Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America Reviews

• 
  Tito Quiling, Jr.

  With a slew of works anchoring on the Filipino-American experience, there seems to be a delineation now in defining Filipinos in America, Filipinos and America, and the hyphenated identity. Identities are constantly underlined by cultures who are deemed as being subservient to the ones who are situated in so-called First World countries, where they experience varying discrimination.
  
  Featuring expatriate and celebrated Filipino-American writers such as Fatima Lim-Wilson, Linda Ty-Casper, Luis Cabalquinto, Paulino Lim Jr., (among many others) and edited by Cecilia Manguerra-Brainard, the stories within this collection tread on the nostalgic, the painful, and the longing for one's homeland. Centered on family ties, the circles become entangled in a web of memories and plans that tug at one's heartstrings. Although some of the stories are heavily edited to the point that it seems to end abruptly, a few that are quite stirring which are necessary to mention in terms of their success in trying to bring out parcels of Filipino life in the "Promised Land."
• 
  Annabelle

  Painfully edited, but the good ones, about 6 of them, really shine. The stories are short and strangely familiar, like I've heard or read of similar fates before.