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Tales from Manila Ave.
242 pages, Paperback
Published November 11, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
November 24, 2025
The stories of Tales From Manila Ave. all revolve around Filipino immigrants in the US and their struggles to find their place in their worlds, whether those worlds revolve primarily around family, or being accepted into their new home, or either letting go of or making peace with the home that they left behind. From existing under the threat of gentrification and deportation in stories like the title story, to the pressures of fitting in with “Dress Down Day,” Caolie offers up characters with simultaneously interior and exterior conflicts, as a good story should.
And these stories are good, no doubt about it. I was particularly taken with stories like “Everything Must Stay,” which follows the spiderweb of drama that results from a local shop, a staple of the community, threatens to close. And in “Sleepless In America,” the narrator resumes his habit of sleepwalking when he meets an old man in an old age home who reminds him of his deceased father. There is a flavor of Edward P. Jones to these stories, a strong hold on each moment that doesn’t make its magic obvious, but by the end you know you’ve been guided through the story’s matter with an expert hand. Caolie’s prose is quiet and affective. He brings us into the inner workings of his characters with a solid sense of pathos, never putting us in painfully deep, maybe because many of his characters don’t care to be that introspective, and guides us through the layers of their concerns firmly and competently. This book is a fine first outing.
And these stories are good, no doubt about it. I was particularly taken with stories like “Everything Must Stay,” which follows the spiderweb of drama that results from a local shop, a staple of the community, threatens to close. And in “Sleepless In America,” the narrator resumes his habit of sleepwalking when he meets an old man in an old age home who reminds him of his deceased father. There is a flavor of Edward P. Jones to these stories, a strong hold on each moment that doesn’t make its magic obvious, but by the end you know you’ve been guided through the story’s matter with an expert hand. Caolie’s prose is quiet and affective. He brings us into the inner workings of his characters with a solid sense of pathos, never putting us in painfully deep, maybe because many of his characters don’t care to be that introspective, and guides us through the layers of their concerns firmly and competently. This book is a fine first outing.
December 10, 2025
I really enjoyed Tales From Manila Ave. I thought the strongest aspect, or at least the most impactful for me, was how Caoile portrayed parental and sibling relationships. All of the different parents and grown ups were portrayed with a lot of nuance that framed the trials they overcome as well as their shortcomings. The ways in which these Filipino immigrants and their children come to terms with their lives in the states felt very human and empathetic. And as someone who has siblings and whose parents are immigrants, the sibling relationships in this book felt very authentic to me. If this collection of short stories had a call to action, it would probably be to go and call your mom or dad or sister or brother or whoever from your family that you haven’t spoken with lately. That’s a reminder I’m glad to have received.
I rate this 4 cats named Puto (the Filipino food, not Spanish expletive) out of 5 🐈⬛🐈⬛🐈⬛🐈⬛
I rate this 4 cats named Puto (the Filipino food, not Spanish expletive) out of 5 🐈⬛🐈⬛🐈⬛🐈⬛
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews