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beeagus's review
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
nouveau's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
gspiller's review
informative
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
pwig's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
marjandincharge's review
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
A challenging and heart-wrenching read, but well worth finishing! Carlos Bulosan's writing is poetically descriptive. I learned so much about America and myself while reading this book. Highly recommend this to any Filipino, but also to any American trying to better understand the country's history. Very Grapes of Wrath-eqsue.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Colonisation, Alcoholism, and Alcohol
Moderate: War, Violence, Sexual violence, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, and Trafficking
agnesjlopez's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Sexual assault, Grief, Hate crime, Racism, Classism, Colonisation, Sexism, Sexual content, Rape, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Gun violence, Murder, Police brutality, and Kidnapping
Moderate: War
wesley_sq's review against another edition
4.0
4.5/5
Hits you right in the heart. Vividly captures life in the Philippines, poverty and being an immigrant.
This is not a love letter to any culture, It’s not a glorification of poverty either. Everyone and everything, even the author, are very much flawed. No one is a paragon of morality here, it’s just tragically filled with people.
As someone coming from a very similar background, minus the violence thankfully enough, this book is a new perspective. I’ve never been much informed about the specifics of violence and discrimination that my roots suffered and Bulosan gives a very personal and moving account on that. I’ve always only known the general and sweeping accounts from that era and so I became almost disconnected from it. But Bulosan puts you in the first person perspective, right in the moment with him. You feel the confusion, anger, disappointment, pity, serenity and peace right with him.
This is such an emotionally taxing and informative experience and would definitely delve more into the literature of that era.
Hits you right in the heart. Vividly captures life in the Philippines, poverty and being an immigrant.
This is not a love letter to any culture, It’s not a glorification of poverty either. Everyone and everything, even the author, are very much flawed. No one is a paragon of morality here, it’s just tragically filled with people.
As someone coming from a very similar background, minus the violence thankfully enough, this book is a new perspective. I’ve never been much informed about the specifics of violence and discrimination that my roots suffered and Bulosan gives a very personal and moving account on that. I’ve always only known the general and sweeping accounts from that era and so I became almost disconnected from it. But Bulosan puts you in the first person perspective, right in the moment with him. You feel the confusion, anger, disappointment, pity, serenity and peace right with him.
This is such an emotionally taxing and informative experience and would definitely delve more into the literature of that era.
monkeyjess's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
mandirigma's review
4.0
3.5/5 stars, rounded up for its place in history.
America Is In The Heart tells the important and often overlooked story of the Manong generation — the first wave of Filipino immigrants who mainly worked as migrant workers in America — and their role in the labor movement. Bulosan details the abhorrent working conditions and horrifying racial violence that Filipinos endured in America, and the difficulty they faced in organizing and gaining rights and being seen as fully human. This is crucial reading for understanding the full view of Filipino American history, and I think it’s important that every Asian American read it.
That said, as a work of fiction, it’s not without its issues. It seems like it was written as memoir/autobiography but technically falls under fiction, and this is probably because it must have been impossible to fact-check.
For one, it spans nearly Bulosan’s entire life, including his childhood in the Philippines, and all of his travels up and down the west coast of America. The pacing throughout the book is uneven and it can be difficult to track the passage of time. Sometimes he spends a single paragraph talking about two months he spent in a particular city, other times two months can span a few chapters. He also meets a million characters in his travels — often they’ll only show up for a paragraph or a page, but then he happens to bump into them at other random times in his life (it is honestly astounding how often this happens in the book, and in big cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco). And sometimes these characters are friends-turned-enemies, or enemies-turned-friends, which makes it all the more difficult trying to keep track of who’s who.
Finally, be warned that this book is bleak. There is little to no hope for any of the characters for most of the book, and I thought the ending was an odd place (and an odd point in history) to be hopeful.
Still, it's an easily accessible and important read for a slice of history that's too often ignored.
America Is In The Heart tells the important and often overlooked story of the Manong generation — the first wave of Filipino immigrants who mainly worked as migrant workers in America — and their role in the labor movement. Bulosan details the abhorrent working conditions and horrifying racial violence that Filipinos endured in America, and the difficulty they faced in organizing and gaining rights and being seen as fully human. This is crucial reading for understanding the full view of Filipino American history, and I think it’s important that every Asian American read it.
That said, as a work of fiction, it’s not without its issues. It seems like it was written as memoir/autobiography but technically falls under fiction, and this is probably because it must have been impossible to fact-check.
For one, it spans nearly Bulosan’s entire life, including his childhood in the Philippines, and all of his travels up and down the west coast of America. The pacing throughout the book is uneven and it can be difficult to track the passage of time. Sometimes he spends a single paragraph talking about two months he spent in a particular city, other times two months can span a few chapters. He also meets a million characters in his travels — often they’ll only show up for a paragraph or a page, but then he happens to bump into them at other random times in his life (it is honestly astounding how often this happens in the book, and in big cities like Los Angeles and San Francisco). And sometimes these characters are friends-turned-enemies, or enemies-turned-friends, which makes it all the more difficult trying to keep track of who’s who.
Finally, be warned that this book is bleak. There is little to no hope for any of the characters for most of the book, and I thought the ending was an odd place (and an odd point in history) to be hopeful.
Still, it's an easily accessible and important read for a slice of history that's too often ignored.
ayumi_can_read's review
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Heartbreaking yet inspiring, I’m not the biggest fan of older american literary styles but this book is one that will stay with me for the rest of my life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Classism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Hate crime, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Death of parent, War, Alcohol, Colonisation, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Racial slurs, Chronic illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, Child abuse, Alcoholism, and Drug abuse