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God Carlos
A Finalist for the 2014 Townsend Prize for Fiction!
God Carlos has been long-listed for the OMC Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature in Trinidad.
"A gusty, boisterous, and entertaining slice of historical fiction. In scenes of a mixture of pride, madness, and comedy, Carlos plays out his role as deity among the naked islanders, living a fantasy that most readers will find believable, if horrific. Along with the horror, the book does offer some beautiful moments of discovery, as when, as Winkler narrates, the ship takes the Mona Passage to Jamaica...we hear of an Edenic island, green and aromatic, opened like a wildflower. For all of its scenes of braggadocio and brutality, the book often works on you like that vision."
-- Alan Cheuse, NPR, All Things Considered
"Readers are transported to Jamaica, into Winkler's richly invented 16th century, where his flawless prose paints their slice of time, in turn both brutally graphic and lyrically gorgeous. Comic, tragic, bawdy, sad, and provocative, this is a thoroughly engaging adventure story from a renowned Jamaican author, sure to enchant readers who treasure a fabulous tale exquisitely rendered."
-- Library Journal
"A tale of the frequently tragic--and also comic--clash of races and religions brought on by colonization...Anthony Winkler spins an enlightened parable, rich in historical detail and irony."
-- Shelf Awareness
"Darkly irreverent...With a sharp tongue, Winkler, a native of Jamaica, deftly imbues this blackly funny satire with an exposé of colonialism's avarice and futility."
-- Publishers Weekly
"With perceptive storytelling and bracing honesty, Mr. Winkler, author of a half-dozen well-reviewed books, has a lovely way of telling a good story and educating concurrently... God Carlos teaches history in a subtle but meaningful way. Too literary to be lumped in with typical historical fiction, and too historical to be lumped in with typical literary fiction, God Carlos defies categorization."
-- New York Journal of Books
" God Carlos provides a welcome opportunity to glimpse...the lives of ordinary people, both European and Caribbean, as they experience the calamitous effects of the encounter of two worlds."
-- A Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language, & Culture
"The author's piercing narrative drives home...Here, Winkler's brilliance as a storyteller is unmistakable... God Carlos is a literary tour de force--atmospheric and incisive. It effuses raw emotion--perplexing, bewildering, and dark...On multiple levels, Winkler proves his salt as a genuine raconteur...the architect of an invaluable literary work."
-- The Jamaica Gleaner
"Well-written...Winkler's descriptions of sea and sky as seen from a sailing ship, and of the physical beauty of Jamaica, are spot-on and breathtaking."
-- Historical Novel Review
"In God Carlos and The Family Mansion , Anthony Winkler, the master storyteller, has provided us with texts of both narrative quality and historical substance that should find place in the annals of Caribbean literature."
-- SX Salon
God Carlos transports us to a voyage aboard the Santa Inez, a Spanish sailing vessel bound for the newly discovered West Indies with a fortune-seeking band of ragtag sailors. She is an unusual explorer for her day, carrying no provisions for the settlers, no seed for planting crops, manned by vain, arrogant men looking for gold in Jamaica.
Expecting to make landfall in paradise after over a month at sea, the crew of the Santa Inez instead find themselves in the middle of a timid, innocent people--the Arawaks--who walk around stark naked without embarrassment and who venerate their own customs and worship their own Gods and creeds. The European newcomers do not find gold, only the merciless climate that nourishes diseases that slaughter them. That the Arawaks believed that the arrivals were from heaven makes even more complicated this impossible entanglement of culture, custom, and beliefs, ultimately leading to mutual doom.
God Carlos has been long-listed for the OMC Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature in Trinidad.
"A gusty, boisterous, and entertaining slice of historical fiction. In scenes of a mixture of pride, madness, and comedy, Carlos plays out his role as deity among the naked islanders, living a fantasy that most readers will find believable, if horrific. Along with the horror, the book does offer some beautiful moments of discovery, as when, as Winkler narrates, the ship takes the Mona Passage to Jamaica...we hear of an Edenic island, green and aromatic, opened like a wildflower. For all of its scenes of braggadocio and brutality, the book often works on you like that vision."
