Odds & ends on amazons
July 13, 2001 | 12:00am
Bench-clearing time. Now and then I must engage in mopping-up operations, to wipe out the slate, sort of. Here then I scrimp on original text and share some e-mail correspondence on matters literary.
But not before I congratulate myself publicly for finally making it through the thick maze of traps and pitfalls for the cybernetically challenged, like myself, who have long heard of the treasures one can order from Amazon.com, but who’ve had their systems freeze upon contact.
Our 14-year-old son had long been on nag mode for possession of more of sci-fi cult legend Jack McKinney’s titles, in particular Books 7 to 9 in his Robotech series. We have Books 1 to 6, but the big boy swears he can’t sleep nights until he’s rewarded in the long hunt for Southern Cross, Metal Fire, and The Final Nightmare. And when he gets them, there are more to track down, i.e., Nos. 10 to 12 and Nos. 18 to 20.
Those collectibles aren’t anywhere in Hong Kong or Singapore, where I’ve upended bookshop shelves in ferocious foraging. I’ve asked Danton Remoto in upstate New York about it, and various other moneybag friends vacationing in the States. Nope, not available.
But trust Amazon to have copies of what’s out of print, I’ve been told. And so I’m happily informed by its website that the three select titles actually form a trilogy available in softcover, with a choice of first-hand or used copies. For $6.25 plus plus, a virgin edition can be mailed to any benighted address in the world, even one close to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center as the crow flies.
But the first time I tried to fill up my Amazon.com shopping cart, I wound up clawing at the old noggin for refusing to upgrade to New Economy transactions. A good thing I didn’t let frustration get the better of me. Finally I succeeded in my e-commerce efforts, and the book’s on its way. Or so I hope. Three weeks at most at the standard freight rate that costs more than the item, swears Amazon. Now tell that to the Pasig post office. Else my boy and I connive at arson, plunder or something.
I do hope the McKinney trilogy arrives soon, so I can order more stuff from Amazon. Such as some of the titles I’ll mention below.
Now here’s e-mail input from three other amazons, of the pulchritudinous sort, and whose networking should extend to other writers and lovers of lit. Make that brand-new literature, in particular of a fine diasporic quality, as in Fil-Am or expat Pinoy writing. From Reine Arcache Melvin aka "Bonnie" in Paris, whom we last saw at the Hong Kong Literary Festival in May:
"Hi! Any lit festivals lately? A review just came out in the Far Eastern Economic Review, cover date June 21 ("Filipino Diaspora Writes Home," on Luigi Francia, Nadine Sarreal and me) – I know Nadine has seen it (or will), but thought Luigi would be interested, and I don’t have his e-mail address. Would you pass on the info to him? He can see it on the Web at: http://www.feer.com/_0106_21/ p082current.html."
Well, turns out Mr. Francia has seen the piece, written by Hong Kong-based Jane Camens. When I have more time and can afford to surf the Internet, I’ll make sure to pick up some choice passages for sharing in this space. Thanks for now, Bonnie.
From MeritagePress@aol.com, which I have reason to suspect is run by poet, editor, art critic and culture impresario Eileen Tabios, who’s based in San Francisco:
"Recommended beach (or other summer venue) reading):
"As part of its ongoing efforts to promote Filipino literature, Meritage Press occasionally reviews recent works by Filipino authors. We recommend American Son.
"Brian Ascalon Roley’s first novel American Son (W.W. Norton, 2001) marks an auspicious debut with its tale of two Filipino brothers and their mother maneuvering their way through the chaotic world of first-generation immigrants in Los Angeles, California. The older brother Tomas fashions himself into a Mexican gangster and breeds pricey attack dogs to help support the family... abandoned by an alcoholic father. The narrator is younger brother Gabe who tries to transcend both his brother’s waywardness and the instability of a mother unable to provide guidance.
"The flatness of Roley’s writing is wonderfully deceptive. Its full-frontal style does not preclude moments of compassion, such that its story resonates deeply. The moments of tenderness, by offering contrast, serve to highlight the unflinching development of the narrative. Witness this first paragraph of Chapter One:
"‘Tomas is the son who helps pay the mortgage by selling attack dogs to rich people and celebrities. He is the son who keeps our mother up late with worry. He is the son who causes her embarrasment by showing up at family parties with his muscles covered in gangster tattoos and his head shaved down to stubble and his eyes bloodshot from pot. He is really half white, half Filipino but dresses like a Mexican, and it troubles our mother that he does this. She cannot understand why if he wants to be something he is not he does not at least try to look white. He is also the son who says that if any girlfriend criticized our mother or treated her wrong he would knock the bitch across the house.’
