February is the month of love. Here are 5 classic must-read novels that you can read this month, whether you … More
Tag: Literature
The Splendor of Portugal (and the Colonization of Angola)
António Lobo Antunes’ Splendor of Portugal is a splendid novel dealing with the ugliness of the Portuguese colonial enterprise in … More
Some Thoughts on the Death of Gabriel Garcia Marquez
I wrote this reflection for the Philippine Online Chronicles. I was reading the final pages of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s Of … More
Papa and Fidel: An Alternative Story of the Cuban Revolution
Papa and Fidel is about, in Karl Alexander’s own words, “what might have happened, what should have happened if Ernest … More
Airport Bookshops
Out of curiosity, while waiting to board my flight at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport the other day, I dropped by … More
Beyond Our Comfort Zones: On Pagbutlak, Literature and Politics
Tol, pasok ako sa UP! Pano ba yan, iwan mo na kami? Malabo, wala naman akong pang-tuition. —TV commercial The … More
Women’s Resistance and the Antigonean Power of Mourning in Ariel Dorfman’s Widows
In acts of defiance evocative of Antigone in Sophocles’ classic tragedy, the women protagonists of the Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman’s … More
Pleasures of the Text*
We need history, but not the way a spoiled loafer in the garden of knowledge needs it. –Nietzsche, Of the … More
A Critical Response to Genevieve Asenjo’s Lumbay ng Dila
On a personal note, I bought a signed copy of Genevieve L. Asenjo’s Lumbay ng Dila on a discounted price from … More
Taibo’s Four Hands
The beauty of it all was managing to weave it all together in a braid that would move through time … More
Blindness and Seeing
What if everybody goes blind all of a sudden? What would happen? Portuguese Nobel Prize-winning writer Jose Saramago follows the … More
Inspector Montalbano and The Terra-Cotta Dog
Andrea Camilleri’s The Terra-Cotta Dog starts out like any other good detective novel. The Sicilian sleuth Salvo Montalbano staged the … More