A Small Party in a Garden: Revised and Critical Edition by Linda Ty-Casper
A Small Party in a Garden: Revised and Critical Edition
by Linda Ty-Casper
PALH 2025, 177 pages
ISBN: 978-1-953716-55-2
A Small Party in a Garden, Revised and Critical Edition, re-introduces an important historical novella that was first published 38 years ago. Written by award-winning Filipina writer, Linda Ty-Casper, A Small Party in a Garden is set in the Philippines during the Marcos Dictatorship. The story's protagonist is a privileged woman who is the right-hand woman of Imelda Marcos, and who learns first hand what brutality meant under Martial Law. This revised and critical edition has an Introduction by Dr. Charlie Samuya Veric, Professor at the Ateneo de Manila University, who analyzes the novella in terms of its continued historical and literary significance. Dr. Lynn M. Grow, Emeritus Senior Professor of English at Broward College gives a comprehensive overview of Linda Ty-Casper's literary works.
Linda Ty-Casper is the author of over sixteen books, which
generally deal with Philippine historical and political themes. She is the
recipient of the SEA Write Award, UNESCO/P.E.N., Rockefeller Bellagio,
Radcliffe Fellowships and other awards. Her literary work is considered a significant
contribution to Filipino, Philippine American, as well as Asian American
literature. Her works of fiction are so powerful that two of her novels, Wings
of Stone and Awaiting Trespass, were banned in the Philippines during the
Marcos Dictatorship; the books were published in London.
Her recent book include the biography of her husband:: Will
You Happen, Past the Silence, Through the Dark: Remembering Leonard Ralph
Casper, and Lives Remembered, A Memoir.
*
PRAISE:
Writing in 1993, five years after the novella A Small
Party in a Garden was first published in 1988, NVM Gonzalez defined what he
called the novel of justice. “Living in the milieu of postcolonial and
neocolonial societies,” he wrote, “we tend to forget that imperialism dies
hard.” Heavy is the burden of the Filipino writer, Gonzalez said, who must
write the novel of justice wherein “the writer configures a world out of life
and language derived from colonial or postcolonial milieu.” The duty is heavy
because the Filipino writer must invent “strategies of narration in order to
bring off the theme of oppression, the territory provided by their perceptions
of the workings of empire.” In A Small Party in a Garden, a milieu
exists to plumb the Filipino soul, spanning the horror, nightmare, and disgrace
of the choices we make on the long road to becoming free, to becoming
postcolonial at last. (From the Introduction)
Charlie
SamuyaVeric, Ph.D
Director,
Literary and Cultural Studies Program,
Ateneo de Manila
University
*
The reader is
entangled in a web of insights, impressions, emotions emerging from the
narrator’s memories of an earlier life fraught with internal and external
conflicts … and finally as she deviates from her normal daily routine only to
be plunged into a shocking turn of events which leaves the reader stunned and
shocked. But only the inimitable writer that is Linda Ty-Casper can deliver all
these in a fluid, rich language at times dense but smoothly flowing, at other
times sharp, pointed, clear, unforgiving. And the reader, charmed, amused,
intrigued, amazed, is irrevocably caught.
Thelma E.
Arambulo
Writer,
Literary Studies Scholar,
Former UP Chair
of the Dept. of English and Comparative Literature
*
In all, Linda
Ty-Casper‘s life, devoted to firm, principled stands on moral issues and
unhesitating protest action when such was needed, as well as her prolific
production of first–rank poetry, prose fiction, and prose non–fiction has been
exemplary. The reader of this revised edition of A Small Party in a Gardencan
see again why Philippine literature has been so blessed over eight decades to
have had Linda Ty-Casper.
Lynn M.
Grow, Ph.D.
Emeritus Senior
Professor of English,
Broward
College, Florida
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About PALH
Author Bios
A Small Party in a Garden: Revised and Critical Edition by Linda Ty-Casper
Benedicta Takes Wing and Other Stories by Veronica Montes
Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America Ed by Brainard
Fiction by Filipinos in America Ed by Brainard
Fundamentals of Creative Writing, Revised and Expanded Edition by Cecilia Brainard
Growing Up Filipino: Stories for Young Adults Ed by Brainard
Growing Up Filipino II: More Stories for Young Adults Ed by Brainard
Journey of 100 Years: Reflections on the Centennial of Philippine Independence, Ed Edmundo Litton
Lives Remembered, A Memoir by Linda Ty-Casper