Comments on: Soft focus

By: Dr. Feelgood

Dr. Feelgood — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:33:57 +0000

Am I the last to know this?! Jessica Hagedorn was shortlisted for the National Book Award in 1990:

FICTION

Charles Johnson - Middle Passage (WINNER)
Felipe Alfau – Chromos
Elena Castedo – Paradise
Jessica Hagedorn – Dogeaters
Joyce Carol Oates – Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart

Source: http://www.nationalbook.org/nba1990.html

Amazing. What’s even more so is that she isn’t only of Filipino descent but the novel actually tackled Filipino issues, unlike the one by Marisa de los Santos.

I wonder how high it went up the NYT list after the announcement.

By: magsdey

magsdey — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 01:15:35 +0000

I just bought a hardcopy version of this book at Buy the Book in Walter Mart, Pasong Tamo for only P199! It was sealed in plastic and looked quite new. It even had an old Powerbooks sticker stating that it was previously priced at P1199. Definitely a steal for less than 200 pesos!

By: betty mahmoudy

betty mahmoudy — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 23:19:28 +0000

I loved Kissing in Manhattan. Marisa de los Santos and David Schickler share the same agent, Jennifer Carlson, hence the blurb.

I read in an interview that Marisa’s own mother suffered from the same ailment as the child’s mother in the book.

By: BalagBlogger

BalagBlogger — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 17:39:48 +0000

Another for the achieving Pinoys index. Sana lang di lang ito, uhm, media hype.

By: beektur

beektur — Sun, 28 Oct 2007 16:20:08 +0000

The book has been on Borders bestseller list for over a year now. It has a clean narrative, some poetic scenes and good dialogues. If you find this fiction decent, you will be amazed by her poetry: http://suddentext.blogspot.com/2006/03/world-words-flesh-our-bodies-are-made.html . Her poetry made Danton’s heart beat faster.

By: Emenn Esse

Emenn Esse — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 19:16:11 +0000

Again, here is Marisa de los Santos's Gather page.

By: Emenn Esse

Emenn Esse — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 19:13:59 +0000

Yes she is Pinoy and she is connected to me in my Gather page. Here is her own Gather page. I believed she just signed up on Gather for marketing, she did it about the time she was doing this book reading tour on February 14 of this year, Valentine's Day, you know, Love Walked In being the book's title. Am not sure if she's still active up to now with her Gather-ing, too. And yes, you are right, by far the highest-ranking Filipino author in the last millinneum. Pretty too.

By: Marjorie

Marjorie — Sat, 27 Oct 2007 18:37:33 +0000

Thanks for the heads-up on this particular book! I’d no idea she was Pinay. I’ll have to check it out the next time I’m at Borders.

By the way, I just became a fan of yours. Was in Manila in September and came across your book, “Twisted 7,” while browsing at PowerBooks. Damn, girl, your writing ROCKS!! As a columnist myself, I wish I could write like that. Anyway, I look forward to trolling the Web for copies of older editions from the Twisted series.

Cheers,
Marjorie