Dream Jungle

by Jessica Hagedorn

One of Jessica Hagedorn's most daring novels—“a deft and complex tale of corruption, fealty, and integrity” ( The Baltimore Sun )

In a Philippines of desperate beauty and rank corruption, two seemingly unrelated events the discovery of an ancient lost tribe living in a remote mountainous area and the arrival of a celebrity-studded, American film crew, there to make an epic Vietnam War movie. But the lost tribe may be a clever hoax and the Hollywood movie seems doomed as the cast and crew continue to self-destruct in a cloud of drugs and ego. As the consequences of these events play out, four unforgettable characters—a wealthy, iconoclastic playboy; a woman ensnared in the sex industry; a Filipino-American writer; and a jaded actor—find themselves drawn irrevocably together in this lavish, sensual portrait of a nation in crisis.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Literature, Asia, Historical, Asian American, Novels

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2003

About the author

Jessica Tarahata Hagedorn was born (and raised) in Manila, Philippines in 1949. With her background, a Scots-Irish-French-Filipino mother and a Filipino-Spanish father with one Chinese ancestor, Hagedorn adds a unique perspective to Asian American performance and literature. Her mixed media style often incorporates song, poetry, images, and spoken dialogue.

Moving to San Francisco in 1963, Hagedorn received her education at the American Conservatory Theater training program. To further pursue playwriting and music, she moved to New York in 1978.

Joseph Papp produced her first play Mango Tango in 1978. Hagedorn's other productions include Tenement Lover, Holy Food, and Teenytown.

In 1985, 1986, and 1988, she received Macdowell Colony Fellowships, which helped enable her to write the novel Dogeaters, which illuminates many different aspects of Filipino experience, focusing on the influence of America through radio, television, and movie theaters. She shows the complexities of the love-hate relationship many Filipinos in diaspora feel toward their past. After its publication in 1990, her novel earned a 1990 National Book Award nomination and an American Book Award. In 1998, La Jolla Playhouse produced a stage adaptation.

She lives in New York with her husband and two daughters, and continues to be a poet, storyteller, musician, playwright, and multimedia performance artist.

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don't understand why every single Filipino/a out there isn't giving this book 5 stars. Whatever your predilections are as far as plot goes, this is a vivid and imaginative book, written by a delightful Filipina writer with a strong voice (Hagedorn). The book DEFINITELY has something to say about race, class, the clash of cultures, the views of outsiders juxtaposed with the views of insiders, and the complicated post-colonial world that is the Philippines. I for one LOVED the ending. I was worried that it was going to be a cheese-fest at the end (i.e. Rizalina would be "saved" by the white American actor and whisked away to America to spend her days living as his exotic trophy wife). Instead, Hagedorn gives us something more complicated, a bit more subtle and very very well done.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished this a few days ago and still don't quite know what to make of it. The author took two notorious, true incidents in 1970s Filipino history and tied them together into a fictional book. First, she wrote a fictionalized account of the "discovery" of a "Stone Age" tribe in a remote part of the Phillipines in the early 1970s. In real life, this ended up being exposed as a hoax orchestrated by a Harvard-educated, rich Filipino who was tied to Phillipine President Ferdinand Marcos. Marcos used this "discovery" as a way to launder money and retain a sheen of humanitarianism while declaring martial law in his country. However, to this day some still believe that the tribe was legitimate. The author in "Dream Jungle" imagined a situation that would have led a highly educated, rich, and pampered man to imagine and orchestrate a hoax of this magnitude. She also left the resolution on whether it was indeed a hoax up to the reader to decide.

The second incident was the filming of "Apocalypse Now" in the Phillipines in the mid 1970s in the same vicinity where this supposed "lost tribe" was found. The author changed the names of the actors and never identified the film, but it was quite clear what movie and which actors/ people she was writing about.

The problem I had was that these two storylines never melded into any sort of enlightenment. I enjoyed reading both, and Hagedorn used a couple of characters to tie the two stories together (though the reporter seemed like an afterthought) in a somewhat logical way. However, the Stone Age tribe story and the story of the filming of the movie did not reflect each other or complement each other into some greater truth. If you're going to have two entirely separate storylines in one book, I expect that a moral or enlightenment about the human condition or about Filipino society or SOMETHING would come out of their melding that would make me understand why the author felt the need to write about these two disparate subjects in the same work of fiction.

I'm still just a little mystified.

[Jonathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Apocalypse Now is a movie about the Philippines.

Yes, the two major plots aren't very tidily tied together, but I think Hagedorn is more interested here in what the mystery of the jungle promises and what lengths men go to find that there. If Magellan is the archetype for what the Philippines is supposed to be, then the Taobo hoax and Napalm Sunset are desperate attempts to live up to that model.

[Nathanial · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gotta love the Friends of the Library bookstore - four bucks, can you believe it? But what the hell, Penguin: a "Non-Classics" category for new publications? Shee-ut.

btw - Hagedorn had a band in the mid-eighties. Who knew? They had an album on A Diamond Hidden in the Mouth of a Corpse (1986)called "Tenement Lover."

