Wednesday, January 14, 2009

When the Rainbow Goddess Wept

#237
Title: When the Rainbow Goddess Wept
Author: Cecilia Manguerra Brainard
Publisher: Plume
Year: 1991/1995
Country: Philippines
216 pages

Narrated by Yvonne, a Filipina girl, this novel blends local legends and the Japanese invasion of the Philippines, heightening their parallels (and those of the legends and the plot) in a slightly folkloric, slightly magical realistic blend. I enjoyed the narrator's voice and found the story easy to follow and poignant. Read with Davenport's Song of the Exile, Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, and Kim's Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood for a broader fictional representation of the effects of Japanese expansionism from World War II through the Korean War.

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