BOOK REVIEW: Kite of Stars and Other Stories

Title: Kite of Stars and Other Stories
Author: Dean Francis Alfar

     This is the first book written by a Filipino author that I have read after some 7 years of hiatus since I came to the United States. For what can be considered as my reintroduction to Filipino literature, I couldn't be happier with this choice. 

     This book is a collection of the author's works throughout the years as a fictionist. It contains 16 short stories of fiction. Each story has different characters, different style and different message. 

     There are a myriad of things that I enjoyed about this book. But what really stands out is how well the stories are written: true to the Filipino culture in every bit of way. Throughout the book, one will stumble upon the major and minor characters that are a very interesting mix of ordinary humans, half humans, supernatural humans, royalties, reptile, spiders, wooden dolls and many more with special participation and mentions of manananggal, duende, tiq'Barang (tikbalang), dijuata (diwata), cerena (sirena) and other Philippine mythology characters that we all grew up knowing from our folks. Although these characters may be known to other people from other cultures, reading about them takes me back to my wonderful childhood years of reading and listening about alamat and kwentong bayan.

     There are also discussions of our well-loved recipes (i.e. pinakbet, adobong baboy, pancit luglug,dinuguan) of which the author described so sumptuously one can be inspired to cook it for their next meal (especially if you live overseas with an intact Filipino appetite and stomach). 

     Like a fair journalist, the author also did not spare the not-so-pretty side of Filipino culture which includes our poverty, slavery, patriarchal society and our love for gossip. After all, those are embedded in our culture, truth be told. 

     Like any alamat, fables or kwentong bayan, the stories offer a lot of wisdom and insight. Of course, it is not explicitly told, one has to get past the mystery, the fantasy and the countless genius uses of the figures of speech, to fathom them. I admit, some of the stories I had to read twice or three times to finally "get it."

     Although the book seems to be kid friendly,  it is, however, not something that i would give as a gift to anybody younger than 18 years old (or older). Some of the stories are mature in nature and I cannot imagine any young niece or nephew of mine reading it. The good news is, a lot of the stories are harmless enough to be shared to the younger population. So you can pick and choose which ones you can read to them.

     Overall, although speculative fiction is not my favorite genre of book, I had a great time reading this one and I found myself being constantly engaged in the short stories. I can only hope that a Philippine network would make this book come to life in at least a teleserye of WANSAPANATAYM (once-upon-a-time)  in nature for I really believe that this book is a magical piece of Philippine literature that deserves to be put out there for a wider audience to appreciate.

Rating: 4.5/5

Buy: http://amzn.com/B00ARFNCMG (Kindle edition, also available in i-books)

- ecy casiano