[Trish · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an incredibly ambitious book that combines historical fact and fiction. It examines power from many angles: colonial power, power within the family, power within relationships. If you know the story of Apocalypse Now before reading this, it will add a whole new dimension to your reading. I ultimately gave it 4 stars instead of 5 because the head hopping can be jarring and there was one plot line I didn’t quite care about as much as the others, but...

Overall, this book had intricately woven characters and plots and did an outstanding job of tying old-world colonization to modern colonization.

Jessica Hagedorn should be more famous, this is possibly the best “Hollywood” book I’ve read. Really well done, I will be processing this book for a long time to come.

[Zee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dream sequence writing, felt like what the duck was going on most of the time. Movie stars, post-colonial elite, and the headiness of poverty and social stratification.

[Kirby Rock · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me a long time to really get into this but once I did, I really enjoyed it. A very unique book about the Philippines, Hollywood, corruption, the lasting effects of colonialism, a lot more.

[Ariel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Despite the ambitious scope and some extremely clever plotting, this novel never really connected with me emotionally, got me involved on a more than surface intellectual level. I respect the analogies/allegories that Hagedorn is trying (often successfully) to weave, but the pitfall of this is that the characters never really come alive- each stands as a representation of their class or ethnicity or a specific Filipino experience, and so become more caricatures then believable, individual people. I liked it, but only liked.

[Hue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally.
What a journey this book has taken me into.

Dream Jungle is set in Philippines 1971 and specifically revolves deep in the forest somewhere in Mindanao where the stone-age tribe 'Taobo' was said to be discovered by a rich man named Zamora, and a Hollywood film is set. Both were inspired by real events: the Tasaday discovery and Apocalypse Now film shooting in the Philippines.

This book fictionalizes the reality of the Philippines then: the individual and government's corruption in the Marcos era.

📖I love how the author inserted excerpts from Pigafetta's accounts of Magellan Expedition, comparing the discovery and conquest then and now.

📖This is a very character-driven book. Told in first person from different characters, each fragment of narration and story contribute to the reality and fiction of the Philippines then: beauty and corruption.

📖The prose is exquisite, raw, and beautiful. Though the shifting of dialects and language from English to Spanish to Filipino to indigenous language may sound awkward at times, but I feel like it is really how most Filipinos converse.

📖Overall, it was a great book, ingenious even. But not my cup of tea. The theme was dark and real. And oh how many times I skipped over profane language 😂.

[Blank · Rating 3 out of 5]

The writing is very good and the cultural setting is very effective. Unfortunately, the third part does not deliver on the build up of the first two parts, and some of the plot choices didn't work out so well. The very last chapter with Zamora speaking after he's been cremated is very strange and doesn't "pay off" or wrap up the novel at all.

Zamora and Moody are basically the same guy. Heterosexual, alcoholic and slutty macho men obsessed with the romantic ideal of "experience".

The choice to tell the story from POV of four different main characters doesn't really make any of them important. It feels like the plotting doesn't progress. The novel could've been another 300 pages and it would've been the same novel.

The way time is dealt with also doesn't pay off. What is told and what is left out seems arbitrary and not beneficial to the overall workings of the plot.

[Margaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading this is like making your way through a Dream Jungle...a tangle of characters, plots, subplots, narrative voices. The stark reality of the poorest, most desperate women in the book, how their lives and families and bodies are constantly in danger. And the selfish, brutal, obliviousness of powerful men, Filipino and American. Zamora Lopez, the "discoverer" of a Stone Age tribe, who terrorizes so many people around him. And Vince Moody, has-been American actor and drug user, who fancies himself in love with a teenage Lina (formerly a servant in Zamora's house, then a "bar girl" but ultimately a survivor.) And the film director, Tony Pierce, who is making a vast Apocalypse Now type movie. The women, Pierce's wife, Janet, who is making a documentary about the movie; Paz Marlowe, a Filipina writer based in the States who comes back to work on a story, or multiple stories...It's hard to like the characters, who take turns telling pieces of the story. The book is a bit of a messy, movie-like experience.

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

So many themes of colonialism and conquest mimicking Philippine history throughout the book: Lina's repeated attempts to escape being "conquored" and taken by men, Zamora "discovering" the Taobo and Duan introducing modern technology to them, the arrival of American pop culture and Filipinos' love for it. It is a lot to process yet I feel the message slips through your fingers. Dream Jungle was a good book but I do wish the story lines were not so disjointed. Everyone seemed lost and alone as well as distant from the reader. I don't know if that was the point, but I wanted to feel closer to the characters as I read.

[Joshua Landeros · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jessica Hagedorn uses several characters to emphasize the point that colonialism is not dead and gone. Though it has changed form from the outright domination of the old, the effects of both empires have had long lasting effects on the Philippines. Their tendrils may never completely leave the country. Despite this, the native populace is a resilient one. Ultimately, legacies and history do matter. In Dream Jungle, José Rizal is remembered as a man who would not lie and is a beloved martyr. Zamora, the remnant from a bygone era, is remembered as a farce that will fade into obscurity.

