MagdalenaBy Cecilia Manguerra Brainard2002, 164 pages, paperback. |
ORDER -- Item #3086, Price $17.95
I have been looking for a good story about the war.
With her second novel, Magdalena, Cecilia Brainard adds new portraits to the gallery in Philippine literature. She has always had a strong sense of place. Here, she provides an inner landscape as well. Together, these provide the coordinates for the family secrets that bind the characters as securely as bloodlines.
In this novel, Brainard blends a series of multiple perspectives to create a polyphony of voices that enacts Philippine society before and during the Second World War. The narrative is a nuanced vision of the workings of culture, social class, obligation and the Filipino personality.
Cecilia has received numerous awards for her literary achievements and for the service she has given her Filipino and Filipino American communities. In 1998, she receieved the Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city, Cebu, Philippines. She has also received a California Arts Council Fellowship in Fiction, a Brody Arts Fund Award, a Special Recognition Award from the Los Angeles City Board of Education for her work dealing with Asian American youths. In 2001, she received a Filipinas Magazine Award for Arts, and a Certificate of Recognition from the California State Senate, 21st District.
She teaches writing at UCLA-Extension and Uuiversity of Southern California.
She has a website at http://www.ceciliabrainard.com. She is married to Lauren Brainard, a former Peace Corp. Volunteer to the Philippines; they have three sons.
Book Description from Back Cover
The novel, Magdalena, is a powerful story about the lasting effects war has on people's lives. Playing with time and point of view, multi-award author, Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, explores the loves and secrets of three generations of women in the Philippines from the time of the Philippine American War, World War II, and Vietnam War.
Comments from Back Cover
Cecilia Manguerra Brainard has written an ambitious novel of forbidden love. Set against the turbulent history of East Asia in the twentieth century and by turns erotic and tragic, Magdalena vividly depicts three generations of strong Filipino women.
- Aimee Liu, author of Cloud Moutain
- N.V.M. Gonzalez, author of The Bread of Salt and Other Stories (upon reading "Winning Hearts and Minds," one chapter of Magdalena.)
- Linda Ty-Casper, author of The Stranded Whale
- Rocio G. Davis, author of Transcultural Reinventions: Asian American and Asian Canadian Short Story Cycles
Background on Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is the author and editor of ten books, including the international-acclaimed novel, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, Acapulco at Sunset and Other Stories, Philippine Woman in America, and Woman with Horns and Other Stories. Magadalena is her second novel. She edited Fiction by Filipinos in Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America. She co-edited two children's books and Journey of 100 Years: Reflections on the Centennial of the Philippine Independence.
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Copyright © 2003 by AACP, Inc.
Most recent revision January 2, 2003