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3.5
The Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic
ByPublisher Description
Celebrating the centennial of his birth, the first-ever U.S. publication of Philippine writer Nick Joaquin’s seminal works, with a foreword by PEN/Open Book Award–winner Gina Apostol
A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice
Nick Joaquin is widely considered one of the greatest Filipino writers, but he has remained little-known outside his home country despite writing in English. Set amid the ruins of Manila devastated by World War II, his stories are steeped in the post-colonial anguish and hopes of his era and resonate with the ironic perspectives on colonial history of Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. His work meditates on the questions and challenges of the Filipino individual’s new freedom after a long history of colonialism, exploring folklore, centuries-old Catholic rites, the Spanish colonial past, magical realism, and baroque splendor and excess. This collection features his best-known story, “The Woman Who Had Two Navels,” centered on Philippine emigrants living in Hong Kong and later expanded into a novel, the much-anthologized stories “May Day Eve” and “The Summer Solstice” and a canonic play, A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino . As Penguin Classics previously launched his countryman Jose Rizal to a wide audience, now Joaquin will find new readers with the first American collection of his work.
Introduction and Suggestions for Further Reading by Vicente L. Rafael
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
A New York Times Book Review Editor's Choice
Nick Joaquin is widely considered one of the greatest Filipino writers, but he has remained little-known outside his home country despite writing in English. Set amid the ruins of Manila devastated by World War II, his stories are steeped in the post-colonial anguish and hopes of his era and resonate with the ironic perspectives on colonial history of Gabriel García Márquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. His work meditates on the questions and challenges of the Filipino individual’s new freedom after a long history of colonialism, exploring folklore, centuries-old Catholic rites, the Spanish colonial past, magical realism, and baroque splendor and excess. This collection features his best-known story, “The Woman Who Had Two Navels,” centered on Philippine emigrants living in Hong Kong and later expanded into a novel, the much-anthologized stories “May Day Eve” and “The Summer Solstice” and a canonic play, A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino . As Penguin Classics previously launched his countryman Jose Rizal to a wide audience, now Joaquin will find new readers with the first American collection of his work.
Introduction and Suggestions for Further Reading by Vicente L. Rafael
For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesThe Woman Who Had Two Navels and Tales of the Tropical Gothic Reviews
3.5
“There is a common saying about the Philippines' history of colonization, first by Spain and then by America, that says she spent "300 years in a convent and 50 years in Hollywood." This collection is set in a Philippines emerging from Hollywood, peopled with characters seeking to understand their heritage and history from its new footing in independence.
The characters in these stories wrestle with questions that were likely near and dear to Nick Joaquin's heart as a devout Filipino Cathoalic: how can you love a God your colonizers brought? And what is it to be proud of a heritage, not as you imagine it was, but as it is now with all the influence of 350 years of colonization? And these characters pursue answers with the fervor, monomania, and tragedy of a hero of Dostoevsky or Flannery O'Connor. "Candido's Apocalypse," in which a teenage boy has a strange experience that forces him to consider the ugliness (and perhaps beauty) of the individuals around him, and "The Order of Melchizedek," in which a man attempts to rescue his sister from a strange new cult, were my favorite stories for the way they depicted this struggle.
While I loved these stories, I think the Penguin Classics edition should have had textual notes. The stories contain a lot of Taglish slang that is likely difficult to find translations for online, and references to Filipino revolutionaries, authors, and artists will likely be missed by non-Filipino readers. I hope that can be addressed in future editions so this collection can be appreciated by a wider audience.”
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