the island nation's people, reveling in their culture and contradictions, equally amused by and compassionate toward all the social strata. However, I'd been curious about the writer himself since first reading THE LUNATIC years ago, after a St. Kitts-born friend and mentor pressed the book into my hand with a smile, saying "You must read this!" The brief bio in his books mentioned he was a native Jamaican and scant else. Who was he? I wondered to myself about his background, his roots, his understanding of Jamaica.

GOING HOME TO TEACH answered my questions and delivered a lot more. At heart, it's Winkler's memoir of his mid-1970s stint, when Michael Manley's "democratic socialist" administration ruled, as an instructor at a government-sponsored rural teacher training school. His return is part altruism, part nostalgia: As the author of successful, widely used college textbooks, he's got tidy sums squirreled away in American banks, so he can afford to return home and work for a pittance. On the other hand, at the time he's thirty-something, divorced, and he's spent thirteen years away from home to study and teach in the U.S., whose society bewilders him.

The meat of the book, though, is both personal and general. Winkler is a raconteur, a griot--a natural born storyteller--and he regales you with stories about his family (particularly his eccentric grandparents and crazy aunts), his encounters with hidebound administrators and bureaucrats, striking students, madmen, and the impossibility of finding competent repairpersons. And then again, there are his observations on American society and culture, the contrasts with Jamaica, and the cultural idiosyncrasies that he attributes to the history of slavery and English colonial rule. GOING HOME TO TEACH is a dense stew of memorable people, incidents and conclusions, richly seasoned with rib-tickling anecdotes.

Indeed, what makes the book really work is Winkler's humor and humanity, his conversational tone, his equanimity whether describing the absurd or the nearly tragic. He's not shy about his foibles, his family's or his countrymen's, and completely droll even when revealing the unpleasant side of paradise. Be cautioned about reading this book in public: you risk indelicate stares for laughing out loud, as I did particularly as I was reading his account of "night life"--the panoply of insects and other critters--in the Jamaican countryside.

There's also the bittersweet. Winkler's ancestry is European and Middle Eastern--which adds up to "white"--but he's Jamaica-born and bred (patois is his "native tongue" much as any other Jamaican's), and that's the land he loves. It results in a certain "double consciousness," which I find ironically analogous to the lot of "Black Americans":

"To be white in a black country with a long English colonial history is to be a pariah, an ambiguous entity. It is to be simultaneously respected and despised, to arouse suspicion and curiosity, to evoke defiance, rudeness, envy, and condescension. It is to be separated from that inalienable birthright every white American enjoys in his country: the expectation of being treated with indifference in a public place....

"The hardest thing about growing up white in a black country is the nagging feeling of not belonging.... Jamaicans of all races who have lived abroad for any length of time also suffer it after returning home, but for the white Jamaican the feeling of not belonging is a cross he must bear even if he has never set foot out of his own country."

If you're already a fan of Winkler's writing, I believe you'll also love this book. If you're not already acquainted, this should be a fine introduction to the man and the land. A highly recommended, rewarding read.

If you live in the Caribbean you will be able to identify with all the occurrences. If you used to live in the Caribbean, this book will bring back all the memories. If you have no Caribbean connections, then you will be highly amused by the "peculiarites" of the natives as Mr. Winkler cleverly reveals the culture and personalities of the island

This book was both humorous and touching, I read the Duppy and the Lunatic also! this guy is great!!!!!. I can relate to all the character in his books, I know at least one of each character!!!!

"The Lunatic" was my first introduction to the biting wit and uniquely Jamaican sense of humour of Mr. Winkler. His hilarious and bitingly accurate portrayals of the many facets of rural Jamaican life made me an instant Winkler fan, and understandably, raised my expectations and anticipation for his next offering. "The Great Yacht Race" did not dissapoint. Mr.Winkler's tale centers around the lives of five prominent members of Montego Bay's society,and the tragicomic events leading up to the annual regatta - the highpoint of their social lives. The picture Mr. Winkler paints of Pre-independence Jamaica is rich with detail, such as a discussion between the white Jamaican Hotel manager O'Hara and a group of tourists, during which O'Hara casually states that in Jamaica, "Class is more important than colour. If you're the right class, your colour doesn't really matter." (Winkler, P.200) "The Great Yacht Race" is a well written and very entertaining narrative of Jamaican life that will have you laughing out loud, and perhaps make you a bit sad as well. It lived up to my expectations after reading the "Lunatic", and I eagerly await future offerings from Anthony Winkler.

The painted canoe is excellent reading with emotionally gripping chapters to hold your interest. The scenario is Jamaica 1970?s and a poor Black fisherman named Zacariah who is deformed UGLY. Poor Zachariah , who?s name means ?God remembers?,ends up lost at sea where we learn many things about him and ourselves. In this book the human spirit is exposed and the traits that define it explored. In addition, we see Jamaica from a poor citizens view and experience exactly what that means. There is a quote by Calvin Coolidge that I thought of after reading this book:
? Press on: nothing in the world can take the place of perseverance. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent.? Great book.