[May Garsson · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a remake of the The Movie Apocalypse Now and the documentary of the making of the movie filmed by Francis Coppola's wife. If this was supposed to be a satire of those two brilliant works, that didn't translate at all. It was a direct rip off including actors Lawrence Fishburne, Marlon Brando, etc. I don't get how this is art- its a ripped off story through and through. I am surprised Hagadorn could get away with this and wonder why she would even try given that she's a writer in her own right.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was very hesitant when starting this book. It was for a class, and of course, books that are for school are not always as fun as books for pleasure. But I enjoyed this book. I think it touched on a lot of important societal topics and opened my eyes to what had happened in the Philipines. I think the only thing I wished was different was the time jumps. Oftentimes, when a new section started, we were left wondering what happened to the previous characters. I wish there was more of this book so I could know more!

[maddie patterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars, rounded down.

I think for me the fundamental flaw of this book is the lack of connection between the two main "plots". We have a single unifying character, Rizalina/Lina, but we are never fully given access into her thoughts and feelings after she makes the decision to leave Zamora, so it was hard for me to be invested in what happened to her as the novel progressed. Additionally, Zamora/Moody/Pierce all felt like the same character, and I wish there had been a bit more variety between their various forms of banal evilness.

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definitely a character driven story. Dream Jungle is centered around a fictional telling of real events. The alleged discovery of a primitive tribe in the Philippines and the filming of a movie meant to represent apocalypse now. I thought the way in which hagedorn molds and plays with these actual events was really interesting and her ability to create authentic characters is great.

[leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

really fun but also poignant. hagedorn has a deep love for all of her characters, which makes her work exceptionally interesting, and she has an intense curiosity and passion regarding form. hearts of darkness, the documentary by coppola’s wife about apocalypse now, imagined with a filipino perspective. worth every minute

[Pauline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Loved the writing. The plot was disjointed, but not distractingly so. However, I think I miss a lot of the context of this book because of my age and the fact that I never lived in the Philippines, so I'm only grasping the shallowest parts.

[Gore · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found myself enjoying this book more than I anticipated! A lot of people in my class says the ending is a bit weird, but I think it concluded in a nice setting. It seems for once everyone is content with where they are.

[Angelo Lorenzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This novel had me reeling with its magnificence. Truly a masterpiece!

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the prose and the basic storylines, but they all seemed too disconnected for my taste.

[Kyle Fitzpatrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting tangled untangling of culture and colonialism via "the movies."

[Littlegreengoblin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed this book but i feel it lacks exposition and the ending was not fleshed out well

[three word reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sticks the landing.

[Anton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great book. Postmodernist. Although there were evidence of inconsistencies.

[eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

fictionalization of apocalypse now was interesting, really enjoyed reading with that context in mind

[carxen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Conquest, corruption, slavery. I read this book for a class in college.

[Amanda Lea · Rating 3 out of 5]

When I was younger, I really loved this book, and upon rereading it a decade or more later, I can understand why; however, I've changed, and so have my tastes. I can no longer relate to the main character in the same way, and most of the other characters are repulsive. None of this is to say the writing is bad; on the contrary, it's incredibly immersive. I'm just not a fan of the subject matter.

[Patrick Limcaco · Rating 2 out of 5]

Every time I encounter ‘grinding poverty’ and prostitutes in third world-set fiction, I always want the prostitute to be the kind who only does it because he/she is merely curious and has a natural talent for it. I want the prostitute to be street-smart, the type who does it because he/she doesn’t want the conventions of a ‘decent’ job, because he/she finds the idea of a Human Resources Department inconceivable and intrusive in the art of making a living. Most importantly, I want the prostitute to be in the trade only because he/she finds it interesting and not because of the ill effects of a Grinding Poverty.

The middle class prostitute would be doing what he/she does because although it is clearly a well-paying profession, there is little tax involved or none at all. Maybe the prostitute can exist in a Third World where the government has strict measures for just such a profession. In which case, the story would have to be set elsewhere, although Manila wouldn’t be so bad a choice.

Such a prostitute probably would never exist in real life but is it too much to ask for it in fiction? Is it so hard to come up with a story set in Manila or any other Third World area where the pokpok is actually middle-class and just really very willing to try his/her luck in the field of seductive dancing and hospitality?

Jessica Hagedorn’s Dream Jungle is filled with stereotypes but the one that saddens me the most is Rizalina, who went into prostitution because life is hard. There is a thread somewhere out there that could have tried to wrap things up, or at least tie some very loose strings, but that is nowhere to be found, not even in the Epilogue where Zamora makes a silly monologue about the nothingness that has become of his and everyone’s lives. There is only chaos. Since the novel is set in the Philippines, it is probably the point.