The Filipino Novel Comes Of Age

The Filipino Novel Comes Of Age is an article over at the Read-Or-Die site written by Kristel Autencio. The author talks about Pinoy novels she has read, and gives a review of Soledad's Sister by Butch Dalisay. An excerpt:

There has been a gradual change in the recent years. Recent Palanca Award for the Novel winners ranging from Vincent Goryon to F.H. Batacan to Dean Alfar, attempt to do exactly that, produce novels that are at once literary and accessible, tapping into the contemporary consciousness while trying to maintain the stylistic verve that characterize their other shorter works.

F.H. Batacan’s Smaller and Smaller Circles gained popularity after being lauded by the Palanca as a spunky, erudite detective novel featuring two Jesuit priests. They solve a series of murders through forensic anthropology. The plot seems to be straight out of a CSI episode, but interestingly enough, the still unpublished detective novel won the Palanca in 1999 exactly a year before the CSI franchise started invading our television sets.

Another winner, Dean Alfar, waxes lyrical about the marvelous and often implausible feats of love with Salamanca. It diverges significantly from realist fiction by blending reality and fantasy into a heady concoction that can make you believe that beauty can make houses transparent and that love can conquer all.

2008 can be considered a high watermark for the Philippine novel as Jose Dalisay, already an established name in Philippine letters (as well as columnist, academic, and untiring blogger), came close to bagging Asia’s most coveted literary award.

His quirky hybrid of a novel, Soledad’s Sister has been a literary triumph even before seeing print. It is included among the five shortlisted novels for the first ever Man Asia Literary Prize, inaugurated this year. Beating other English-language works from much more robust literary scenes like India and China, the Jury calls Soledad’s Sister, “a work of warmth, humanity and confidence."