老爸的笑聲

by Carlos Bulosan, 卡洛斯．卜婁杉, 陳夏民 (Translator)

就算政府不可靠，老天不幫忙，我老爸一樣是打不死的蟑螂！
——全宇宙最兩光的老爸，在台灣隆重登場！

▲ 這一次，讓我們主動認識有點疏遠的厝邊鄰居：菲律賓。
▲ 風靡全美，讓《紐約客》編輯、讀者又哭又笑的農村物語。
▲ 親情指數直逼《親戚不計較》！荒謬等級不輸《玫瑰玫瑰我愛你》！

「老爸，你明明沒有什麼優點，
為什麼卻讓我無比懷念，又無比嚮往？」
早安，台灣的朋友們，你們聽過呂宋島嗎？
我們家住在呂宋島的鄉下，大家平日不是種田就是賭博。
如果你來玩，我可以帶你去騎牛，或去看鬥雞，超刺激的！
我家總共有九位成員。
老爸是鬥雞高手，滿嘴大男人主義，還把房子當禮物送人。
老媽是職業哭喪師（你們的孝女白瓊？），生氣就拿老爸練拳。
大哥從戰場回來後，變成酗酒的憂鬱男。
二哥專偷自家的東西，我爸媽擔心他會偷賣掉我們家的房子。
三哥是個書呆子，四哥十二歲就想結婚生小孩。
大姐愛整人；二姐則是一直生病，在這整本書裡面完全沒有台詞。
我呢，則是五歲就愛上喝烈酒，導致個子長不高……
我們家的人都有點怪怪的，不過幸好我們仍有彼此。
每天每天，我們全家人都會笑成一團。笑聲，是我們家僅有的財富。
對了，能不能再給我兩分鐘，聽聽我最近的大煩惱？

我們家鄰居很有錢，他們每天吃大餐，小朋友卻越長越瘦弱，還一直咳嗽。我們每天偷聞他們家的食物香氣，吃著糟糕的食物，但全家人都很有肉，也很健康。不料，有錢鄰居竟然要告我們家「偷光他家食物的靈氣」，這下子法院傳票都寄過來了！

老爸，我們不想坐牢，你快想想辦法啊！雖然你目不識丁、個性卑鄙、好賭貪杯、常被老媽賞巴掌，活像是一隻打不死的蟑螂，但是這時候我們也只能靠你耍小聰明拯救全家人啦！快啊！

卜婁杉真摯的文字帶領讀者越過文化的藩籬，讓我們在菲律賓小老百姓的身上，看見同屬島國人的大時代悲喜劇，適合十歲到一百歲，嚮往純樸美好生活的世界公民閱讀。看完之後，別忘了與阿公阿嬤分享這本書，問他們是否騎過水牛、看過鬥雞，聽聽他們如何度過那一段艱難又幸福的歲月。

本書特色

▲ 笑聲中有淡淡的無奈，一齣大時代小人物的悲喜劇。
▲ 誰說吃虧就是佔便宜？二十四場荒謬爆笑的「互佔便宜大鬥法」即時上演。
▲ 如果文學能跨界漫畫，老爸一定會和《烏龍派出所》的兩津勘吉變成難兄難弟。

Genres: Short Stories, History, Asia

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1944

About the author

Carlos Sampayan Bulosan was a Filipino American novelist and poet best-known for the semi-autobiographical America is in the Heart.

Reviews

[sdw · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of short stories by Bulosan has been frequently compared to Steinbeck’s Tortilla Flats . I can certainly understand why, though I imagine Bulosan would be upset by the comparison. The stories are based in the Philippines and follow a young boy who is smart and likes to drink wine as his family attempts to survive the economic effects of colonialism in the Philippines. Bulosan wrote the book in anger and was frustrated when it was taken as a funny book. There are lots of scenes of cockfighting. The depictions of women are not particularly progressive. The stories were fine. They were certainly better than the collection The Philippines Is in the Heart which included many stories cut from this collection. I really appreciated that the short stories worked together and progressed almost like a novel.

[Jham]

I think its best for the filipino people to read this specially to those who are in the other country. By reading this, they can reminisce their old life in their own country(Philippines) .

[Yassen M. · Rating 5 out of 5]

i need to read this please help me!

[Marianne Villanueva · Rating 3 out of 5]

Carlos Bulosan has such a gift for idiom. He's like the Filipino Mark Twain. Dad's a scalawag, Mom is long-suffering. But it's the Dad who gets the 25 stories.

The stories are all titled similarly: The first is My Father Goes to Court (great story). Then follow: The Gift of My Father, The Tree of My Father, The Capitalism of My Father, A Day With My Father, and so on.

Bulosan was from the province of Pangasinan, and he came to the States as a migrant worker. Where he found the voice to write stories like these, I don't know. There's a very sharp nostalgia, so maybe he wrote them while he was in the States. Americanisms like "They wanted to drink like hell" abound.

