Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, book in Kindle

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08HPK6J7W

Harold Augen­braum reviewed the book in Manoa, say­ing: ““By pulling these per­son­al, fic­tion­al quests togeth­er, the read­er indeed comes away with a var­ied por­trait of Fil­ipinos in Amer­i­ca, not the expres­sion of dark causal­i­ty present in the ear­li­er gen­er­a­tions of writ­ers, such as Bulosan and Santos—those fan­tas­tic con­jurors of Fil­ipino Amer­i­can literature—but of peo­ple cau­tious­ly set­tling into what they hope will be a com­fort­able posi­tion … So many of these sto­ries con­vey lone­li­ness, dis­con­nect­ed­ness, and an inabil­i­ty to form last­ing attach­ments … This col­lec­tion abounds with such ten­sion … Brainard has done a fine job of bring­ing many lit­tle-known writ­ers – and the edgi­ness of Fil­ipinos in Amer­i­ca – to the fore. ”

The sto­ries in this col­lec­tion are var­ied. There are sto­ries set in the Philip­pines such as Luis Cabalquinto’s “The Fog,” N.V.M. Gon­za­lez’ “Con­fes­sions of a Dawn Per­son,” Mar Puatu’s “Valenti­nus,” and Mar­i­anne Villanueva’s “Sutil.” Told with humor and a touch of pathos, Veron­i­ca Montes’ “Of Midgets and Beau­ti­ful Cousins,” tells an Amer­i­can-born Fil­ip­ina girl’s Mani­la Vis­it. Eileen Tabios’s “Negros” and John Silva’s sul­try “Dol­ly Rivera” hear­ken the Mar­cos years in the Philippines.

On the oth­er hand, there are sto­ries focus­ing on the Fil­ipino Amer­i­can expe­ri­ence-among them are Mila Faraon Heubeck’s enchant­i­ng “The Pig-Slop Man,” Lee Respi­cio Colomby’s mov­ing “The Lost Hero,” and Alma Jill Dizon’s mourn­ful “Bride.”

Eulalio Yer­ro Ibarra’s “Paper­back Dreams and Oth­er Real­i­ties” jolts us with the con­tem­po­rary gay/AIDS issue. Nadine Sarreal’s “Hang, Man” reminds us of the Fil­ipino migrant work­ers in Hong Kong and oth­er parts of the world. The Fil­ipino Amer­i­can gang issue is dealt with by Lil­ia Vil­lanue­va in her sto­ry “My Gang/My Family.”

We have sto­ries about women: the head­strong Glen­da in Edgar Poma’s “The Lit­tle Boy Who Fell in the Puka;” the over­whelmed balik­bayan in Melis­sa Aranzamendez’s sto­ry; the tor­ment­ed wife in Lin­da Ty-CAsper’s “Dark Star/Altered Seeds.”

And we have sto­ries about men: the cyn­i­cal Bogey Reyes dur­ing the Viet­nam years who finds peace in the home­land of his father; the puz­zled young man in F. Delor Angeles’s “Grand­ma and Span­ish Women”; the down-to-earth ex-priests in Pauli­no Lim, Jr.’s “A Cer­tain Failing.”

The sto­ry by Greg Sar­ris, grand­son of Eulalio Helario, from Panay, who mar­ried a Coast Miwok Amer­i­can Indi­an, is part of this anthol­o­gy. Although Sarris’s con­tri­bu­tion, “Joy Ride,” has a strong Native Amer­i­can point of view, I have includ­ed it in this col­lec­tion because the writer’s his­to­ry adds to the greater pic­ture of the Fil­ipino in America.