This book is a great read. The Jamaican fisherman, Zachariah, reminds us how an eccentric nature can lead us throught life and how the human spirt will fight to survive. There is more to life than what we can see in front of us because there are times when we must step out on faith alone, as Zachariah did.

As a native of Jamaica, living in the USA, this book brought back fond memories of the Island. The main character, a fisherman is typical of the "older' Jamaican native in his beliefs and value system. He exhibits a trait rare in my adopted homeland, but common in Jamaica, where ones personal circumstances are not allowed to dictate your inner personality. A great read for both Jamaicans and non Jamaicans. Also a good intro to the native language and culture.

This is a great alternate look into the life of Bob that has never been told in any other book on BOB. BOB had a very special relationship with his mother that lasted his entire life. Mother B lets us into their relationship. A fantastic book that can be read in a day.

This book is a great ENGL 101 book with clear explainations of each genre.

This book like Winkler's earlier work, The Lunatic, appears intended to provide some comic relief. The Lunatic was unbelievably funny and a near accurate depiction of a Jamaican village mad man. However this book was just not funny and certainly not worth the ... asked for it in one of the airport stores at the Sangster International Airport in Montego Bay.
In the Lunatic the sexual overtones were ourrighty funny and contextually comfortable. While I am by no means a prude, here I found the sexual overtones to be overdone and lewd. A good tale should get the reader involved to where he enters the story while he is reading. Up to chapter 5, I became somewhat involved with the story, always anticipating that it would pick up, but it never really did. Chapter 25 to the end was endurable, but too much was lost in between Chapters 6 and 24.

In terms of depicting the funny and sometimes scarey elements of Jamaican duppy storytelling, this work in no way captured any element of that tradition. The closest we came to this was the minibus ride where Hopeton manipulated the driver's actions. I imagine that the author was trying to use his creative licence to approach this subject from a different angle. It did not work well.

Nevertheless, Winkler is a wonderful writer as evidenced by the Lunatic which I continue to reread ever so often.

"The Duppy" is written in typical Anthony C. Winkler style which in no way makes it monotonous. It is humorous to say the least with the slightest detail of life being dramatically magnified- it is easy to lose the page while laughing. Whether or not you believe in heaven you can easily enjoy this book. It challenges you to look at life in a whole new way. As in "The Lunatic" and "The Painted Canoe", The Duppy is not deficient in Winkler's unapologetic portrayal of sexual experiences. All in all this book will make you smile at Jamaican livelihood and life in general.

Anthony Winkler is a very wise man.
At first I thought I was going to HATE this book because Winkler was using the term "ole neygar" (the verbal equivalent of nigger) throughout the book. Sure, as a white Jamaican and therefore an insider within the culture, Winkler has the RIGHT to use the term, but the term could never be use to describe him, so the words hurt.
But then as I read the book, I realized the compassion and I came to the realization that ONLY Winkler could have written this book. ONLY Winkler because he knows the hurt that these words can cause. A black Jamaican would have been too afraid to use the term for it would sting, and an outsider would never understand the complexity of the relationships to be able to write such a healthful, satirical and funny novel. And it is an extremely funny novel. Winkler lays bare our deepest foibles and fears and reveals our greatest strength as a people who can embrace absurdity and joy at the deepest, most transcendent level. He also shows that we are capable of the most sublime religious thought.
Old neygar could have hurt me. But I gave up my hurt and laughed.
Laughed at the absurdity of Baps' condition, my island, my people, my hurt.
Winkler forced me to realize that any book worth its salt, MUST hurt you in some way or it's not worth reading. Anything else is pure escapism, and if you want that, watch television.
A book that hurts you forces you to give up your prejudices and biases and the hurts that turn you into a prisoner of your own past and prejudices.
He also made me realize why I've never been happy in America-a land of happiness, but no joy. The American heaven is a mirthless one for it cannot, will not affirm life or joy.
The Duppy is a book to be read by EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE and at ANY TIME.
Congratulations, Mr. Winkler!

I looked at this book in my local bookstore, and couldn't buy it, because it was unpleasant to read. The paper was thin and extremely bright white, while the typeface was too pale. Inserted examples were in Courier type, as if people still use typewriters--these inserts were even more difficult to read. These major flaws made the book unusable to me.

I teach an English Composition course at a small community college. The course focuses on writing research papers of 12-15 pages. Most of our students have no experience in citing sources. I have found the Winkler and McCuen book helpful in teaching them the two principle annotation styles, as well as in guiding students through the process of writing the research paper itself. The book also includes instructions for citing electronic sources according to MLA and APA style formats. The fifth edition of the book, with its spiral binding and and tabs, is, in my opinion, a very useful tool for students who are writing their first research papers. Of course, the book must necessarily abbreviate some of the information regarding MLA and APA formats, so we also have available, in our college library, both of the official style manuals for these research paper formats. However, for the students' own suppementary "textbook," I have found this text a very worthwhile choice.

I gave this book 5 stars because it has everything you need to write a research paper in it. It goes from the cover page all the way through to the bibliography. It also is very well organized, so if you're just looking for one certain part, it's easy to find.