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Banana Heart Summer
'CLOSE TO MIDNIGHT, when the heart bows from its stem, wait for its first dew. It will drop like a gem. Catch it with your tongue. When you eat the heart of the matter, you'll never grow hungry again.'
The myth of the banana heart inspires twelve-year-old Nenita. She will appease her family's hunger and win her mother's love. As she cooks and eats, or dreams of cooking and eating, other love stories unfold in her street, sweltering between a volcano and a church. It is the hottest summer of the 1960s, in her small town reeling with the songs of Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline, and The Beatles.
Banana Heart Summer is a sensuous, poignant, and quirky feast. Smoky coconut chicken in green papayas, sticky rice with sweet anise, or spicy and sorrowful peccadillos whet and challenge the palate and the heart--how to endure this delectable argument of flavors; how to find that balance between love and anger? Touching, funny, elegiac, this is a truly original book.
The myth of the banana heart inspires twelve-year-old Nenita. She will appease her family's hunger and win her mother's love. As she cooks and eats, or dreams of cooking and eating, other love stories unfold in her street, sweltering between a volcano and a church. It is the hottest summer of the 1960s, in her small town reeling with the songs of Roy Orbison, Patsy Cline, and The Beatles.
Banana Heart Summer is a sensuous, poignant, and quirky feast. Smoky coconut chicken in green papayas, sticky rice with sweet anise, or spicy and sorrowful peccadillos whet and challenge the palate and the heart--how to endure this delectable argument of flavors; how to find that balance between love and anger? Touching, funny, elegiac, this is a truly original book.
254 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
114 people are currently reading
1820 people want to read
About the author
Merlinda Bobis
19 books102 followersMerlinda Bobis is an award-winning contemporary Philippine-Australian writer who has had 4 novels, 6 poetry books and a collection of short stories published, and 10 dramatic works performed. For her, ‘Writing visits like grace. Its greatest gift is the comfort if not the joy of transformation. In an inspired moment, we almost believe that anguish can be made bearable and injustice can be overturned, because they can be named. And if we’re lucky, joy can even be multiplied a hundredfold, so we may have reserves in the cupboard for the lean times.’
Born in Tabaco in the Philippines province of Albay, Merlinda Bobis attended Bicol University High School then completed her B.A. at Aquinas University in Legazpi City. She holds post-graduate degrees from the University of Santo Tomas and University of Wollongong where she taught Creative Writing for 21 years. She now lives and writes on Ngunnawal land (Canberra, Australia).
Her literary awards include the 2016 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction NSW Premier's Literary Award for her novel 'Locust Girl. A Lovesong'; three Philippine National Books Awards (2016: 'Locust Girl', 2014: 'Fish-Hair Woman', 2000: 'White Turtle'); 2013 MUBA: 'Fish-Hair Woman'; 2000 Steele Rudd Award for the Best Published Collection of Australian Short Stories: 'White Turtle'; 2006 Philippine National Balagtas Award for her poetry and prose (in English, Filipino and Bikol); 1998 Prix Italia, 1998 Australian Writers' Guild Award and 1995 Ian Reed Radio Drama Prize for her play 'Rita's Lullaby'; three Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards in Literature Poetry Category (2016: Second prize, 1989: Second, 1987: First). Her poetry collection, 'Accidents of Composition' was Highly Commended for the 2018 ACT Book of the Year.
Born in Tabaco in the Philippines province of Albay, Merlinda Bobis attended Bicol University High School then completed her B.A. at Aquinas University in Legazpi City. She holds post-graduate degrees from the University of Santo Tomas and University of Wollongong where she taught Creative Writing for 21 years. She now lives and writes on Ngunnawal land (Canberra, Australia).
Her literary awards include the 2016 Christina Stead Prize for Fiction NSW Premier's Literary Award for her novel 'Locust Girl. A Lovesong'; three Philippine National Books Awards (2016: 'Locust Girl', 2014: 'Fish-Hair Woman', 2000: 'White Turtle'); 2013 MUBA: 'Fish-Hair Woman'; 2000 Steele Rudd Award for the Best Published Collection of Australian Short Stories: 'White Turtle'; 2006 Philippine National Balagtas Award for her poetry and prose (in English, Filipino and Bikol); 1998 Prix Italia, 1998 Australian Writers' Guild Award and 1995 Ian Reed Radio Drama Prize for her play 'Rita's Lullaby'; three Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards in Literature Poetry Category (2016: Second prize, 1989: Second, 1987: First). Her poetry collection, 'Accidents of Composition' was Highly Commended for the 2018 ACT Book of the Year.