-- Alan Cheuse, NPR, All Things Considered
"Readers are transported to Jamaica, into Winkler's richly invented 16th century, where his flawless prose paints their slice of time, in turn both brutally graphic and lyrically gorgeous. Comic, tragic, bawdy, sad, and provocative, this is a thoroughly engaging adventure story from a renowned Jamaican author, sure to enchant readers who treasure a fabulous tale exquisitely rendered."
-- Library Journal
"A tale of the frequently tragic--and also comic--clash of races and religions brought on by colonization...Anthony Winkler spins an enlightened parable, rich in historical detail and irony."
-- Shelf Awareness
"Darkly irreverent...With a sharp tongue, Winkler, a native of Jamaica, deftly imbues this blackly funny satire with an exposé of colonialism's avarice and futility."
-- Publishers Weekly
"With perceptive storytelling and bracing honesty, Mr. Winkler, author of a half-dozen well-reviewed books, has a lovely way of telling a good story and educating concurrently... God Carlos teaches history in a subtle but meaningful way. Too literary to be lumped in with typical historical fiction, and too historical to be lumped in with typical literary fiction, God Carlos defies categorization."
-- New York Journal of Books
" God Carlos provides a welcome opportunity to glimpse...the lives of ordinary people, both European and Caribbean, as they experience the calamitous effects of the encounter of two worlds."
-- A Journal of Caribbean Literature, Language, & Culture
"The author's piercing narrative drives home...Here, Winkler's brilliance as a storyteller is unmistakable... God Carlos is a literary tour de force--atmospheric and incisive. It effuses raw emotion--perplexing, bewildering, and dark...On multiple levels, Winkler proves his salt as a genuine raconteur...the architect of an invaluable literary work."
-- The Jamaica Gleaner
"Well-written...Winkler's descriptions of sea and sky as seen from a sailing ship, and of the physical beauty of Jamaica, are spot-on and breathtaking."
-- Historical Novel Review
"In God Carlos and The Family Mansion , Anthony Winkler, the master storyteller, has provided us with texts of both narrative quality and historical substance that should find place in the annals of Caribbean literature."
-- SX Salon
God Carlos transports us to a voyage aboard the Santa Inez, a Spanish sailing vessel bound for the newly discovered West Indies with a fortune-seeking band of ragtag sailors. She is an unusual explorer for her day, carrying no provisions for the settlers, no seed for planting crops, manned by vain, arrogant men looking for gold in Jamaica.
Expecting to make landfall in paradise after over a month at sea, the crew of the Santa Inez instead find themselves in the middle of a timid, innocent people--the Arawaks--who walk around stark naked without embarrassment and who venerate their own customs and worship their own Gods and creeds. The European newcomers do not find gold, only the merciless climate that nourishes diseases that slaughter them. That the Arawaks believed that the arrivals were from heaven makes even more complicated this impossible entanglement of culture, custom, and beliefs, ultimately leading to mutual doom.
215 pages, Paperback
First published August 30, 2012
69 people are currently reading
115 people want to read
About the author
Anthony C. Winkler
58 books38 followersAnthony C. Winkler was a successful Jamaican novelist and popular contributor to many post-secondary English literary texts.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
April 12, 2022
While God Carlos is fictional, the history of the Taino people in Jamaica is not, nor is their cruel genocide at the hands of colonial era Spaniards and the facts shared in this story stand as a testament to that.
Full review to come.
Full review to come.
December 23, 2016
If you can get past the over vulgar first chapter, this is a remarkable accurate read about the ship Santa Inez' journey to Jamaica in 1520 and the ascension of a seaman named Carlos to God status, if only in his mind. His treatment of the Arawak natives on Jamaica was the beginning of the end of a people and their culture. Mesmerizing account of that brutal time period!
March 16, 2014
A wonderful, funny and disturbing novel about human nature, vulnerability, cruelty, vanity. Also a great example of a quietly omniscient, non-intrusive third-person narrator. I enjoyed every page of it. Highly recommended.