"A ‘tough love’ sentence, that last one. And, from the second-to-the-last sentence in that paragraph, you also might sense a Filipino accent on the English: that is, it’s not awkward phrasing so much as an authentic inclusion of how (first-generation) Filipinos talk. It’s a phraseology that Roley does occasionally throughout the novel, but in subtle ways and not too often so that it won’t be an irritating distraction from the unfolding of the plot.
"Ultimately, the brutality of the protagonists’ experience lingers longer in memory specifically because the writing style is so straightforward that it can seem matter of fact. (Those who have read Bino A. Realuyo’s The Umbrella Country, another Filipino coming-of-age novel, may wish to compare the two fictionists‚ writing styles for achieving a profoundly moving effect – but from almost opposite writing styles.) The two brothers‚ transition from boys to men brims with, but never totally lapses to, a searing hurt. Finally, Roley crafts an intriguing ending that makes unpredictable whether the brothers will become victims of their circumstances. It may be that the brothers (one, if not both) will survive/transcend their youth as Roley’s plot may also be read as a play on that theme, ‘What doesn’t kill one, will make one stronger.’
"…This is a book that is also worth reading for presenting, as Helen Zia (author of Asian American Dreams) aptly puts it, ‘a window to an Asian America that is rarely acknowledged.’ Roley’s novel is part of the diasporic literature that continues to show how foolish early generations were to consider the streets of ‘America’ to be (consistently) paved with gold."
Meritage or Tabios supplies the following brief bio for the latest of our Fil-Am writers to make a splash in the big pond that is American mainstream publishing.
"Author Brian Ascalon Roley was raised in Los Angeles and now lives in San Francisco. His work has appeared in such literary journals as Epoch and The Georgia Review. He received an MFA from Cornell University, where he won the Arthur Lynn Andrews award, and was later a lecturer. He was a finalist for the Piper’s Alley/Faulkner Novella Award."
Advance reviews of Roley’s first book have been positive. Here’s a sampling:
"A searing look at the immigrant experience.... Roley explores this omnipresent yet usually invisible story of contemporary American immigrant life with an easy exactitude and a dry, unmerciful eye... What’s most memorable, and most disturbing, is how Roley subtly renders the difference between thsoe who make the journey to America and those who are born out of their hopes." – Salon.com, a Best-of-May pick
"Not since Danny Santiago’s award-winning Famous All Over Town came out in the early 1980s and pursued the shifting, sometimes brutal meaning of multi-cultural identity has there been as compelling a coming-of-age story out of Los Angeles. Brian Roley with his debut novel American Son joins Junot Diaz, Sandra Cisneros, Naomi Shihab Nye, and a handful of others who are forging in fiction the new identity of race." – Tom Jenks, editor of Hemingway’s Garden of Eden
Thanks, Meritage Press. Thanks, Eileen.
From Lara Stapleton, New York-based Fil-Am author of an outstanding fiction collection I’ve reviewed in this space:
"Announcing the release of The Thirdest World, stories by Gina Apostol, Eric Gamalinda, and Lara Stapleton, published by Factory School.
"Order the chapbook from www. factoryschool.org, or come by the book parties (information below) and pick them up!
"If you are interested in teaching the chapbook, please e-mail us at thirdestworld@hot mail.com. If you teach the chapbook, the writers will answer e-mail interviews, or visit your class if feasible. Please forward to friends who teach appropriate courses! "
"The Thirdest World includes: a manifesto, short stories by Gina Apostol, Eric Gamalinda, and Lara Stapleton, and an essay about ‘the immigrant novel" by Lara Stapleton."
A Pre-Launch Party will be held at Zinc Bar this coming Friday the 13th, at 7 p.m. But that’s in New York the city and not the street off Cubao, and Pareng Eric hasn’t sent airline tickets to guarantee full trans-Pacific documentation.
Then there’s a Launch Party at the Asian American Writers‚ Workshop on W. 32nd St. on Thursday, July 17. Perhaps Mareng Gina will send the tickets and we can make it on time. Otherwise, we’ll just have to content ourselves with knowing that "the writers will be doing two different performances, real performances, not fiction-droning."
More on the historic chapbook from Lara:
"The manifesto: posits a reconception of our place as Third-World writers.
"Short Stories: all set in the Philippines.
"‘Cunanan’s Wake’ by Gina Apostol. This is the story of a small Philippine barrio’s obsession with the flight of their infamous American relative. A subtle, oblique discussion of post-colonial pathos.
"‘I’m Not Here, This Isn’t Happening‘ by Eric Gamalinda. A young Filipino boy learns about honor and betrayal, as well as flying saucers, while competing for his school’s honor in the National Spelling Bee Competition.
