What do you think?
Rate this book
Remembering Carlos Bulosan: His Heart Affair With America
Book by Morantte, P. C.
164 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1984
9 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 of 1 review
February 28, 2008
This biography of Bulosan was written by Bulosan's close friend. As a result it is more engaging than a typical academic biography but also more narrow focused (the author explains only those parts of Bulosan’s life he was directly familiar with). This is a good book to read if you are interested in learning more about Carlos Bulosan’s life. Some biographies are worth reading even if you are not actively searching out more information about the person. This is not one of those.
It talks about his friendship with Dorothy Babb, some of the ways in which his life did (and didn’t) translate into his “autobiography” America Is In The Heart , and some of the mistakes Bulosan found in copies of the work (ie stating his school started in Sept in the Philippines when it would have been June). The author calls E. San Juan Jr.'s reading of Bulosan's The Laughter of My Father pedantic and depoliticizes the government's wartime use of Bulosan's writing: "The American Government wanted its fighting forces abroad to snatch a moment of laughter from the grim business of war, so its Office of War Information made several broadcasts about Carlos' book" (124).
The author focuses a great deal on Carlos' sentiment and the way his writings reflected not his own personal experience but embodied the experience of a greater group of the oppressed.
"Carlos' heart had bled for them, cried for them. That is why he did not hesitate to claim the barbarities done to them - to all underdogs, to all the oppressed, to all the poor fighters against abuses by the rich and powerful -as also his own" (21-22).
It talks about his friendship with Dorothy Babb, some of the ways in which his life did (and didn’t) translate into his “autobiography” America Is In The Heart , and some of the mistakes Bulosan found in copies of the work (ie stating his school started in Sept in the Philippines when it would have been June). The author calls E. San Juan Jr.'s reading of Bulosan's The Laughter of My Father pedantic and depoliticizes the government's wartime use of Bulosan's writing: "The American Government wanted its fighting forces abroad to snatch a moment of laughter from the grim business of war, so its Office of War Information made several broadcasts about Carlos' book" (124).
The author focuses a great deal on Carlos' sentiment and the way his writings reflected not his own personal experience but embodied the experience of a greater group of the oppressed.
"Carlos' heart had bled for them, cried for them. That is why he did not hesitate to claim the barbarities done to them - to all underdogs, to all the oppressed, to all the poor fighters against abuses by the rich and powerful -as also his own" (21-22).
Displaying 1 of 1 review