Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
substitute if you can't. There's also a revealing history of
Filipino food.
Glenda Rosales-Barretto Flavors of the Philippines .
Rosales-Barretto is chief executive of cer of the popular
Via Mare restaurant chain in Manila, and what she doesn't
know about Filipino food isn't worth knowing. This lavishly
illustrated hardback highlights recipes region by region.
There's a classic Bicol Express, with lots of spices and fish
paste, but many of the recipes here are far from standard
- instead, modern variations feature, such as fresh
vegetarian pancake rolls with peanut sauce and roast
chicken with passionfruit.
FICTION
Cecilia Manguerra Brainard When the Rainbow Goddess
Wept . The moving story of Yvonne Macaraig, a young
Filipina during the Japanese invasion of the Philippines in
World War II; the myths and legends of Philippine folklore
sustain her despite the carnage all around. Though some of
Brainard's character development and language is uneven,
it's this connection with the rural, pre-Hispanic Philippines
that makes the topic so memorable. Brainard was born in
Cebu but emigrated to the US in 1968.
Jessica Hagedorn (ed) Manila Noir . Hagedorn's latest project
forms part of New York-based Akashic Books' Noir series, a
collection of compelling short stories with Manila as a focus for
Gothic, supernatural and crime genres. The plots might be
fictional but up-and-coming writers such as Gina Apostol and
Budjette Tan portray the city with uncanny realism.
F. Sionil José Dusk . This is the fifth book in the author's
acclaimed saga of the landowning Rosales family at the
end of the nineteenth century. It wouldn't be a quintessential
Filipino novel if it didn't touch on the themes of poverty,
corruption, tyranny and love; all are on display here, presented
through the tale of one man, a common peasant, and his
search for contentment. Dusk has been published in the US
in paperback, though you can always buy it from José's
bookshop, Solidaridad in Manila (see p.98).
F. Sionil José Ermita . Eminently readable novella that
atmospherically evokes the Philippines from World War II
until the 1960s and stands as a potent allegory of the
nation's ills. The Ermita of the title, apart from being the
mise en scène , is also a girl, the unwanted child of a rich
Filipina raped in her own home by a drunken Japanese
soldier. The story follows young Ermita, abandoned in
an orphanage, as she tries to trace her mother and then
sets about exacting revenge on those she feels have
wronged her.
José Rizal Noli Me Tángere . Published in 1886 (and
banned by the Spanish), this is a passionate exposure of
the double standards and the rank injustice of colonial rule;
it's still required reading for every Filipino schoolchild. It
tells the story of Crisostomo Ibarra's love for the beautiful
Maria Clara, infusing it with tragedy and significance of
almost Shakespearean proportions. Rizal's second novel
El Filibusterismo takes up Ibarra's story thirteen years later,
but the conclusion is just as bitter.
Miguel Syjuco Ilustrado . Winner of the 2008 Man Asian
Literary Prize, this gripping saga takes over 150 years of
Philippine history, as well as offering a scathing indictment
of corruption and inequity among the Filipino ruling classes.
Syjuco is a Filipino writer now based in Montreal.
THE PHILIPPINES IN FOREIGN LITERATURE
William Boyd The Blue Afternoon . Boyd has never been
to the Philippines, but spent hours researching the country
from England. In flashbacks, the novel moves from 1930s
Hollywood to the exotic, violent world of the Philippines in
1902, recounting a tale of medicine, the murder of American
soldiers and the creation of a magical flying machine.
Alex Garland The Tesseract . Alex Garland loves the
Philippines, so it's hardly surprising that the follow-up to
The Beach is set there. Garland may get most of his Tagalog
wrong, but his prose captures perfectly the marginal
existence of his characters. The story involves a foreigner
abroad, a villainous tycoon called Don Pepe, some urchins
and a beautiful girl. The characters may be clichéd, but
Garland's plot is so intriguing that it's impossible not to be
swept along by the baleful atmosphere the topic creates.
Jessica Hagedorn Dogeaters . Filipino-American Jessica
Hagedorn assembles a cast of diverse and dubious characters
that comes as close to encapsulating the mania of life in
Manila as any writer has ever come. Urchins, pimps, seedy
tycoons and corpulent politicos are brought together in a
brutal but beautiful narrative that serves as a jolting reminder
of all the country's frailties and woes.
James Hamilton-Paterson Ghosts of Manila .
Hamilton-Paterson's excoriating novel is haunting,
powerful and for the most part alarmingly accurate. Much
of it is taken from real life: the extra-judicial “salvagings”
(a local word for liquidation) of suspected criminals, the
corruption and the abhorrent saga of Imelda Marcos's
infamous film centre. From the despair and detritus, the
author conjures up a lucid story that is thriller, morality
play and documentary in one.
Timothy Mo Brownout on Breadfruit Boulevard . Mo wrote
this blunt satire of cultural and imperial domination in
1995 when he'd fallen out with his publisher (the topic is
still self-published), and his career subsequently fell off
a cliff; the novel starts with a now infamous sex scene
involving excrement. This story is much better than its sales
(and the first page) suggested, though, set in the fictional
town of Gobernador de Leon and following a motley bunch
of locals and foreigners attending a conference.
 
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