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jon288's review against another edition
2.0
Philippines. A slog to get through. An interesting concept maybe, but really quite hard work
baileyclick's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I did not finish this book. I found that the description of the book did not match the book that I read.
This was a very dense book with constant shifts in timeline, location, and general context.
Maybe I am just not smart enough to keep up with the details and shifting of the story, who knows.
Some things I liked about the book were the author's commitment to detail, history, and character descriptions.
This was a very dense book with constant shifts in timeline, location, and general context.
Maybe I am just not smart enough to keep up with the details and shifting of the story, who knows.
Some things I liked about the book were the author's commitment to detail, history, and character descriptions.
adambwriter's review against another edition
4.0
Was certain I’d give this one a three because of what felt like tortured and convoluted (too precious?) stylistics, and the homophobia, but the last chapter and epilogue were redeeming and the rest of the book is definitely a raw and wide view of the Philippines, its history, politics, and people. The core theme turns out to be a question of art and life, and time, which made sense, in the end. Maybe I call it a 3.5?
goneabroad71's review against another edition
2.0
I really wanted to like this book. I live in the Philippines, and am interested in local authors. But the stories within the story made the book choppy and hard to follow. It's like it was just trying too hard to be clever. The book received a Man Asia Prize, so someone out there liked it...but it just wasn't for me.
mrhumpage's review against another edition
3.0
A very interesting read, it's easy to see how this novel had won awards and simultaneously holds a middling aggregate review score here.
The book combines a variety of styles, extracts from fictional novels through a writer's career and ultimately a surprising twist in the end that still leaves many questions unanswered.
A modern novel, with casual sexual encounters and drug taking interspersed with the often brutal real histories of the colonial Philippines.
Not for everyone but enjoyment to be had.
The book combines a variety of styles, extracts from fictional novels through a writer's career and ultimately a surprising twist in the end that still leaves many questions unanswered.
A modern novel, with casual sexual encounters and drug taking interspersed with the often brutal real histories of the colonial Philippines.
Not for everyone but enjoyment to be had.
therese_nook68's review against another edition
2.0
Dropping the book to a 2 instead of its initial 3/5 stars
I picked this book up thinking it was going to be more of a mystery due to the synopsis and was surprised to see that it was more of a glimpse into the sorry state of the Philippines.
And while I enjoyed seeing both good and bad parts of my home country, it wasn't enough to really salvage the mess that was the book.
I think that I would have enjoyed it more if it felt like it didn't try so hard to be a literary novel. There were so many things that were unnecessary and made comprehending this book a lot harder. For instance, there were a lot of big Oxford man words that were unnecessary and felt like it was an English major throwing them in during a class to sound elevated and intelligent when it felt really pretentious. The length of the chapters with so much information felt like an overload and hard to really understand the point in all the POVs and the parallels.
The ending was also rushed and didn't satisfy all of the mental hurdles I had to jump through to get to the end.
I picked this book up thinking it was going to be more of a mystery due to the synopsis and was surprised to see that it was more of a glimpse into the sorry state of the Philippines.
And while I enjoyed seeing both good and bad parts of my home country, it wasn't enough to really salvage the mess that was the book.
I think that I would have enjoyed it more if it felt like it didn't try so hard to be a literary novel. There were so many things that were unnecessary and made comprehending this book a lot harder. For instance, there were a lot of big Oxford man words that were unnecessary and felt like it was an English major throwing them in during a class to sound elevated and intelligent when it felt really pretentious. The length of the chapters with so much information felt like an overload and hard to really understand the point in all the POVs and the parallels.
The ending was also rushed and didn't satisfy all of the mental hurdles I had to jump through to get to the end.
elemmakil's review against another edition
3.0
The debut novel of the Filipino Miguel Syjuco won prestigious literary awards. I totally see how that happened, but I can also imagine that those same reasons that brought the book its literary acclaim will prevent Syjuco from becoming a household names pretty much anywhere except in some lettered highbrow circles. The book is about a New York based Filipino expat, Miguel Syjuco (yes, indeed!), that starts, in the lack of a better word, investigating the suicide of his Filipino teacher/mentor, Crispin Salvador, who is also a famous author in the Philippines. The book is then jammed full of abstracts from the books of Salvador, but his story is also told through a biography that Miguel is writing. Add to this an interview of Salvador, some online comments and the story of Miguel's investigation, and we have a nice little mixture - especially since nearly all of these use different typefaces.
Ilustrado is one of those books that, much like Life of Pi, make a lot more sense once you've finished the book - but that requires you to finish the whole book. In the case of Life of Pi it was easy: an interesting story told in a compelling way using fine yet eloquent language, while in the case of Ilustrado it was the total opposite: only a mildly interesting story told in this "let's-see-how-artsy-I-can-make-this-book's-structure(I-wonder-if-it'll-make-people-call-me-the-Filipino-James-Joyce?)" fashion using verbose language akin to that of Ben Okri but without the enchantment of which while at the same time trying to include 100 years of the Philippines' history (I guess, I'm not an expert on the topic). As a result we get a book that aspires a lot but delivers it only in the most superficial of fashions, much like someone travelling a whole continent in a couple of weeks, merely ticking of the locations on a list so that they can brag about it at home to their friends; this book has a check mark next to a great number of literary merits, but most of them lack any sort of depth.
One of the biggest problems with this book is that all the characters in the vast array of stories in the book are so similar that I sometimes actually didn't know who it was supposed to be that was thinking or narrating. The typeface would give me a hint but sometimes I just had no idea or I forgot it during the chapter. Especially Miguel and Salvador were so similar they could've been one person.
In spite of its faults, it was an interesting read, and if you're not put off by literary tricks that are sometimes borderline gimmicky, I recommend giving it a go. Curiously, it's the first book by an East Asian author I've read and such a promising start. Ilustrado also kicks off my long-term goal of reading a novel by authors from every country on the Earth.
Ilustrado is one of those books that, much like Life of Pi, make a lot more sense once you've finished the book - but that requires you to finish the whole book. In the case of Life of Pi it was easy: an interesting story told in a compelling way using fine yet eloquent language, while in the case of Ilustrado it was the total opposite: only a mildly interesting story told in this "let's-see-how-artsy-I-can-make-this-book's-structure(I-wonder-if-it'll-make-people-call-me-the-Filipino-James-Joyce?)" fashion using verbose language akin to that of Ben Okri but without the enchantment of which while at the same time trying to include 100 years of the Philippines' history (I guess, I'm not an expert on the topic). As a result we get a book that aspires a lot but delivers it only in the most superficial of fashions, much like someone travelling a whole continent in a couple of weeks, merely ticking of the locations on a list so that they can brag about it at home to their friends; this book has a check mark next to a great number of literary merits, but most of them lack any sort of depth.
One of the biggest problems with this book is that all the characters in the vast array of stories in the book are so similar that I sometimes actually didn't know who it was supposed to be that was thinking or narrating. The typeface would give me a hint but sometimes I just had no idea or I forgot it during the chapter. Especially Miguel and Salvador were so similar they could've been one person.
In spite of its faults, it was an interesting read, and if you're not put off by literary tricks that are sometimes borderline gimmicky, I recommend giving it a go. Curiously, it's the first book by an East Asian author I've read and such a promising start. Ilustrado also kicks off my long-term goal of reading a novel by authors from every country on the Earth.
elingunnar's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0