The Gangster of Love |
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Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn
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Pages: 311 (Hardcover)
ISBN: 0395754127
Pub: Houghton Mifflin (Trade)
Pub date: 1996-11-01
Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 113751
Reader Reviews:
Brilliant Narrative but Unfocused (0/0 people found this helpful)
This book hooks you immediately and rarely lulls. The female characters are fascinating, but the male characters seem 2-dimensional (although, this may not be unrealistic). The main character's best friend Keiko is one of the wildest, most interesting characters I've seen in print! It reads more like a poem, gritty and brilliant and chaotic, with the voice often changing from character to character, giving an even broader portrait of the dynamics at play. My only complaint was that the story seemed to wander, giving it an almost Kerouac-type feel, seeming more incidental than integral, more like a biography in poem than a novel. Overall, it was a great read which I devoured in two days, and I look forward to more of Ms Hagedorn's work.
A synthesis of the Filipino American struggle (0/0 people found this helpful)
Jessica Hagedorn creates another honest, in your face, yet beautiful depiction of the Filipino immigrant experience. From the her character, Rocky Rivera's life, we relive the struggles of starting over, family loyalty, and of love- of mad, passionate love. From Milagros "La Reyna" Rivera we see a woman of steel, a diva, a mother, and a woman battling with her own demons. And from the eccentric Uncle Marlon, we learn of love, and of sheer, unadulterated aceptance of "family" whether it be by blood or otherwise. The Ganster of Love is a book that makes you long for the those hot and humid Manila summers, and an intense craving for "lumpia" and garlic rice. Everytime you read it brings a new revelation.
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Categories
Amazon.co.uk places this book into the following categories:
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> General
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> Authors, A-Z -> H -> Hagedorn, Jessica
Books -> Subjects -> Fiction -> World -> American -> Asian American