April 18, 2014
Carlos is a typical Spanish sailor of the 16th century. He lives moment to moment, with his only thoughts of the future being related to heaven. The church has so embedded within him their doctrine, that for each act he commits that he believes to be sinful, absolution can be found. He carries guilt, but also knows that he can purify himself with a trip to the confessional.
Carlos, being out of money, signs on to a ship sailing for Jamaica. The goal of the voyage is to leave a legacy for the ship's owner by having a geographic feature named after him.
While this is a story of a voyage, it is also a story of contact between European and the Arawak people. In typical European manner, the Spanish treat the Arawak worse than dogs. Feeling that they are less than human the slaughter them at will, abuse their women, and begin the destruction of these people. And yet, there are those among the Arawak who view the Spaniards as Gods.
For once in his life, Carlos is treated in a manner that befits his own fantasies.
I picked this book up on the recommendation of the people at A Different Booklist. I like historical fiction, and this seemed an interesting look at life in the 16th century.
I finished the book because I wanted to know more about the Arawak. I have heard of these people, but knew very little.
I would recommend this book to My friend, Mark( not Mark my student). He's from Jamaica, and this might merge with what he already knows about the history of his birth place.
Carlos, being out of money, signs on to a ship sailing for Jamaica. The goal of the voyage is to leave a legacy for the ship's owner by having a geographic feature named after him.
While this is a story of a voyage, it is also a story of contact between European and the Arawak people. In typical European manner, the Spanish treat the Arawak worse than dogs. Feeling that they are less than human the slaughter them at will, abuse their women, and begin the destruction of these people. And yet, there are those among the Arawak who view the Spaniards as Gods.
For once in his life, Carlos is treated in a manner that befits his own fantasies.
I picked this book up on the recommendation of the people at A Different Booklist. I like historical fiction, and this seemed an interesting look at life in the 16th century.
I finished the book because I wanted to know more about the Arawak. I have heard of these people, but knew very little.
I would recommend this book to My friend, Mark( not Mark my student). He's from Jamaica, and this might merge with what he already knows about the history of his birth place.
June 18, 2019
This is one I won’t be forgetting soon. Fictional account of an exploration of the Spanish ship Santa Inez to Jamaica in 1520. The author clearly has detailed knowledge of sailing ships and nautical terms, and his descriptions of the islands are breathtaking. Interesting history of native Indian tribes and their interactions with Europeans. I didn’t find it “darkly funny” or “boisterously entertaining” as some reviewers did. It was gritty, & realistic, & horrifying to read about the violence of that time. Would have given 4 stars except for: 1. The first chapter is unnecessarily graphically vulgar and not particularly relevant to the story. 2. The annoying habit of many authors to lapse into too many forced similes.
February 11, 2016
Quite an interesting book! The author Anthony C. Winkler is one of Jamaica's prominent and distinguished writers. He writes of early explorers discovering the "New World", one being Carlos. The author has a distinctive lyrical prose that lends itself to wonderful storytelling. While this is a work of fiction, there is quite a bit of history that makes its way into the pages that's so interesting. When the two worlds collide, like most of history, the outcomes are disastrous and so sad. For those that might be offended, I will say that there is quite a lot of descriptive sexual content in the book.
March 20, 2023
Anthony Winkler took the colonization of the Caribbean and told a story that is freshly horrific and personal. There are no good people in this story, only naive people, cunning people, foolish people, selfish people, and people in denial. When a crowd of such humans gets together, with a language barrier thrown into the mix, the results are tragic and real.
September 29, 2012
Not his best... the characters were neither as well rounded as his former novels nor was there the usual touch of Winkler humour. He is better at capturing characters from his era (20th -21st century) rather than delving into the historic.
December 15, 2017
It almost lost my interest. But I finished it. Heavy handed on the historical facts, but that’s ok.
March 23, 2025
Thought-provoking and informative, whilst still weaving an emotionally evocative story, God Carlos fits well into its genre of post colonial historical fiction. God Carlos gives us a different view of the Spanish empire, from the bottom, the disenfranchised and marginalized. It’s not a view we often get and I appreciated that.
