Angelica's Daughters: A Dugtungan Novel by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard

Angelica's Daughters: A Dugtungan Novel Reviews

• 
  kwesi 章英狮

  When I was still in my high school years, a friend of mine wrote a chapter or a partial content of a certain story in a notebook and gave it to somebody who wants to continue to write until the whole story end. I never knew that a certain style or technique was popularized in the past and it was called dugtungan or connecting novel.
  
  

  A dugtungan or connecting novel, is a unique Filipino tradition popularize in the 19th to 20th century that draws on the spirit of teamwork and collaboration, in which a writer writes a chapter and hands it off to the other writer and so on, creating unpredictable and exciting story.

  
  
  Till now, the memories are still fresh and time to time, I discovered that dugtungan was on its feet to start its journey to be read and love again by Filipinos.
  
  Hopefully, a group of Filipinos around Philippines, Singapore and San Francisco were able to create a masterpiece using dugtungan, a novel that surrounds with great sorrow, rejection, destiny, age and curse that caused by love and beauty. Half chic-lit and half historical fiction, Angelica's Daughters: A Dugtungan Novel, creates a dark atmosphere of love and mix-Filipino culture making the reader interested to know Angelica's past and future daughters.
  
  In 8 years of marriage, Tess, the protagonist, an obsessive wife trying to move on of her broken marriage to Tonio by going back to the Philippines, meeting with her favorite cousin Paolo and Lola Josefina (who fall in love to her young dance instructor), suggested by her mother and sister Luz. Hoping to forget everything in the past by knowing Angelica, through her written words by letters and thorned journal given by Jesusa. Tess realized, that the answers that she's looking for can be found in her past and in the place where she belong.
  
  Day by day, by reading letters of Angelica, solved there problem until a caller from Cebu, invited them to come and share facts bout Angelica. They met Dina, the daughter of Elenita and the girl who fall in love to Mike who have a wife and a child. Another problem to be solve, after a great disaster in the Cebu, they realized that they need to attend the Tayabas festival which held for 4 days.
  
  The went back and enjoyed the life in the province, the freshness of the air, the delicious food served by the family and a happy reunion of Angelica's daughters.
  
  In the end, Angelica and her daughters realized, that love can cause trouble and sorrow but only God who helps and find your true destined partner in the Earth. There are thousands or millions of chances to be with somebody, don't be so fool, believing to only one person that can be with you. For the grandmother, age doesn't matter, if you love each other, go for it. Think of the possibilities before working with a new relationship.
  
  I do recommend this book to everyone who really interested in reading new style of writing and chic-lit, an easy read and very interesting. I can't stop from reading yesterday, the void and the space between the book and characters are feared to be the best. Thumbs up!
  
  
  
  Don't forget to try the recipes inside the book! Love, loved tsokolate-espeso!
  
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• 
  Tina

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  One time during junior year in high school, my friends and I started scribbling on spare pieces of notebook paper. It was a story about a group of friends that we started passing around our group, leaving a part hanging so the next person could continue the story. We never finished the story, but I remember we had a colorful cast of characters, and I ended up continuing the story and posting a snippet of it somewhere that I cannot remember for the life of me. Anyway, we also had the same kind of exercise during my college literary folio days -- one would start a story and then another would pick it up. I adopted that exercise for our NaNoWriMo group, and although it never really flew, it was a fun project.
  
  So that's really one of the reasons why I was curious about Angelica's Daughters. This book is a collaborative "dugtungan" novel by five authors: Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, Susan Evangelista, Veronica Montes, Nadine Sarreal, Erma M. Cuizon. They are all writers on their own but their friendship (and writing classes) led them to collaborate on different short stories. One day they decided to upgrade into writing a novel, passing on an idea and a chapter to one another, until they came up with the story of Angelica.
  
  Angelica's Daughters revolved around three female descendants of Angelica de los Santos. First was Tess, whose 8 years of marriage dissolved after she found out her husband Tonio was dating a younger woman. She flies home to the Philippines to gather her thoughts and herself and spends time with her Lola Josefina. Josefina had secrets of her own, one that she wasn't sure that her granddaughter (or anyone else in the family would understand). In the course of Tess' stay, a cousin gives her a bundle of letters from their Angelica, a distant grandmother who was the subject of many of her childhood stories. They were never really sure if all those stories about Angelica were real or not -- like how a guy killed himself when Angelica refused to give him her love, or how wives were often jealous of her because of her beauty. Through the letters, Tess got to know her better but there were holes in the story that she longed to be filled. On the annual Tayabas fiesta, Tess meets her younger cousin, Dina, who carries a darker secret that is eating her alive.
  
  As I was thinking of how I was going to review this book, I realized one thing: Angelica's Daughters could pass as a perfect comfort read. It's like the local version of a Sarah Addison Allen novel, but maybe even a bit better because it hits closer to home for me. There's a certain grace and lyricism in the prose that makes me immediately sink into it, and marvel at the familiar feelings it evoked. There's really something about a well-written Filipino work that just hits the right spot, like how a perfectly cooked dish can satisfy the strongest craving. Case in point, this particular line:
  

  She served herself generously from the garlic fried rice and daing. She took her first bite and closed her eyes with pleasure.

  
  I totally started salivating for garlic fried rice and daing (dried salted fish, for my non-Filipino friends) after I read this line. :) The entire novel had that feel of home that made it such a good comfort read.
  