"‘Until It Comes to You’ by Lara Stapleton. A Filipino-American woman rehearses (researches?) schizophrenia amongst Manila night life. This piece takes a particular interest in narrative, its reaches and limitations.
"The essay: ‘Some Thoughts on the American Immigrant Novel’ by Lara Stapleton. Originally published in Poets and Writers, this essay questions the reign of the identity novel.
"The Writers:
"Gina Apostol was born in Manila and attended the University of the Philippines and the John Hopkins University. She was awarded the Manila Critics Circle National Book Award for Fiction in 1997 for her first novel.
NVM Gonzalez, the great Filipino man of letters, wrote that ‘Apostol has a gift of the kind for the likes of us eager for language, able to make more vivid than perceived the meaning of our lives.’
"Eric Gamalinda was born in Manila and emigrated to the U.S. in 1993. His fourth novel My Sad Republic was awarded the Philippine Centennial Prize in 1998. His book of poems, Zero Gravity, was awarded the Asian American Literary Prize in 2000.
"Lara Stapleton was born and raised in East Lansing, Michigan. She also lived in Manila as a child. Her first book of short stories, The Lowest Blue Flame Before Nothing, was an Independent Bookseller’s Selection and Pen Open Book Committee Selection. ‘Stapleton, a tremendous new talent...’ wrote Laurie Stone, of The Village Voice, in 1999.
And lastly, "For more information, contact: Lara Stapleton (212) 254-93-15 or visit www.factoryschool.org (or contact) thirdestworld@hotmail.com."
Thanks, Lara.
I’ve read Ms. Stapleton’s brilliant essay, sent as hardcopy by Ms. Tabios at a snap of, uhh, her fingers. That is, upon a gentlemanly request. And for this "manifesto" alone, the chapbook should be worth ordering. Add the stories by a trio of gifted writers, and those airline tickets should come soon at a snap of the Fil-Am wand, so we can bring back oven-fresh copies.
I do wish I can have that chapbook for my Fiction class at the Ateneo. I also wish I can have Roley’s American Son in my hands soon. But then I’ve long wished for Oliver de la Paz’s Names Above Houses, a poetry collection that Eileen Tabios had recommended sometime back. And it still has to make its way here. Can’t be masterful with my snapdragon fingers all the time. Guess I’ll be clicking on some Amazon.com boxes again soon.
But not before I congratulate myself publicly for finally making it through the thick maze of traps and pitfalls for the cybernetically challenged, like myself, who have long heard of the treasures one can order from Amazon.com, but who’ve had their systems freeze upon contact.
Our 14-year-old son had long been on nag mode for possession of more of sci-fi cult legend Jack McKinney’s titles, in particular Books 7 to 9 in his Robotech series. We have Books 1 to 6, but the big boy swears he can’t sleep nights until he’s rewarded in the long hunt for Southern Cross, Metal Fire, and The Final Nightmare. And when he gets them, there are more to track down, i.e., Nos. 10 to 12 and Nos. 18 to 20.
Those collectibles aren’t anywhere in Hong Kong or Singapore, where I’ve upended bookshop shelves in ferocious foraging. I’ve asked Danton Remoto in upstate New York about it, and various other moneybag friends vacationing in the States. Nope, not available.
But trust Amazon to have copies of what’s out of print, I’ve been told. And so I’m happily informed by its website that the three select titles actually form a trilogy available in softcover, with a choice of first-hand or used copies. For $6.25 plus plus, a virgin edition can be mailed to any benighted address in the world, even one close to the Veterans Memorial Medical Center as the crow flies.
But the first time I tried to fill up my Amazon.com shopping cart, I wound up clawing at the old noggin for refusing to upgrade to New Economy transactions. A good thing I didn’t let frustration get the better of me. Finally I succeeded in my e-commerce efforts, and the book’s on its way. Or so I hope. Three weeks at most at the standard freight rate that costs more than the item, swears Amazon. Now tell that to the Pasig post office. Else my boy and I connive at arson, plunder or something.
I do hope the McKinney trilogy arrives soon, so I can order more stuff from Amazon. Such as some of the titles I’ll mention below.
Now here’s e-mail input from three other amazons, of the pulchritudinous sort, and whose networking should extend to other writers and lovers of lit. Make that brand-new literature, in particular of a fine diasporic quality, as in Fil-Am or expat Pinoy writing. From Reine Arcache Melvin aka "Bonnie" in Paris, whom we last saw at the Hong Kong Literary Festival in May:
"Hi! Any lit festivals lately? A review just came out in the Far Eastern Economic Review, cover date June 21 ("Filipino Diaspora Writes Home," on Luigi Francia, Nadine Sarreal and me) – I know Nadine has seen it (or will), but thought Luigi would be interested, and I don’t have his e-mail address. Would you pass on the info to him? He can see it on the Web at: http://www.feer.com/_0106_21/ p082current.html."
Well, turns out Mr. Francia has seen the piece, written by Hong Kong-based Jane Camens. When I have more time and can afford to surf the Internet, I’ll make sure to pick up some choice passages for sharing in this space. Thanks for now, Bonnie.
From MeritagePress@aol.com, which I have reason to suspect is run by poet, editor, art critic and culture impresario Eileen Tabios, who’s based in San Francisco:
"Recommended beach (or other summer venue) reading):
"As part of its ongoing efforts to promote Filipino literature, Meritage Press occasionally reviews recent works by Filipino authors. We recommend American Son.
"Brian Ascalon Roley’s first novel American Son (W.W. Norton, 2001) marks an auspicious debut with its tale of two Filipino brothers and their mother maneuvering their way through the chaotic world of first-generation immigrants in Los Angeles, California. The older brother Tomas fashions himself into a Mexican gangster and breeds pricey attack dogs to help support the family... abandoned by an alcoholic father. The narrator is younger brother Gabe who tries to transcend both his brother’s waywardness and the instability of a mother unable to provide guidance.
"The flatness of Roley’s writing is wonderfully deceptive. Its full-frontal style does not preclude moments of compassion, such that its story resonates deeply. The moments of tenderness, by offering contrast, serve to highlight the unflinching development of the narrative. Witness this first paragraph of Chapter One:
"‘Tomas is the son who helps pay the mortgage by selling attack dogs to rich people and celebrities. He is the son who keeps our mother up late with worry. He is the son who causes her embarrasment by showing up at family parties with his muscles covered in gangster tattoos and his head shaved down to stubble and his eyes bloodshot from pot. He is really half white, half Filipino but dresses like a Mexican, and it troubles our mother that he does this. She cannot understand why if he wants to be something he is not he does not at least try to look white. He is also the son who says that if any girlfriend criticized our mother or treated her wrong he would knock the bitch across the house.’
"A ‘tough love’ sentence, that last one. And, from the second-to-the-last sentence in that paragraph, you also might sense a Filipino accent on the English: that is, it’s not awkward phrasing so much as an authentic inclusion of how (first-generation) Filipinos talk. It’s a phraseology that Roley does occasionally throughout the novel, but in subtle ways and not too often so that it won’t be an irritating distraction from the unfolding of the plot.
"Ultimately, the brutality of the protagonists’ experience lingers longer in memory specifically because the writing style is so straightforward that it can seem matter of fact. (Those who have read Bino A. Realuyo’s The Umbrella Country, another Filipino coming-of-age novel, may wish to compare the two fictionists‚ writing styles for achieving a profoundly moving effect – but from almost opposite writing styles.) The two brothers‚ transition from boys to men brims with, but never totally lapses to, a searing hurt. Finally, Roley crafts an intriguing ending that makes unpredictable whether the brothers will become victims of their circumstances. It may be that the brothers (one, if not both) will survive/transcend their youth as Roley’s plot may also be read as a play on that theme, ‘What doesn’t kill one, will make one stronger.’
"…This is a book that is also worth reading for presenting, as Helen Zia (author of Asian American Dreams) aptly puts it, ‘a window to an Asian America that is rarely acknowledged.’ Roley’s novel is part of the diasporic literature that continues to show how foolish early generations were to consider the streets of ‘America’ to be (consistently) paved with gold."
Meritage or Tabios supplies the following brief bio for the latest of our Fil-Am writers to make a splash in the big pond that is American mainstream publishing.
"Author Brian Ascalon Roley was raised in Los Angeles and now lives in San Francisco. His work has appeared in such literary journals as Epoch and The Georgia Review. He received an MFA from Cornell University, where he won the Arthur Lynn Andrews award, and was later a lecturer. He was a finalist for the Piper’s Alley/Faulkner Novella Award."
Advance reviews of Roley’s first book have been positive. Here’s a sampling:
"A searing look at the immigrant experience.... Roley explores this omnipresent yet usually invisible story of contemporary American immigrant life with an easy exactitude and a dry, unmerciful eye... What’s most memorable, and most disturbing, is how Roley subtly renders the difference between thsoe who make the journey to America and those who are born out of their hopes." – Salon.com, a Best-of-May pick
"Not since Danny Santiago’s award-winning Famous All Over Town came out in the early 1980s and pursued the shifting, sometimes brutal meaning of multi-cultural identity has there been as compelling a coming-of-age story out of Los Angeles. Brian Roley with his debut novel American Son joins Junot Diaz, Sandra Cisneros, Naomi Shihab Nye, and a handful of others who are forging in fiction the new identity of race." – Tom Jenks, editor of Hemingway’s Garden of Eden
Thanks, Meritage Press. Thanks, Eileen.
