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A review by elemmakil
Ilustrado by Miguel Syjuco
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.