On the Book America is Not the Heart
Review: America Is Not The Heart by Elaine Castillo (2018)
It isn't a bad book at all - I found myself enjoying parts of it, parts that resonate with me as a Filipino - but it isn't a great book either. This isn't Castillo's fault per se: The book is just too long-winded, so damn slow, that a good editor would have cut the fat and focus on crucial points that would just. Move. The plot. Along.
I found myself wishing that the story focused more on Paz, on the First Quarter Storm, on Hero's time in UST (what motivated her to join the New People's Army?), on De Vera's downfall after the Marcos regime toppled down, on Pol as a minor Marcos ally (a book from the viewpoint of Pol would have been intruiging), on being a member of the NPA, but it never really delved on any of those things. Painfully, I never really cared about Hero, Roni, Jaime, Rosalyn, or their life in America.
Still, if you find yourself liking stories about multigenerational trauma, about queers in the 90s, about everyday life (still, in the 90s) as a Filipino-American, about food, sex, and music, well: You might want to try this. Be warned, however, that things pick up only in the last quarter of the book.
3/5.