America is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo that I’ve read for #MigrationMarch is a book about who and what one can call one’s family, roots, language, and home. A beautiful, character driven story about complexity of an immigrant’s identity.
As I was reading the first hundred pages, I was thinking of dnfing this book - it was that dense with words/phrases from various languages of the Philippines, as well as with historical detail that I found hard to follow, understand or feel for. But then, as the story zoomed in on a Filipino community in California, my interest grew. I loved the characters, descriptions of the community, women, and bisexuality.
I’ve mentioned in one of the previous posts the importance of non-English languages that the author uses in the novel, and it’s really interesting how in the beginning, due to the language, the immigrant community feels alien and non-understandable, and how later, when we are getting to know the individual people and relationships between them, they seem closer, understandable through their universal experiences. I’ve had similar feelings while adapting to a new country. People are always the key.
I feel like I didn’t get all the nuance of the novel. I still can’t figure out the title.
4/5⭐️because I feel that the beginning was unjustifiably factual that robbed me of the ability to connect to the main character’s past more.
Highly recommended. Do try to push through those hundred pages or so.