At the same time, it's a priceless view of a rural way of life where, despite poverty and illiteracy, people are HAPPY. There is a slight racist tinge to some of the stories where the worst thing you can call someone is an 'Igorot' (a mountain tribe; they were so fierce they defeated the 16th century explorer Juan de Salcedo, who at 17 was no slouch) because they were so dark-skinned.

If I'd stopped after maybe 15 stories, I would have given this collection five stars. But no. There are more stories to plow through, and the Dad is SUCH A SCOUNDREL. He sleeps around, he can't hold down a steady job, he's a drunk, he's a gambler, he's nicer to his fighting cock than he is to his wife or his children. It gets pretty tiresome.

In the very last story (which the collection is named after), the father urges the narrator to ask a girl to dance. But the narrator is too shy. The father shakes his head in disbelief: "He used to boast that his five sons were honey to the girls because he touched them at birth, by which he meant that he had bequeathed his anting anting, or talisman, which was what women fell for."

The narrator is clearly entranced by this man who lived life large (who would never have had the courage to do what his son did: leave his native country and seek his fortune in America, where he died, poor and alone, of tuberculosis)

Gallery Bookshop in Mendocino found this copy of Bulosan for me, in a second-hand shop, and I will treasure it.

[Pei-chi]

不知道怎麼給星，只想說大開眼界。

[David Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Laughter of My Father" by Carlos Bulosan, 1942. Stories: My Father Goes to Court; The Soldiers Came Marching; My Mother's Boarders; The Gift of My Father; The Death of My Father; The Tree of My Father; The Capitalism of My Father; The Politics of My Father; The Politics of My Father; My Father Had a Father; A Day With My Father; The Marriage of My Father; My Father's Lonely Night; My Father and the White Horse; The Song of My Father; My Uncle Manuel's Homecoming; My Father's Love Potion; The Triumph of My Father; My Father's Tragedy; My Father Goes to Church; The Son of My Father; My Father and the Fighting Ram; The Education of My Father; My Father's Political Appointment; The Laughter of My Father.
"When I was five the town council decided to enlarge our school because the soldiers that came home from the war produced children left and right. We used to wonder how they performed the splendid job. Only one was healthy-looking enough to be father of a healthy child. The children grew rapidly and stayed in the street, in the way of carts and other vehicles, like their fathers who stayed out most of the night, shouting out loud at the presidencia and laughing hysterically at the wine store across from the church. The town council had a special meeting and decided that a school must be established, especially for the children, although they were still drinking the milk of their mothers.
And that is when the three women teachers came to our town. Mother said they were from the city, and she did not like them; but their presence gave her a grand opportunity to make a little money. She wanted to save a few pesos for a mourning cloak, because the one she had was torn to shreds and no man would hire her any more to mourn for his dead. When she heard that the teachers were looking for a place, Mother sent my brother Berto to look for them and invite them to our house.
It seemed that nobody wanted them, coming to our town with bobbed hair, painted lips and cheeks, and wearing short skirts. And that was not all: they also wore tight-fitting blouses and sweaters, walking by the station and into the presidencia with their chests out, attracting the attention of the gamblers loafing around in the hall and lazy clerks sleeping at their jobs. The women stayed away from them, pretending to be looking in the other direction when they met them in the street; when they were a few feet away, the women looking back at them and spat contemptuously in the dust. But the teachers just tossed their cigarettes away and laughed their healthy, girlish laughter. They even tried to be friendly with the young girls, teaching them how to smile when a man made a remark, or showing them how to walk when there were young boys around. The mothers were suspicious of the teachers, and they looked at their husbands with accusing eyes when they made fine remarks about them..."

This book connects with my life, though I was only born a year before Bulosan died, and I was born and have lived in Iowa, and Carlos was born on Luzon and came to America, to suffer, learn, and die, for Filipinos and Americans. I have tried to do the same in my life's quest for social justice and intellectual awareness.

[Arlene Mauricio]

because its inspiring:)

[Myra · Rating 5 out of 5]

nice written story of my favorite
author..In My Father's Court

[Jessamae Ugay]

many.. i'm too curios about that story made by Filipino writer.. i'm eager to read it.

[Jeter Jun]

i think it was good

[Jay Lapiz]

amazing

[Rhea Blessie]

fv\s

[Rocky · Rating 1 out of 5]

i wanna read

[A · Rating 3 out of 5]

Storytelling.
Memories I would like to write.

[Potz Kie · Rating 5 out of 5]

it's a good story...
that should be read by every Pilipino.

[Yuki Makino]

comment

[Eve]

good to read

[Nhel Sab · Rating 4 out of 5]

amazing

[Zyrah Mae · Rating 5 out of 5]

i dont know i did not read it