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February 25, 2014
Merlinda Carullo Bobis (born 1959) is a Filipino-Australian poet and novelist. She was born in Legaspi, Albay, studied in the University of Santo Tomas and the University of Wollongong and now lives in Australia. She is now a professor at Wollongong University teaching dance and visual art. This book, Banana Heart Summer won her the Gintong Aklat Award (Golden Book Award, Philippines) in 2006.
What I liked about this book is Bobis' poetic prose that reminds me of Isabel Allende. The poetry in her storytelling makes the reading enjoyable if not mesmerizing. The lyrical prose blends well with her colorful setting (Manila in the 60's) and sumptuous recipes (Filipino dishes described in mouth-watering details). However, the story is supposed to be narrated by a twelve-year old girl, Nenita. So I was confused at times who was narrating: the 12-year old character or the 47 year old Bobis? If it were the 12-y/o girl, the narration should have been replete of the witty lines, mature eroticism and with matching expansive vocabulary. Rather, it should have been funnier and probably innocent the same as the protagonist in Bebang Siy's It's a Mens World (3 stars) or Cyan Abad-Juico's Salingkit: a 1986 Diary (3 stars).
Was that area in Remedios Cirle (Ermita) in the 60's as laid back as how Bobis depicted it in this book? I am younger by 5 years than her and was also born here in Manila. I could not remember if we had enough vacant lots in my part of the city. Vacant lots that would have made having trees bearing fruits a bigger possibility. Fruit trees that could have been climbed by children to pick fruits. In the 60's, all I could remember are malls, too many people, warm weather, pollution, houseflies floating in the air especially during early morning. Bobis might have just assumed that the growing up years she had in Legaspi would have been the same as if she was raised in that area along Remedios Circle in Manila. Too much romanticism just to make the story more appealing to the senses. There is nothing wrong with using one's imagination to exaggerate the beauty of the surroundings as reading is more often than not, a way to escape the drudgery of our routine lives. However, having some semblance to the true milieu is of course not really too much to ask for especially if you want to imagine how some places looked like many years ago.
But the food! I was salivating while reading those descriptions. Don't read this book if you are on a diet. Glorious food! Nothing beats Filipino dishes. They say that we always prefers the food that we grew up with and that the best cook ever is always our own mother (or maid). These are all so true in my case. Sorry, wife but even after being married for 20 years, I still miss my mother's cooking.
What I liked about this book is Bobis' poetic prose that reminds me of Isabel Allende. The poetry in her storytelling makes the reading enjoyable if not mesmerizing. The lyrical prose blends well with her colorful setting (Manila in the 60's) and sumptuous recipes (Filipino dishes described in mouth-watering details). However, the story is supposed to be narrated by a twelve-year old girl, Nenita. So I was confused at times who was narrating: the 12-year old character or the 47 year old Bobis? If it were the 12-y/o girl, the narration should have been replete of the witty lines, mature eroticism and with matching expansive vocabulary. Rather, it should have been funnier and probably innocent the same as the protagonist in Bebang Siy's It's a Mens World (3 stars) or Cyan Abad-Juico's Salingkit: a 1986 Diary (3 stars).
Was that area in Remedios Cirle (Ermita) in the 60's as laid back as how Bobis depicted it in this book? I am younger by 5 years than her and was also born here in Manila. I could not remember if we had enough vacant lots in my part of the city. Vacant lots that would have made having trees bearing fruits a bigger possibility. Fruit trees that could have been climbed by children to pick fruits. In the 60's, all I could remember are malls, too many people, warm weather, pollution, houseflies floating in the air especially during early morning. Bobis might have just assumed that the growing up years she had in Legaspi would have been the same as if she was raised in that area along Remedios Circle in Manila. Too much romanticism just to make the story more appealing to the senses. There is nothing wrong with using one's imagination to exaggerate the beauty of the surroundings as reading is more often than not, a way to escape the drudgery of our routine lives. However, having some semblance to the true milieu is of course not really too much to ask for especially if you want to imagine how some places looked like many years ago.
