In this riveting autobiography, former journalist/author, Joan Williams shares numerous dangerous and transfixing experiences that occurred during her participation in the undeclared civil war which wreaked havoc in her country, Jamaica, between 1977-1980. This conflict resulted from the determination of most of the island’s citizens, to prevent socialism/communism from taking over their country during the cold war era. During that period, the island was invaded by operatives from the Russian KGB, Cuban DGI, and American CIA, all assisting the side they favored and arming the combatants. Chronicling her own political activism and fight during that period, Williams, then a young mother, adopted a slogan from the late civil rights activist Martin Luther King that Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter, as her mantra. This caused her to make heart-wrenching sacrifices to keep her small island out of the clutches of the communists. The most devastating sacrifice she said she had to make, was having to send her children away out of harm’s way.With the current alarming developments in Venezuela which include shortages of basic goods, government-sanctioned violence, threats to press freedom and the liberty, continuously being on the front pages, Looking Back is especially relevant as many of the political happenings there mirror what is outlined as having occurred in Jamaica during their cold war era. This book will also provide a guide to Americans who are not aware of what socialism really is about. However, reflecting on where her country is today, Williams at times questioned whether the efforts they made and the dangers they withstood to keep the communists at bay, were worth the effort? Then, in 2014, she took her fourth trip to Cuba, this time it was to meet family which she had recently discovered lived there. Seeing the depressing conditions, lack of hope etc. which she found there, she answers her own question with a definitive YES. In the heart-wrenching chapter entitled TO HELL AND BACK, Williams takes readers on the emotional roller coaster she tumbled helplessly on for years, when her 24-year-old son was murdered. She poignantly described how she reeled through numerous stages of grief, helplessness, agitation, inexplicable exhaustion disrupted by bouts of sobbing and the total desire to withdraw from the world. Losing a child, she concludes, is the worst tragedy that could ever befall a parent. For, while we expect the old to die, when our children go before us, that in itself disturbs the natural order and there are no short-term roads to recovery. She agrees with American author and mother of the late President John F. Kennedy, Rose Kennedy who wrote; It has been said that time heals all wounds. I don’t agree. The wounds remain. Time-the mind covers them with some scar tissue and the pain lessens, but it is never gone. Williams, says she was only able to start the journey to normalcy, on accepting Hellen Keller’s advice that; Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties. Looking back at her own cold case, her son’s murder, which the local police had shown no interest in solving at the time, Williams weighs the evidence and now arrives at a most startling conclusion about who really assassinated her only son! Moving to the lighter side, Williams explains how she got involved in journalism, rising to become a popular radio talk show host. She also shares with readers the influence various members of her family had on her, experiences with racism both at home and abroad and in a short hilarious chapter, tells readers about her experiments with ganja (marijuana) with which the name Jamaica has always been closely associated. Looking Back is almost impossible to put down and is indeed a must read.
