Reading something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue
For the past few weeks, I’ve been raving about Miguel Syjuco’s “Ilustrado” to anyone who will listen! Hahaha, I’ve even managed to convince a bunch of people to go out and get copies (Dianne and Mike and Mike’s uncle, haha — I hope you like it as much I did!) because I couldn’t contain my excitement about it. Here’s my full length review (originally published in Manila Bulletin), and I hope it makes more people want to read it!
“When the author’s life of literature and exile reached its unscheduled terminus that anonymous February morning, he was close to completing the controversial book we’d all been waiting for.”
Thus begins Miguel Syjuco’s “Ilustrado,” winner of the 2008 Man Asian Literary Award and the Palanca Award, recently launched in the Philippine edition by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (International release is due this week — I think I’ll get myself a trade paperback of the international edition). I was waiting to board a plane to Davao, and I relished the ominous beginning as I settled down at the airport lounge for the first few chapters of this highly anticipated read.
Filipino writer-in-exile Crispin Salvador’s corpse is found floating in the Hudson River, and his student, Miguel Syjuco (yes, the same name as the author), wants answers. Miguel sets out to piece together Salvador’s life with fragments of his mentor’s body of work, personal history, interviews with friends and relatives, and other sources, telling his own life story along the way.
“Ilustrado” is not your typical Filipino novel, eschewing carabaos in the fields and sunlight the color of mangoes in favor of epistolary-style metafiction that uncannily mirrors Philippine culture, history and politics.
A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of joining a media tour at the exhibit “Pen, Paper and Bookmaking: The Life of Carlos Quirino” at the Yuchengco Museum.
Carlos Quirino, National Artist for Historical Literature, is a writer, scholar, sportsman, and bibliophile who made invaluable contributions to the study of Philippine history.
2010 marks Quirino’s birth centennial, and in celebration of this auspicious event, three erstwhile out of print Carlos Quirino books are lined up for release by the Vibal Foundation: Philippine Cartography, Old Manila, and Filipinos at War.
First out is the third edition Philippine Cartography, a landmark history of Philippine maps and their cartographers, considered as Quirino’s magnum opus. First published in 1959, the book traces the evolution of the Philippine map, from a speck in the Pacific Ocean to its current iconography.
Neil Gaiman was over here last week, to the delight of his legion of fans from all over the metro. While I enjoyed The Graveyard Book immensely, I must say I have yet to acquire the taste for his other works. I’m not a big Gaiman fan so I’ve decided to leave the blogging to one real Gaiman fangirl — Welski, a book club friend from FFP, guest blogging from Bookerella the Enchanted.
I’m actually envious of her fan girl experience. I wish I was a Gaiman fan — he’s over here quite a lot, and there have been a lot of opportunities for fan encounters. I’ve never had a favorite writer (or illustrator for that matter) of mine visit the country for a tour.
Read on for the highlights of Welski’s story (copyediting and comments in blue mine).
I love getting spa treatments — that little window of time for relaxing and revitalizing is a godsend, whether it’s a heavenly massage, beautifying facial, a glam hair treatment, or a foot spa for your aching feet.
One of my recent memorable spa experiences is the Lulur Ken Dedes massage at Win’s Spa in Batam, Indonesia (we took a ferry from Singapore) — around 175,000 Rupiah (more or less SGD 30 or USD $20), which is a two-hour package inclusive of a traditional message, sauna, body scrub, and herbal soak. Apparently, “Ken Dedes” is a royal beauty treatment named after Princess Ken Dedes of the Singosari Empire of 18th century East Jaya, and is a complete package of beauty care, especially for brides (they didn’t tell us that at the spa, or maybe they tried to but they weren’t speaking much English).
I love Javanese massage –it’s based on thumb pressure: pushing and circling the muscles while the palm strokes simultaneously, releasing the knots and improving blood circulation. Then the body scrub (“lulur”) — it’s a fragrant paste of sandal wood, turmeric, groundnuts, rice and other scented woods. The golden scrub is rubbed onto the skin for exfoliation and left to dry, then rubbed off again, leaving the skin rosy and silky smooth. A fragrant herbal bath follows, and they dress you in this luxurious batik gown, and give you a cup of ginger tea while you sit for a certain procedure that can’t be posted here (hahaha — my book club gal pals know, though). It was a great spa experience, and I’d go back to Batam just for this. I wonder what kind of massage therapy schools the therapists attended!
I mention this because of a book I recently discovered, Wellness on the Islands: The Philippine Spa Experience by Elizabeth V. Reyes, photography by Luca Invernizzi Tettoni (also the team behind design coffeetable books such as Filipino style and The Tropical House: Cutting Edge Design), which I reviewed for Zen Health Magazine.
