Soft focus
#17 on the New York Times Bestseller List (trade fiction) on September 30: Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos (Plume). “A cafe manager falls for a Cary Grant-like charmer, then learns he has an 11-year-old daughter.” I googled Marisa de los Santos, and I was right: she’s Filipino-American, based in Delaware. I’m guessing this makes her the highest-ranking author of Filipino descent ever on the NYT Bestseller list, though I have to check the stats for Dogeaters, Fixer Chao, Umbrella Country. Reviewers have described Love Walked In as a smart contemporary romance, or at least chick lit of the non-nauseating variety. The film rights have been acquired by Sarah Jessica Parker. I saw the book in hardcover in National Bookstore: there’s a half-Filipino half-Swedish character in it named Teo. One of the blurbs is by David Schickler, author of that lovely book Kissing In Manhattan. Here’s the Bookslut review of Love Walked In.
Answers to questions you might be asking, unless you wandered onto this site purely by accident >>>
October 28th, 2007 at 02:37
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
October 28th, 2007 at 03:13
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.
October 28th, 2007 at 03:16
Again, here is Marisa de los Santos’s Gather page.
October 29th, 2007 at 00:20
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.
October 29th, 2007 at 01:39
Another for the achieving Pinoys index. Sana lang di lang ito, uhm, media hype.
October 29th, 2007 at 07:19
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.
October 31st, 2007 at 09:15
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!
November 6th, 2007 at 13:33
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.