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HomeNewsArchivesIsland Expressions: Reuben 'Power Mac' Dowling

Island Expressions: Reuben 'Power Mac' Dowling

Sept. 7, 2008 — Local author Reuben "Power Mac" Dowling believes kids today don't get enough education — something he had to earn the hard way, in prison.
While serving time in a federal penitentiary, Dowling earned two associate's degrees and wrote three novels.
The novels came about after he took a creative-writing class while serving a 70-year sentence for armed robbery. Rene Hansin from Minneapolis Community College told him, "You can write better than you talk," Dowling says.
"She planted the seed in me to write," he says. "I wish I had started classes right away. I just lifted weights and was a convict the first three years."
He did work his way up to bench pressing 450 pounds.
The first novel, Mango Madness, was compiled from short stories he was assigned to write for class. The stories feature colorful scenes and local settings.
"I wrote them in longhand with a pencil," Dowling says.
At one point he had a computer, but prison authorities took it away from him, he says.
"These are stories I wanted to tell," Dowling says. "There is a lot of fact, but some fiction. Writers use stuff out of our lives."
Some of the stories are so hilarious and some so horrendous that the reader gets the feeling they have to be true.
Mango Madness is about growing up in Gallows Bay in the late 1950s and '60s with a boy nicknamed Mango as the main character. Anyone new to St. Croix can savor the snapshot history Dowling gives, while someone who lived there at the time might thank him for the revived memories.
"We had a lot of freedom growing up," Dowling says. "We had a lot of mothers around who watched over all of us."
His own mother, Ena Dowling, was always right, Dowling says, but he didn't always listen to her. There was a lot of love in Gallows Bay and a lot of fish to eat, he says.
Dowling spent a lot of time fishing, diving, swimming, boating and playing at Altoona Lagoon, where many chapters take the reader. Some feature a barracuda named Mr. Magic.
Mango Madness includes a factual story about a murder trial involving an eyewitness falsely testifying and running from the courtroom because of an incident caused by a well-known Obeah Queen, Madame Nadine.
The stories are of a time when the lives of youths were not as regimented with consumerism and brand names, and electronic gadgets were out of the picture. According to the book, it was a time when children and adults made their own kind of entertainment. The boys enjoyed watching Western movies and television shows such as "Maverick" and "Have Gun Will Travel," and then forming their own posses.
In the family stories Mango's Grandpa Paul tells the children stories of the gorilla tribe, which was "our tribe," according to Grandpa.
"We must always remember we were descended from mountain gorillas and not lowlanders and I am the silverback of this tribe," Grandpa says.
"I call myself a gorilla," Dowling says. "I ain't ashamed of ridin' with the gorilla tribe."
The second novel, A Sweet Sweet Julie Mango, begins in 1969 and goes through the '70s. In this book there are stories of school days at Central High School, girlfriends, football games and the Crucian Christmas Festival.
"The Caribbean Christmas spirit infected their hearts with joy and magic," Dowling writes.
It was a memorable time for him.
"I look back and festival village is like a magical fairytale," Dowling says.
In A Sweet Sweet Julie Mango, Dowling writes about Grandpa Paul telling Mango and his brother Kamahl how and when prejudices against other islanders came about. It paints a very clear picture for the reader why there are such feelings on St. Croix. At the end of the second book, Mango heads off to prison.
The third book is Big Mango, with Mango going from one federal prison to another. Dowling writes horrendous tales of life in prison. He describes beatings and the murder of prisoners by Ku Klux Klan guards and members of the Aryan Nation. He also tells of how awful it is to be locked up in solitary confinement.
The prison environment is predatory, Dowling says. He says he was stabbed 22 times while incarcerated.
"It is really survival of the fittest," Dowling says. "I used to smile a lot — I couldn't smile there. It's a man-made hell there."
He did a lot of smiling and laughing during an interview with the Source, however.
"I'm in a better setting now where I can do better writing," Dowling says. "I don't worry about going back. I don't do anything illegal. I just want to sell some books."
Dowling is working on his fourth book, the last one about prison, which he expects to finish in November.
Reading through all three books, a reader can feel Dowling mature as a writer as his narrator matures in the books.
Dowling has followed the most hallowed rule of writers: If you want to be a good writer, read, read and read more. He says he enjoyed reading many of the classic writers — Mark Twain, Leo Tolstoy and William Shakespeare. His fifth-grade teacher, Thomas Dodd at Juanita Gardine School, exposed him to Mark Twain and had an impact on his lifelong love for good writing, Dowling says.
He loved to read in prison and was afraid that once they found out how much he enjoyed it they would take his books away. He also enjoys the writing of local author Richard Schrader.
Dowling says he spent more than 20 years in prison. He feels his education and the publication of the three novels helped with an executive commutation of his 70-year sentence by then-Gov. Charles Turnbull in January 2007. A commutation reduces an inmate's sentence but leaves his criminal record intact. Turnbull read his first three novels, Dowling says.
He hopes to write 10 books, and his dream is to be discovered by Oprah. Dowling has also written a screenplay and would like to produce a movie. He does motivational talks at local schools, where he likes to keep it positive.
"I count my blessings," Dowling says.
His self-published books are sold on St. Croix at Treasure Attic, Undercover Books and Cultural Creations. They are sold at Book and Bean on St. John and Dockside Book Store on St Thomas.
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