But the food! I was salivating while reading those descriptions. Don't read this book if you are on a diet. Glorious food! Nothing beats Filipino dishes. They say that we always prefers the food that we grew up with and that the best cook ever is always our own mother (or maid). These are all so true in my case. Sorry, wife but even after being married for 20 years, I still miss my mother's cooking.
February 2, 2011
While reading this book, you'll remember everything what your mother told you when you were young. Her old classic stories and the tragedies that she embark growing with her own family. My mother lived in a barriotic place of Mindanao, somewhere were gadgets and even electricity were never a hindrance to their living. She always talks about her siblings and the days that they enjoyed in there small kitchen cooking, chatting and revealing secrets like the old tale of The Red Tent.
She talks mostly about food, they are the family of best chef. From local delicacies to there own invented recipes, to the sweetest or the most bitter dish they ever made. I must be envy of her past and her siblings but all I can do for now is to concentrate and read the story of Merlinda Bobis while she travels her own character to Bicol, where two Gods meet face-to-face with the powerful power of food and passion from her book Banana Heart Summer.
After reading this book, I must be dreaming eating Atchara, a Philippines condiment cooked from pickled papaya and usually served as a side dish. Every time Inday fried or grilled a fish, chicken or a pork, she always served pickled papaya to increase our appetite. Cooking a delicious papaya pickled a person must have the power to supply the joy and sadness of the local delicacy, from chopping, boiling up to preparing the pickled papaya to be exiled in a sealed container.
Like the life of Nenita, a 12 year old girl who quit school to sustain the needs of her family. She ventured to the one way street of there town looking for job and met people whom she enjoyed and loved until their last breath. She enjoyed cooking like the other girls, she enjoyed every movement, every gesture and every meaning of every sound she heard. From the bubbling hot oil that she experienced and heard the sound of joy.
She must be parallel to atchara, from the day she was born and prepared for the development of her life, the vegetables and the fruits that nurture her and the vinegar who gives sourness. Slicing every ingredients to be prepared, slicing native onion is like sadness, sadness that will never be forgotten from the first touch to the last little piece of large sliced onions. Squeezing the sap of ginger and the papaya, makes you suffer of body pain from working day and night. The smell of the boiling solution of salt, vinegar and ginger sap makes you dizzy and fall from every trap that appears at your side and lastly, the mixing of fresh ingredients like fresh memories and the sourness of the vinegar solution creating a balance taste of a perfect side dish, atchara. A Filipino delicacy that will be never forget by the person who first sinned by the apple.
This book was like a straight line, no humps, no curves not even a small dirt of pen can bent. While reading this book, I must confess that the book was lack of what we call climax and rising action. I can't feel my body get excited reading every prose she wrote but my salivary gland nonstop from producing sticky mucus. Mentioning hundreds of local delicacies makes my tongue jump and lick every pages of the book, I may be crying remembering my mother, how sweet and bitter a life can be.
Before you start reading her novel I must invite you guys to enter her Fruit Stall, a short story she wrote for Filipino especially the beautiful body of the papayas, who work abroad and lost counts of there dignity and wishing a better future. A story of an OFW who sold by her father to a foreigner and become a prostitute to send small little grapes to her family. A shameful Filipina, lost her own dignity and name.
[image error]
I must confess that I love eating my mother's cooked food especially adobo or pork soaked in soy sauce. OMG! I want to eat adobo tonight and the atchara I made yesterday with my friends. We must be proud of our own food!
Rating - Banana Heart Summer by Merlinda Bobis, 4 Sweets and the passion of cooking. ( A merienda must serve and a cool iced tea to enjoyed reading this book, don't forget to ask for atchara. Next time if you want to have a food trip here in the Philippines you must order pork adobo, a not-to-be-miss here in the island of Philippines! Complimentary copy from Anvil and special thanks to Fanta and Gege of Flips Flipping Pages .)
