It got such raves that I was eager to read what this new breakout author had to write about our country, its diverse people and its many differing circumstances.
Being Filipino I was just too hopeful about discovering a
fresh Pinoy author. It turns out In the Country felt out of touch with my
experience of the people Alvar writes of.
The book turned out to be such a disappointment. Mia Alvar
just filled pages with superficial local gossip with zero value and no
substance. There were some pretty evocative phrases but these seemed to go
nowhere.
Reading these short stories left me longing for a more
immersive and consistent fluency to pull me into a tale well told. Instead of
stories with imaginative range, ravishing power, or preternatural grace all I
could grasp at were cliches and innuendo.
Alvar documented her characters human frailties well but the
context in which she wove her content felt manipulated and contrived. With
lives depicted as petty and where actions or processes felt stilted or without
any redeeming factor.
It's too bad that there are readers out there now, not
knowing any better, who believe the characters in this book to be how Pinoys
are.
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