Acapulco at Sunset and Other Stories by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
Acapulco at Sunset and Other Stories by Cecilia Brainard
Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
PALH 2020, 16- pages, softcover ISBN 987-1-953716-07-1, $14.95
First published by Anvil in 1995, all rights belong to the author
Brainard is the author and editor of over twenty books of fiction and nonfiction. She is the recipient of several awards including a California Arts Council Fellowship, a Brody Arts Fund Award, and an Outstanding Individual Award from her birth city of Cebu, Philippines. Her work is widely anthologized and has been translated into Finnish and Turkish. Her literary endeavors are considered significant contributions to Filipino, Philippine-American, as well as Asian American literature.
“The stories of Cecilia Manguerra Brainard tell of voyages the heart could have taken, of places haunted by old memories like ghosts lingering under an ancient mango tree, of times seemingly irretrievable but always there at the farthest end of the thread of remembering.” ~ Marjorie M. Evasco,
Poet
“Brainard enriches the conventional understanding of exile by applying the concept to Filipino experience in the Philippines. She is thereby able to show the cultural and social issues that a Filipino/a faces while in exile are universal Filipino experiences.” ~ Les Adler for Pilipinas
"In Brainard's stories, Acapulco and Intramuros are the same, and at the same time, completely different places. Dead characters and live characters talk to each other nonchalantly. A young poor boy falls in love with an older rich woman, and by loving her, kills her. Filipinos find their identity in, of course, San Francisco, but not so ordinarily, in Alaska. The green card - actually blue - spells the difference between authenticity and an authentic life, between dreaming and the American dream."In Brainard's stories, the mind does wondrous things: aside from creating an Evil-Thing that makes one do good things, for instance, it may recreate good people that spell the difference between good and evil. It may make characters live in worlds they themselves create, distinct from - often destructive of - the world that has created them. A young girl, for instance, may live for the handsome object of her adolescent fantasies, then so suddenly recognize these fantasies as mere "silly daydreams." A very old woman, saving herself for her one and only love, finally surrenders her virtue - and her life - on her death bed, of course to her one and only, now long dead, love," ~ Isagani R. Cruz for Starweek
Excerpt
https://cbrainard.blogspot.com/2013/06/manila-without-verna-short-story-by.html
Book Reviews
Review by Les Adler for Pilipinas, Michigan State University, No. 26, Spring 1996
Review by Isagani R. Cruz for Starweek, Philippine Star, October 29, 1995
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Acapulco at Sunset and Other Stories by Cecilia Brainard
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Benedicta Takes Wing and Other Stories by Veronica Montes
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Magical Years: Memories & Sketches by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
The Newspaper Widow by Cecilia Brainard
Please, San Antonio! & Melisande in Paris by Eve La Salle Caram and Cecilia Brainard
Woman with Horns and Other Stories by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
Rare Filipinana Books & Ephemera
Growing Up Filipino II: More Stories for Young Adults Ed by Cecilia Brainard
Journey of 100 Years: Reflections on the Centennial of Philippine Independence, Ed Cecilia Brainard
Magdalena by Cecilia Brainard
Magical Years: Memories & Sketches by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
The Newspaper Widow by Cecilia Brainard
Please, San Antonio! & Melisande in Paris by Eve La Salle Caram and Cecilia Brainard
Woman with Horns and Other Stories by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
Rare Filipinana Books & Ephemera