From Lara Stapleton, New York-based Fil-Am author of an outstanding fiction collection I’ve reviewed in this space:
"Announcing the release of The Thirdest World, stories by Gina Apostol, Eric Gamalinda, and Lara Stapleton, published by Factory School.
"Order the chapbook from www. factoryschool.org, or come by the book parties (information below) and pick them up!
"If you are interested in teaching the chapbook, please e-mail us at thirdestworld@hot mail.com. If you teach the chapbook, the writers will answer e-mail interviews, or visit your class if feasible. Please forward to friends who teach appropriate courses! "
"The Thirdest World includes: a manifesto, short stories by Gina Apostol, Eric Gamalinda, and Lara Stapleton, and an essay about ‘the immigrant novel" by Lara Stapleton."
A Pre-Launch Party will be held at Zinc Bar this coming Friday the 13th, at 7 p.m. But that’s in New York the city and not the street off Cubao, and Pareng Eric hasn’t sent airline tickets to guarantee full trans-Pacific documentation.
Then there’s a Launch Party at the Asian American Writers‚ Workshop on W. 32nd St. on Thursday, July 17. Perhaps Mareng Gina will send the tickets and we can make it on time. Otherwise, we’ll just have to content ourselves with knowing that "the writers will be doing two different performances, real performances, not fiction-droning."
More on the historic chapbook from Lara:
"The manifesto: posits a reconception of our place as Third-World writers.
"Short Stories: all set in the Philippines.
"‘Cunanan’s Wake’ by Gina Apostol. This is the story of a small Philippine barrio’s obsession with the flight of their infamous American relative. A subtle, oblique discussion of post-colonial pathos.
"‘I’m Not Here, This Isn’t Happening‘ by Eric Gamalinda. A young Filipino boy learns about honor and betrayal, as well as flying saucers, while competing for his school’s honor in the National Spelling Bee Competition.
"‘Until It Comes to You’ by Lara Stapleton. A Filipino-American woman rehearses (researches?) schizophrenia amongst Manila night life. This piece takes a particular interest in narrative, its reaches and limitations.
"The essay: ‘Some Thoughts on the American Immigrant Novel’ by Lara Stapleton. Originally published in Poets and Writers, this essay questions the reign of the identity novel.
"The Writers:
"Gina Apostol was born in Manila and attended the University of the Philippines and the John Hopkins University. She was awarded the Manila Critics Circle National Book Award for Fiction in 1997 for her first novel.
NVM Gonzalez, the great Filipino man of letters, wrote that ‘Apostol has a gift of the kind for the likes of us eager for language, able to make more vivid than perceived the meaning of our lives.’
"Eric Gamalinda was born in Manila and emigrated to the U.S. in 1993. His fourth novel My Sad Republic was awarded the Philippine Centennial Prize in 1998. His book of poems, Zero Gravity, was awarded the Asian American Literary Prize in 2000.
"Lara Stapleton was born and raised in East Lansing, Michigan. She also lived in Manila as a child. Her first book of short stories, The Lowest Blue Flame Before Nothing, was an Independent Bookseller’s Selection and Pen Open Book Committee Selection. ‘Stapleton, a tremendous new talent...’ wrote Laurie Stone, of The Village Voice, in 1999.
And lastly, "For more information, contact: Lara Stapleton (212) 254-93-15 or visit www.factoryschool.org (or contact) thirdestworld@hotmail.com."
Thanks, Lara.
I’ve read Ms. Stapleton’s brilliant essay, sent as hardcopy by Ms. Tabios at a snap of, uhh, her fingers. That is, upon a gentlemanly request. And for this "manifesto" alone, the chapbook should be worth ordering. Add the stories by a trio of gifted writers, and those airline tickets should come soon at a snap of the Fil-Am wand, so we can bring back oven-fresh copies.
I do wish I can have that chapbook for my Fiction class at the Ateneo. I also wish I can have Roley’s American Son in my hands soon. But then I’ve long wished for Oliver de la Paz’s Names Above Houses, a poetry collection that Eileen Tabios had recommended sometime back. And it still has to make its way here. Can’t be masterful with my snapdragon fingers all the time. Guess I’ll be clicking on some Amazon.com boxes again soon.
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