|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Frequently Bought Together
Product Details
|
Product Description
Quill & Quire
In 2008, Montreal author Miguel Syjuco’s debut novel nabbed both the Man Asian Literary Prize and the Palanca Award (the Pulitzer of the Philippines) – quite a coup for a first book. Given the noisy buzz that the prestigious accolades generated, and the two-year wait for the book to appear in Canada, one might easily wonder whether it can live up to the hype. Ilustrado, however, exceeds all expectations.
When the body of Crispin Salvador – “the Panther of Philippine Letters” – is found bobbing in New York City’s Hudson River, Miguel, Salvador’s biographer, is convinced of foul play. After all, Salvador, who spent the last several years exiled in New York after a fall from grace with critics in his homeland, was on the cusp of completing the masterpiece that promised to revive his reputation and “return him to the pantheon.” Now, the manuscript, which was meant to reveal the unscrupulous malevolence of the Filipino ruling class, has gone missing. And so Miguel books a flight to Manila in search of answers.
But Ilustrado is not a crime novel. It’s an illustrious, evocative, intricate story that chronicles 150 years of Philippine history by employing a wide array of narrative mechanisms: newspaper clippings, blog rants, excerpts from Salvador’s colossal body of work, interview snippets, extracts from Miguel’s biography, and, of course, our protagonist’s own tumultuous journey through the “tapestry of disorder” he confronts in Manila. Miguel’s pursuit of Salvador’s manuscript is shaded by various “fingers of darkness” – his own familial disenfranchisement, a painful secret, the chaos of new love, and the random bombings and desperate protests that mark Manila’s socio-political unrest.
Miguel’s narration is often unreliable. There are out-and-out lies: “That part about my seatmate in the plane … didn’t happen exactly as I recounted.… From this point on, I should promise to tell the truth.” There are omissions: “I forgot to mention what happened last night…” And there are reluctant confessions: “I don’t know why I’m admitting this.” These levels of reliability brilliantly challenge notions of authenticity and make the book’s final twist all the more fascinating.
Like Salvador’s own writing, Syjuco’s “metal slugs of type bang like bullets into the white sky, leaving black letters suspended.” Ilustrado is a staggering, indelible debut.
Review
Ilustrado is a fantastic literary mystery that draws from the politics and poetics of Manila. It's written in a smart pastiche of fictional newspaper clippings, interviews and novel excerpts, and in the captivating voice of Miguel, a young writer who, far from Manila in his new Manhattan home, wants to piece together this puzzle of his hero's death. Ilustrado is global in all aspects of the story, and frank and unpretentious in every right-on detail. With originality and insight, Syjuco writes of romance and ambition between grad students and lit stars who connive to form a literary island of their own--one that threatens to distract and estrange Miguel from a deeper responsibility to his literary father and their shared past.
--Lee Henderson, Author of The Man Game
Through his vivid use of language, Syjuco has crafted a beautiful work of historical fiction that's part mystery and part sociopolitical commentary. Readers who enjoyed Junot Diaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao will enjoy this literary gem. --Joshua Finnell, Denison Univ. Lib., Granville, OH, The Library Journal (starred review)
An ambitious debut novel, winner of the Man Asian Literary Prize, introduces an author of limitless promise. First novels rarely show such reach and depth. --Kirkus (starred review)
"...dazzling... It is a virtuoso display of imagination and wisdom, particularly remarkable from a 31-year-old author; a literary landmark for the Philippines and beyond." --Michele Leber, Booklist (starred review)
...this imaginative first novel shows considerable ingenuity in binding its divergent threads into a satisfying, meaningful story. --Publisher's Weekly
"Vulnerable and mischievous, sophisticated and naive, Ilustrado explores the paradoxes that come with the search for identity and throws readers into the fragile space between self-pursuit and self-destruction. A novel about country and self, youth and experience, it is elegiac, thoughtful and original." --Colin McAdam, author of Fall and Some Great Thing
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most helpful customer reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ilustrado Expatriado,
By J Gonzalez (Oakville ON Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ilustrado (Hardcover)
I''ve waited a long time to get my hands on Ilustrado after learning it won both the Man Asian Prize for Literature and the Philippines' Palanca award in 2008 . When I finally got it, after prying a copy from a local bookseller before its official release date, I could not put it down.The story revolves around two characters: Crispin Salvador, a giant in Philippine literature, and Miguel, his young student. Syjuco weaves many themes in Ilustrado. The lives of Crispin and Miguel are set in the context of a multi-generational Filipino gothic tale of family, country, politics, corruption, crime, literary intrigue, love and post-colonial identity. Syjuco carries the voice of the Filipino expatriate with deep insight and wit. (Disclosure: I am a Filipina expatriate and, while I was born and raised there, I''ve lived in Canada longer than any other place.) Through Miguel''s youthful ramblings and Crispin''s erudite pronouncements, one gets a sense of their brooding and conflicted thoughts about life, alternating between the country and families they have left, and their temporary present lives. And, as if to remind us that Filipinos are not all angst, he provides glimpses of the humour, shallowness and the smut that are equally a part of this culture. But that''s not all. In the end, it' is Syjuco''s writing that got me. After finishing the book, I went back and re-read passages just to savor the beauty and strength of his prose. From the descriptions of his fellow Filipinos - "'the splay-toed, open-hearted'", "'slope-shouldered we are, freighted by absence" - t''o the natural and rhythmic dialogue he captures between Miguel and his Manila friends to display their hip but feckless lives, to the profound literary musings of Crispin, Syjuco delivers with style. Ilustrado is a demanding read for a number of reasons. John Barber of the Globe and Mail describes the book''s structure as a shattered mirror. The shards of glass represented by the various viewpoints in the book - the young Miguel, Crispin, through various excerpts of his writing, news clippings, and interviews, a narrator who pops up here and there, the fragments of text messages and jokes that provide cultural context - leave you with many impressions, not all contemporaneous or related. This might bother some readers looking for linear plot lines but it is truly an elegant and effective way of presenting the intertwined layers of Ilustrado. Syjuco sometimes lets big words invade his writing, rather like an angler being pulled by a big fish, but he quickly finds his way back to clear and flowing prose. As in any book whose context is culture-specific, the references to things Philippine may perplex or elude the reader. If so, I recommend finding a Filipino friend who will explain to you what a dwende is, what the traffic in Manila really feels like, or why Filipinos are particularly skilled in the silly alpha-numeric language of text-messaging. There are lots of reasons to read this book. If you' are a Filipino expatriate, or an expatriate of any nationality, dive into Syjuco''s world and listen to the echo of your own thoughts about country, identity, why you left and why you live where you are. If exploring other cultures through literature is your thing, learn about Filipino culture beyond the tired clichés assigned to it and look into its modern kaleidoscopic personality. If you enjoy authors whose use of language is infused with the sounds, structures and nuances of their global settings, get to know this superb young multicultural writer. I cannot wait for his second book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars
A difficult and unrewarding read,
By
This review is from: Ilustrado (Hardcover)
Unfortunately this first novel did not work at all for me. I made it through the first third, and I even did a bit of research on Filipino history to see if it wouldn't help, but it was hopeless. I have to say I did not expect such a highbrow, postmodern, fragmented, and ultimately pretentious book. It felt to me the author was trying too hard to be clever with the form and ended up neglecting very basic aspects of story-telling like dramatic structure, narrative structure, and pace.As a result, I was over one third of the way in the novel and did not care one iota for any of the characters, nor was I curious about the so-called "literary mystery." The only thing that could've kept me going was if I really cared about the setting: Filipino history and culture. And I didn't. As for the form--a blend of newspaper clippings, excerpts from novels, blog posts, interviews, and straightforward narrative--it is interesting enough at first, but once you realize it completely stifles any kind of progress in the novel, it quickly becomes an annoyance. At some point I thought I could just read diagonally through half of these fragments and not miss any important element of the plot. In the end I'd say it might be a good read for people who are very interested in Filipino history and culture, and are very patient with how that history and culture is delivered.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A novel of the highest order!,
By Canuck Baritone (Toronto, ON Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Ilustrado (Hardcover)
Quite simply, this is one of the best books of the decade!Already, Syjuco has been compared to writers like Salman Rushdie & David Mitchell and it is easy to see why; he challenges our concept of what a novel can be. As another review has stated, this is a difficult book to review. Using disparate sources (jokes, traditional linear narratives, interviews, diary entries and book excerpts), Syjuco fashions a tale of a young writer's search to find the missing manuscript of his mentor and friend, Crispin Salvador, and to uncover the truth behind the death of the Philippines' greatest writer. Along the way, we learn much about our protagonist (Miguel Syjuco), his mentor (Salvador) and the tumultuous history of the Philippines. This is not a quick (or easy) read, but the rewards are well worth the investment. Like all great books, Ilustrado asks as many questions as it answers, and it leaves you wanting/needing to reread it immediately. Luckily, thanks to Syjuco's beautiful prose, that is sheer pleasure!
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Want to see more reviews on this item?
|
Most recent customer reviews |
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
|
