CURSED AND OTHER STORIES by NOELLE Q. DE JESUS

EILEEN TABIOS Engages

CURSED AND OTHER STORIES by Noelle Q. De Jesus

(Penguin Random House Southeast Asia, 2019)

BOOK LINK

As may be expected from the title, the stories in Noelle Q. De Jesus’ CURSED AND OTHER STORIES are not feel-good stories. But due to her strong narrative skill, the stories linger in the reader’s memory—it’s that powerful effect which is a more appropriate standard (versus joy) by which they may be judged.

“Michael,” for example, should be required reading among those who will curate a body of literature fomented by Duterte’s reign (in the same way there is now a body of literature fomented by Marcos’ rule). Speaking (ill, as I’m wont to do) of politicians, “Real People” reminds me of that story of a politician’s staff throwing trash in the Pasig river so that they then can film the politician doing admirable clean-up—a reference I’m also moved to raise because De Jesus’ stories effectively  remind of the deceptiveness of surface, that motivations are not always obvious.

In one of the book’s strongest stories, the charisma of “Small Sacrifice” pulls in the reader slyly until its experience lingers long after its last word. The story has a deft structure of presenting three points of views on what seemingly is a story’s small scale: a Filipina OFW helping to care for a retired priest in the priest’s sister’s house in Ireland. It’s a story that must be read more than once to best understand the losses within its tale. (It’s also a reminder that we Filipinos often do not witness the extent of the sufferings undergone by those OFWs who support our families—and that perhaps we don’t want to as well as that our OFW relative may not want to reveal all of their experiences as someone in a fragile position in a foreign land.)

De Jesus is strong in narrative—she does not shirk at all in fleshing out concepts, she is thorough in descriptions. There can be the occasional spot where more line editing could have been helpful for tightening. But there are always the requisite twists to make these stories good yarns. Moreover, many of the stories are uplifted by particularly strong endings. “Names of Flowers,” for example, pleases for not being predictable—that is, it ends up not being so much about lesbianism but the link to flowers.

I understand De Jesus is working on a long novel. I could speculate on how a story or two in this collection might be constrained by the frame of a short story, which only makes me look forward to how she could blossom in the long form. For example, “Dreams in English” certainly works as a stand-alone short story, but it also offers the sense of being a chapter in a larger work. Ultimately, CURSED AND OTHER STORIES reveals its effectiveness by making the reader look forward to more from its author. These stories are a wonderful addition to literature that painstakingly explores both the frailty but also adaptability of the human psyche.

*****

Eileen R. Tabios has released about 60 collections of poetry, fiction, essays, and experimental biographies from publishers in ten countries and cyberspace. Most recently, she released a short story collection,PAGPAG: The Dictator’s Aftermath in the Diaspora and a poetry collection, The In(ter)vention of the Hay(na)ku: Selected Tercets 1996-2019. Her award-winning body of work includes invention of the hay(na)ku, a 21^st century diasporic poetic form as well as a first poetry book, Beyond Life Sentences, which received the Philippines’ National Book Award for Poetry. Translated into ten languages, she also has edited, co-edited or conceptualized 15 anthologies of poetry, fiction and essays. Her writing and editing works have received recognition through awards, grants and residencies. More information is available at http://eileenrtabios.com

BOOKS by ALLAN JUSTO PASTRANA, IRAH BORINAGA, and CRISTINA PANTOJA HIDALGO

ALOYSIUSI POLINTAN presents "flash reviews" of

Old and New Poems by Allan Justo Pastrana

Shifting Sands by Irah Borinaga

PASSAGES: SELECTED TRAVEL ESSAYS by Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo

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Old and New Poems by Allan Justo Pastrana

(via Google Docs, 2020)

BOOK LINK 

Flash Book Review No. 112 

"The pond across this yard is an explosion of miniature forms." This new book of poetry by Allan Justo Pastrana was an archaeological dig into memories, ruminations and daydreams both fragile in their transcience and fathomless in their subtlety. Through the first five poems, one will notice the attempt to give birth to landscapes and trinkets long dead in the eyes of the beholder, as if the act of versification possessed an alter-ego of a womb, letting many unnamed offsprings, either deformed or complete in parts, fly and haunt the lethargic and the inattentive. Whether his poem is a tribute to the ghosts of festivities past or "the threadbare distance of not yet enough", Pastrana ensures that the reader is held captive by restrained delineations and endless metaphorical possibilities. "Never mind perspective." There's freedom in every catchphrase, in every allusion. Before us is a painting hung loosely on an imaginary wall. We stare and reckon with the light passing through holes and crevices. To avert our gaze to the promise of blinding light, or to succumb to these ephemeral sparks, is upon our discretion. Pastrana's knack of surprising us with the sudden metanoia of images (a mere crossing of streets transports us to a panoramic view of a country in slow descent to modern-day subjugation) testifies to the liberating power of poetry. Now that we impose on ourselves the importance of homebound silence, we are met by the occasional stares of cacophonous loneliness. With the help of art that comforts and energizes, we pray that today and the days to come may be filled with "the long, mute calm in lieu of grace."