The novel centers of Carlos, a Spanish sailor, on his journey to Jamaica in 1520, and an Arawak young man, Orocobix, who encounters Carlos and the Spanish ship and its crew. It is a novel about “first encounters.”
Winkler’s characters — especially the eponymous one, Carlos de la Fernandez (you’ll have to excuse me for forgetting all of Carlos’ other names) — are well developed and fleshy, down to their vices. Readers may not LIKE them, but that bitterness is part of Winkler’s intent.
The prose is straightforward and succinct. Winkler doesn’t dally on events, and the novel moves at a good pace. Winkler lets the story tell itself in many ways, delivering — here I paraphrase Colibri — explanations instead of truths. Readers should expect to read between the lines, come to their own conclusions, fill in the significance of what characters say and don’t say, do and avoid. Absence of action is, after all, still a choice.
This was time well spent for me.
The novel centers of Carlos, a Spanish sailor, on his journey to Jamaica in 1520, and an Arawak young man, Orocobix, who encounters Carlos and the Spanish ship and its crew. It is a novel about “first encounters.”
Winkler’s characters — especially the eponymous one, Carlos de la Fernandez (you’ll have to excuse me for forgetting all of Carlos’ other names) — are well developed and fleshy, down to their vices. Readers may not LIKE them, but that bitterness is part of Winkler’s intent.
The prose is straightforward and succinct. Winkler doesn’t dally on events, and the novel moves at a good pace. Winkler lets the story tell itself in many ways, delivering — here I paraphrase Colibri — explanations instead of truths. Readers should expect to read between the lines, come to their own conclusions, fill in the significance of what characters say and don’t say, do and avoid. Absence of action is, after all, still a choice.
This was time well spent for me.
January 22, 2019
Outside of that first chapter, pretty good.
February 19, 2020
historic novel very easy read about jamaica and some of the effects of Spanish exploration into the new world. I will probably read the 2 following books.
March 18, 2021
A strange tale. I liked that the historical information didn't make me feel that I was being lectured but it sort of fizzled out at the end.
April 1, 2021
A fictionalized account of Jamaica. A little odd and a bit slow.
May 24, 2021
Wasn't what I expected. I expected a sweeping tale and this was more a meditation on the clash of cultures. But I enjoyed it very much.
Read
November 9, 2021Had to quit. Didn't need fools and idiots and "civilized men" raping and conquering right now. Prob'ly won't revisit.
Read
November 12, 2021only okay
June 14, 2021
1520 - Good sailing descriptions. Interesting Spanish and Jamaican history. Plot was meh.
September 29, 2013
Discover what happens when ego, which was paramount to the Spanish invasions under the 15th century guise of "missionary work", meets a simple and kind race of people who are eager to trust and believe that all are good and all that are prophesied to land on their islands are to be considered "gods". I remember when someone who had been to Jamaica told me that the Arawak had never seen, nor could fathom, ships as big as those sailed by the 15th and 16th century English and Spanish. When the men aboard came close to the shores, the indigenous people of the area thought them Gods and thought these visitors walked on water straight down from the heavens because they basically could not "see" the ships. God Carlos teaches you that not all what you hope for is good. God may be evil....then what do you do? What you do in this case, is test God's ability to survive. What I also learned from this book: Syphilis is endemic to the Arawak Indians of the Caribbean? I must look this up. What does this mean for those of the South Pacific when Gauguin? Quite a penance for nearly wiping out a race to extinction.
October 25, 2012
Very readable and quick, though the intended audience seems muddled. It would seem that this book is intended for adolescents who are quite comfortable with vivid sexual and violent scenes, though I found it quite enjoyable as an adult. The book is peppered with historical context and solid prose that keeps the reader engaged with a real history and thoughtful reflection on the world and characters in it.
Shelved as 'specially-requested'
March 31, 2014
November 27, 2012
I want that hour and change in time back. Book could have been much better.
August 12, 2016
Imagined history of Jamaica. Too brutal on women. Men are all pigs. Not really enjoyable but a fast read. Won the Townsend Prize 2014.
Want to read
December 9, 2012NPR recommendation
April 19, 2013
Funny.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews