America Is Not the Heart
A Novel
کتاب های مرتبط
- اطلاعات
- نقد و بررسی
- دیدگاه کاربران
نقد و بررسی
Starred review from January 1, 2018
Castillo’s debut, a contemporary saga of an extended Filipino family, is a wonderful, nonpareil novel. It opens with Paz, a long-suffering nurse from Vigan who, having immigrated to Milpitas, Calif., shoulders much of the responsibility for her entire family. Her husband, Pol, a member of the De Vera family in the Philippines and once a successful surgeon, had to flee due to political turmoil and take a job as a security guard in the U.S. When their niece Hero arrives, they take her in, and she leads the rest of the story. Hero is burdened with a disturbing political past that she silently carries with her as she spends her days driving Paz and Pol’s daughter, Roni, to school and to the faith healers that Paz finds to treat Roni’s eczema. Both Hero and Pol struggle to define themselves. While Hero cautiously tries out new friends and lovers of all ilks—most notably a makeup artist named Rosalyn—Pol’s crisis of identity will send him on a journey with Roni that threatens the tenuous American roots Paz has worked so hard to put down for the family. Castillo uses multiple languages—Tagalog, Pangasinan, Ilocano—and the strangest of tenses, hopping around in time and among her characters’ heads; that taking all of these risks pays off is a remarkable feat. The result is a brilliant and intensely moving immigrant tale. Agent: Emma Paterson, Rogers, Coleridge & White.
This is not your typical coming-of-age story. Hero De Vera arrives in America with mangled hands and a checkered family history. She's been disowned by her parents and is disoriented by her new surroundings, a plight that listeners will empathize with. Narrator Donnabella Mortel characterizes the mostly Filipino characters in this story of immigrant hopes and dreams with a punchy delivery and high energy. Hero's pluckiness is enhanced by Mortel, as are the personalities of the colorful aunts, uncles, and neighbors that make up her new community. Mortel dramatizes their roots without exploiting their status as foreigners. Her immersive performance places the listener within a multigenerational culture that is striving to make good on the American dream. M.R. � AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
دیدگاه کاربران