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Shifting Sands by Irah Borinaga
(Giraffe Books, 1997)

Flash Book Review No. 113

Described as one with powdery white sands paving for unmatched sceneries of the sun's rising and setting, Isla Blanca had been established by the novelist as a metaphor for a soul's yearning for home. The main characters, with their haunting pasts upholding their individuality and their distinct views on hope and fate, are lost souls in search of catharsis, and all the events which took place in this remote island had been witnesses to their metamorphosis. A career woman who lost grip of the menacing corporate world, an idealistic woman who grieved for the loss of a fellow volunteer worker, a young doctor who unshackled himself from the temptation of prestige and selfishness, a hospitable old woman whose knack of inventing stories about her dead daughter was her way of coping, a heartless businessman who lured everyone around him with the charm of his money and the venom of his influence---these various voices met at the crosscroads and allowed the dazzling beauty of the island to sanctify or challenge their principles. But beyond its promise of transitory tranquility of the heart, the island will be left for its metaphoricality. There's arrival and there's departure, coming home and finding another home. Irah Borinaga, with her omniscient eye on the characters' fears and desires---evidenced by the intervening paragraphs instructing us on the power of self-love and recovery---made a novel true to its attempt to make its readers fall in love and be ready to fall in brokenness. It takes perseverance, as the novel (Giraffe Books, 1997) suggests, to leave behind our fantasies of an island so we could face the ocean-like unpredictability of life.

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PASSAGES: SELECTED TRAVEL ESSAYS by Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo

(USTPH, 2008)

Flash Book Review No. 91

"From these precious interludes, we emerge sane and serene, and are able to take up again - cheerfully and gallantly - whatever burdens are our lot in this lifetime." This line from one of the essays in this book succinctly captures what travel writing, as successfully sampled by Cristina Pantoja Hidalgo - an important figure in the art of creative nonfiction in the Philippines - could serve to its readers, whether they are lovers of travels and adventures or just homebound wishful thinkers. Filled with amazing observations of the life abroad, coupled with research on places' histories and heritages, this collection - published by USTPH in 2008 where she had served as director - shows to aspiring travel writers how the discipline in the craft produces brilliant pieces, ones that are by turns insighful and informative, and most especially, ones that articulate a wife and mother's being at home in her unhomeliness. My personal favorites are "Beirut: Pages from a Journal" (a vivid documentation of what life in the midst of Lebanon's political upheavals had seemed to foreigners doing their jobs and searching for peace of mind) and "An Arranged Marriage" (the author's tear-jerker encounter with a Korean woman who was truly admirable for her courage to choose stability over happiness with possibly regretful consequences). I am not under the category of the travel buddies, this I am sure of. And after reading this book - from the writer I've loved reading since I had a copy of Catch A Falling Star - imagining all these places, corners, landscapes and transitions, and listening to her intelligent voice representative of people in pursuit of life well-lived anywhere in the world, I was dazzled by the ability of the travel essay to embrace and empower. Another line from one of her essays could suffice for a final insight: "I don't belong here. Nonetheless, I am charmed."

*****

Since 2016, Aloysiusi Polintan has worked as a Senior High School Principal in Divina Pastora College. He started scribbling poems and essays when he was 17 years old. These poems are still kept in a notebook and wait to be revised for future publication. This notebook will be revived and will give birth to language already "lived." That is why his blog is named "Renaissance of a Notebook," a blog of poems, personal and academic essays, and flash movie reviews. His book reviews, which are published and featured in The Halo-Halo Review and Galatea Resurrects, are also to be found on the blog, under the series title "Mesmerized." He believes that the ability to judge or critique a literary piece starts with the reader's being moved and mesmerized by the artful arrangement of words articulating some longing for freedom and individuality. He's now working on a manuscript of 50 poems, with a working title of Brittle Sounds.

TRILL & MORDENT by LUISA A. IGLORIA

CHRISTINE FOJAS Engages

Trill & Mordent by Luisa A. Igloria

(WordTech Editions, 2005)

BOOK LINK

A Life of Connections, A Library of Enchantment: 

Reading Luisa A. Igloria’s Trill & Mordent During a Pandemic

Luisa A. Igloria’s Trill & Mordent (WordTech Communications, 2005) covers a range of forms, and a musical scale from the heights of joy to the depths of our human fears. Is it that I am reading this now? Both joy and fear accompany us in these days of a global pandemic, and when we turn to poetry, even poetry that is set in different contexts—as these poems were written in the wake of 9/11—our pattern-seeking brains make connections. Both as writers and readers, we are building a life of poetry. 

I was drawn to Igloria’s “Armor,” which is truer now than it has ever been. Our coping mechanisms, including poetry, but also the masks and gloves that now become part of our everyday armor help us to face this broken world, “as if, encased in breastplates//and outer garments hinged at elbow and knee,/the quailing heart might stand more firmly yoked//to the shadow of its own inevitable death,/which simply means the fear of losing all//it loves—Bread in the morning…” It is so very human of us to turn to baking as another coping mechanism, to reaffirm life.

And the title poem, “Trill and Mordent” sings of our inherent vulnerability to chaos. “Now the news every day is filled with how little/it takes to ignite the blunt wick of fear.” What role does dissonance play in our lives? When something sounds wrong, maybe that’s a sign that we need to pay closer attention. 

Pay close attention, too, to beauty with the full knowledge that it will disappear. “If the Poem Were Glass,” Igloria uses the metaphor of the wine, transformed and transformative, and leaving behind it a momentary warmth, like a sunset. And even after we return to the sober status quo, “the careful hand rinses the glass and returns it to/the paneled cabinet, where other fragile vessels/rest in attention—aware of how the slightest motion/could set the whole transparent shelf to ringing.” The role of poetry in the world is illuminated by these lines. 

While poetry can only attend to the beauty of passing stars and branches “before their waning,” and while poetry stands “against the silence/which holds what cannot unburden its heart/completely to language,” still it can be a glass through which we can view the world distilled and transformed. And the more poems we have resting in attention in our cabinets, the more we can re-enchant our daily life.

The poetry in this collection traverses through fairy tale and history, both personal and collective. Although the joys are leavened with grief, always there is enchantment.  

*****

Christine Fojas is a Filipino-Canadian settler-immigrant to the unceded Coast Salish territory and is currently working as a library technician at Douglas College. She is a regular contributor to Marias at Sampaguitas online magazine, and can be found on Twitter @chrisfojas.