Released: Linda Ty-Casper’s A Small Party in a Garden: Revised and Critical Edition

PRESS RELEASE

PALH (Philip­pine Amer­i­can Lit­er­ary House) has released award-win­ning Lin­da Ty-Casper’s novel­la, A Small Par­ty in a Gar­den, Revised and Crit­i­cal Edi­tion. Referred to as a “nov­el of jus­tice” this edi­tion rein­tro­duces this impor­tant his­tor­i­cal fic­tion to a new gen­er­a­tion of read­ers. First pub­lished almost forty years ago, A Small Par­ty in a Gar­den is set in the Philip­pines dur­ing the Mar­cos Dic­ta­tor­ship. The story’s pro­tag­o­nist, a priv­i­leged woman who is the right-hand woman of Imel­da Mar­cos, learns first-hand what bru­tal­i­ty meant under Mar­cos’ Mar­tial Law. This revised and crit­i­cal edi­tion includes an intro­duc­tion by Dr. Char­lie Samuya Ver­ic (Pro­fes­sor at the Ate­neo de Mani­la Uni­ver­si­ty), an arti­cle by Dr. Lynn M. Grow, (Emer­i­tus Senior Pro­fes­sor of Eng­lish at Broward Col­lege), and some past book reviews of Ty-Casper’s novella.

Lin­da Ty-Casper is the author of over six­teen books, which gen­er­al­ly deal with Philip­pine his­tor­i­cal and polit­i­cal themes. She is the recip­i­ent of the SEA Write Award, UNESCO/P.E.N., Rock­e­feller Bel­la­gio, Rad­cliffe Fel­low­ships and oth­er awards. Her lit­er­ary work is con­sid­ered a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to Fil­ipino, Philip­pine Amer­i­can, as well as Asian Amer­i­can lit­er­a­ture. Her works of fic­tion are so pow­er­ful that two of her nov­els, Wings of Stone and Await­ing Tres­pass, were banned in the Philip­pines dur­ing the Mar­cos Dic­ta­tor­ship; the books were pub­lished in London.

Her recent books include the biog­ra­phy of her hus­band: Will You Hap­pen, Past the Silence, Through the Dark: Remem­ber­ing Leonard Ralph Casper, and Lives Remem­bered, A Mem­oir.

A Small Par­ty in a Gar­den: Revised and Crit­i­cal Edi­tion is eas­i­ly avail­able from Ama­zon, in book and dig­i­tal formats.

PRAISE:

Writ­ing in 1993, five years after the novel­la A Small Par­ty in a Gar­den was first pub­lished in 1988, NVM Gon­za­lez defined what he called the nov­el of jus­tice. “Liv­ing in the milieu of post­colo­nial and neo­colo­nial soci­eties,” he wrote, “we tend to for­get that impe­ri­al­ism dies hard.” Heavy is the bur­den of the Fil­ipino writer, Gon­za­lez said, who must write the nov­el of jus­tice where­in “the writer con­fig­ures a world out of life and lan­guage derived from colo­nial or post­colo­nial milieu.” The duty is heavy because the Fil­ipino writer must invent “strate­gies of nar­ra­tion in order to bring off the theme of oppres­sion, the ter­ri­to­ry pro­vid­ed by their per­cep­tions of the work­ings of empire.” In A Small Par­ty in a Gar­den, a milieu exists to plumb the Fil­ipino soul, span­ning the hor­ror, night­mare, and dis­grace of the choic­es we make on the long road to becom­ing free, to becom­ing post­colo­nial at last. (From the Intro­duc­tion) ~ Char­lie Samuya Ver­ic, Ph.D, Direc­tor, Lit­er­ary and Cul­tur­al Stud­ies Pro­gram, Ate­neo de Mani­la University

The read­er is entan­gled in a web of insights, impres­sions, emo­tions emerg­ing from the narrator’s mem­o­ries of an ear­li­er life fraught with inter­nal and exter­nal con­flicts … and final­ly as she devi­ates from her nor­mal dai­ly rou­tine only to be plunged into a shock­ing turn of events which leaves the read­er stunned and shocked. But only the inim­itable writer that is Lin­da Ty-Casper can deliv­er all these in a flu­id, rich lan­guage at times dense but smooth­ly flow­ing, at oth­er times sharp, point­ed, clear, unfor­giv­ing. And the read­er, charmed, amused, intrigued, amazed, is irrev­o­ca­bly caught. ~ Thel­ma E. Aram­bu­lo, Writer, Lit­er­ary Stud­ies Schol­ar, For­mer UP Chair of the Dept. of Eng­lish and Com­par­a­tive Literature

Tags: #philip­pine­books #fil­ipino­lit­er­a­ture #fil­ipinowriter #book­sphilip­pines