  Besides that, the book also had an interesting angle of history. This kind of reminds me a bit of old history readings in school, or watching movies based on Philippine history. Note that it didn't really have the "required reading for school" feel, but it provided a sense of nostalgia for the early Spanish era in Philippine history. Angelica's letters to her aunt and her stories were vivid and she felt very much alive in those letters. She may not be the nicest or the most honest character, but she is a well-formed character that it's hard not to be curious about her as the book goes on.
  
  I had a few nitpicks though. For one thing, I felt that Lola Josefina's angle wasn't really that explored, up until she admitted her secret to Tess. I wasn't even aware that she was the third person in the story until I finally figured it out. Also, I thought Dina was introduced a little too late in the story, almost like she was an afterthought, like she was only there to be the receiver of Tess' wrath.
  
  Also, there was the dreaded insta-love. I wished there wasn't an insta-love thing between Tess and Luis -- I could accept Tess liking/lusting after him during the first time she met him and danced with him in the disco, but the idea of her falling in love with him felt a little too quick for me. I was never a fan of insta-love, anyway, and personally, I would've been fine if Tess ended up not having a love life in the end. After all, she still had to find herself after her marriage disintegrated.
  
  Nevertheless, I thought Angelica's Daughters was a well-written and enjoyable novel that deals with family, love and moving on from past mistakes. It's chick lit, but it's not really hardcore fluffy chick lit that I think even guys will like to read this. Plus that recipe for Angelica's special tsokolate-espeso is a must-try. This is one of the good ones in Filipino fiction, and I hope more Filipinos get to read this book. :)
• 
  Nina

  For the first time, I am going to do a review for a Filipino-published book. Love your own!
  
  I would like to discuss what a "Dugtungan Novel" is. It's a collaborative writing procedure, where one author begins the story, an then passes it to another author to continue it. Something like what David Levithan and Rachel Cohn did in Dash and Lily's Book of Dares only in their case, they only write for their assigned characters. In a dugtungan (literally means "continue" in Filipino) novel, one author is responsible for continuing the whole story, and he/she may do with it whatever he/she wants, as long as it's still in context.
  
  And now for the story. It's a historical novel that tells the romance of two women from different times - past and present - which involves their families and their own romantic lives. I love the seamless transition of the story despite five different authors writing it. The deft handling of the narration, the characters, and the setting makes for an exciting and insightful tale of two women across time and the men and women in their lives.
  
  The characters are very vivid and consistent, in spite of being passed from author to author, and the development of their stories are gripping and endearing at the same time. The plot itself is solid, although a bit dramatic at times, but what Filipino fiction is not dramatic? That's the signature of Filipino literature, I guess - drama. Another thing to love in this book are the recipes included! Obviously, from the enthusiasm I exhibited for the recipes inside Flavor of the Week, you'd know I would be thrilled with this part in the book.
  
  Don't let the cover of the book fool you into thinking this is a serious book: It's chick lit with intelligent dialogue and a touch of historical wisdom and romance. The story also teaches us to stop sticking our heads in the sand: Refusing to believe that there can be another person destined for us, or that we could not find happiness in ourselves alone. It's easy to read but you learn something as you go along. It's refreshing to read something like this coming from Filipino authors. It used to be that I rarely read Filipino fiction written in the year 2000 onwards because I felt they were too "trying hard" or melodramatic for my taste. Or perhaps they are too light and the resolution for conflicts are too hurried and was given too little thought - like it was written just for the sake of ending it. I always stuck with the works of Nick Joaquin and F. Sionil Jose - the Filipino classics in my opinion. But this book made me get off my literary high horse and appreciate the story for what it is: light, endearing, insightful, and gripping.
• 
  Krizia Anna

  I really loved Angelica's story especially her letter and diary accounts. I would have loved to read her story and to know Teban's whereabouts (;p). It was a really easy read with recipes for those who love to cook. Even if it was a "dugtungan" novel it was really coherent but you'll see the different writing styles of the authors which is why I don't like certain chapters.
  
  However, i felt that the story was rushed. Tess' moving on, Tess' finding a new love, Dina's moving on, Tess and Paolo looking for the church all happened too fast. Here is a novel where time does not heal wounds because they didn't even have time for healing. Everything here is instant. The writing tells you what happens and does not get convey emotion too well. I felt like an outsider because the authors failed to effectively convey the character's feelings.
  
  The family was also too centered on Angelica. Every conversation revolves around her or even if it doesn't her name would eventually pop out of the conversation. Everything happens because of her, everything is compared to her life. They say that she's only a woman but it seems that their life revolves around her. She's long dead, I want to tell them to live their own life.
  
  I just wished that the authors has scraped the whole thing and focused on Angelica's life. I would love to see more of that. Bitin na bitin ako sa kwento ni Angelica. A prequel maybe? :)
• 
  Simona

  Dugtungan novel is interesting concept, and I think that the ‘technical’ part of this story runs smoothly. If I hadn’t known that in advance, I wouldn’t noticed that this book is a work of five authors, but ... story about love, family ties, ancestors (with a smalls glimpses into history) is quite superficial and too sweet.
• 
  Angelica

  I wanted to really like this book--it has my name in the title, after all! I especially was interested by the fact that it is a Dugtungan, which I didn't realize was a Pilipino tradition of storytelling (in which I have participated with some cousins several years ago!).
  
  But just like our little story, this was super sappy, cliche, hurried, and (except for broad strokes) hardly seems historically accurate.
  
  I appreciate the concept, the intent, that it was easy to read, and that it was written by a group of Pilipina women.