30th January 2010
CAREME and Other Stories
By McDonald Dixon
Reviewed By Modeste Downes

I had the distinct pleasure and privilege of reading Mc Donald Dixon’s exciting collection of short stories in manuscript form, and now I am happy to comment on the work post publication, with the hope of whetting the appetites of all who like to relax with a good book, wI am induced to say, by way of introduction, that I am heartened by the frequency and quality of local writers whose works are finding their way onto the shelves of booksellers, both here and abroad. Of course, I am not referring to the great bard, Hon. Derek Walcott, whose appetite for producing masterpieces has not declined despite ageing. His most recent publications include The Bounty, The Prodigal, and Tiepolo’s Hound. And I believe something is due out of press shortly. It is with the second and third tiers of local writers, so to speak, that I refer: the Hippolytes, the Lees, the Dixons; and the Aubertins, the Reynolds, the Trezelles, who have given us since 2000, a variety of titles in both prose and poetry.
It is my considered view, however, that Mc Donald Dixon is rapidly carving out a niche for himself as belonging to a class of his own. Except for Jacques Compton, who published three titles in 2009, Dixon, apart from being the only other local author to have released two books in one year, is the only one known to have published works in the three genres of poetry, the novel and the short story. His latest work, Careme and Other Stories, is preceded by the full-length novel Misbegotten, both coming out of Xlibris Corporation, USA, in 2009. In addition to his role as actor, playwright and director, Dixon was decorated in 2004 (?) for his accomplishments in the field of photography. A retired banker of many years, Dixon until recently, served as Trade Consultant to the government of St.Lucia.
Careme and Other Stories (196pp.) is a collection of seven stories, all originating from scraps of memory and creative intellect, and crafted against the St.Lucian milieu. For one thing, they are not of your typical Tim-Tim or Queek Quack routine; and for quite another, the characters that occupy the pages bear no trace of resemblance to those of the tedious Compere Lapin and other anonymities of traditional folklore. Yet, in a certain, analytical sense, the stories all bear the hallmark of traditional lore, and are thematic in that they depict aspects of St.Lucian life, culture and history as represented by current modes and by oral tradition. The Wake, for example, offers a mirror glimpse of goings-on at the house of mourning prior to burial.
In the title story, Careme, —which is coincidentally quite apropos to our prevailing weather circumstances—a young man, driven by hunger and lack of food in his home community, ventures into a small village en route to a neighbouring town in search of employment. At first, he is persuaded by the village’s perceived most maleficent character, Ma Celie, to stay on; and when, later, he attempts to leave, she invokes her hellish powers and compels him to perish the thought. Soon, he (Josephus Calazar) discovers her liaison with the devil and sets out to exorcise—or as we say in the vernacular, dégajé­—her. He enlists the parish priest who mounts a campaign not dissimilar to Michael the Archangel versus Lucifer himself. In the process both the man of cloth and Josephus barely escape with their lives, such is the satanic resistance offered by Ma Celie to the first blow from Josephus, and the exorcising rites and incantations of Father Devigneau. It is a tale told with deserving drama, suspense and finale. I proffer that perhaps with appropriate modifications, Careme could easily stand on its own as a novella.

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