Challenges:
Book #20 for 2011
She talks mostly about food, they are the family of best chef. From local delicacies to there own invented recipes, to the sweetest or the most bitter dish they ever made. I must be envy of her past and her siblings but all I can do for now is to concentrate and read the story of Merlinda Bobis while she travels her own character to Bicol, where two Gods meet face-to-face with the powerful power of food and passion from her book Banana Heart Summer.
After reading this book, I must be dreaming eating Atchara, a Philippines condiment cooked from pickled papaya and usually served as a side dish. Every time Inday fried or grilled a fish, chicken or a pork, she always served pickled papaya to increase our appetite. Cooking a delicious papaya pickled a person must have the power to supply the joy and sadness of the local delicacy, from chopping, boiling up to preparing the pickled papaya to be exiled in a sealed container.
Like the life of Nenita, a 12 year old girl who quit school to sustain the needs of her family. She ventured to the one way street of there town looking for job and met people whom she enjoyed and loved until their last breath. She enjoyed cooking like the other girls, she enjoyed every movement, every gesture and every meaning of every sound she heard. From the bubbling hot oil that she experienced and heard the sound of joy.
She must be parallel to atchara, from the day she was born and prepared for the development of her life, the vegetables and the fruits that nurture her and the vinegar who gives sourness. Slicing every ingredients to be prepared, slicing native onion is like sadness, sadness that will never be forgotten from the first touch to the last little piece of large sliced onions. Squeezing the sap of ginger and the papaya, makes you suffer of body pain from working day and night. The smell of the boiling solution of salt, vinegar and ginger sap makes you dizzy and fall from every trap that appears at your side and lastly, the mixing of fresh ingredients like fresh memories and the sourness of the vinegar solution creating a balance taste of a perfect side dish, atchara. A Filipino delicacy that will be never forget by the person who first sinned by the apple.
This book was like a straight line, no humps, no curves not even a small dirt of pen can bent. While reading this book, I must confess that the book was lack of what we call climax and rising action. I can't feel my body get excited reading every prose she wrote but my salivary gland nonstop from producing sticky mucus. Mentioning hundreds of local delicacies makes my tongue jump and lick every pages of the book, I may be crying remembering my mother, how sweet and bitter a life can be.
Before you start reading her novel I must invite you guys to enter her Fruit Stall, a short story she wrote for Filipino especially the beautiful body of the papayas, who work abroad and lost counts of there dignity and wishing a better future. A story of an OFW who sold by her father to a foreigner and become a prostitute to send small little grapes to her family. A shameful Filipina, lost her own dignity and name.
[image error]
I must confess that I love eating my mother's cooked food especially adobo or pork soaked in soy sauce. OMG! I want to eat adobo tonight and the atchara I made yesterday with my friends. We must be proud of our own food!
Rating - Banana Heart Summer by Merlinda Bobis, 4 Sweets and the passion of cooking. ( A merienda must serve and a cool iced tea to enjoyed reading this book, don't forget to ask for atchara. Next time if you want to have a food trip here in the Philippines you must order pork adobo, a not-to-be-miss here in the island of Philippines! Complimentary copy from Anvil and special thanks to Fanta and Gege of Flips Flipping Pages .)
Challenges:
Book #20 for 2011
August 28, 2022
Merlinda Bobis is a Filipino-Australian author who grew up and went to university in the Bicol region of the Philippines before emigrating and completing a postgraduate degree in Australia. Banana Heart Summer is her debut novel, set in the Bicol region in the 1960s, and won her the Gintong Aklat Award (Golden Book Award, Philippines, 2006).
Banana Heart Summer is the story of 12 year old Nenita growing up in the lush, colourful surrounds, but also poverty and hardship, of Remedios Street. The narrator is Nenita’s older self recollecting this life. The writing is lyrical and extravagant and focuses on describing the mouthwatering cuisine all the way through. Nenita grows up hungry, both physically-with her 5 siblings and parents struggling to survive-but also emotionally. She spends her life trying to please and placate her angry, discontented mother and to win the crumbs of her affection. Nenita leaves school at twelve, and takes a job cooking and cleaning for the neighbours to help feed her hungry siblings. She pours herself into cooking, creating exquisite dishes. She sees food as a parallel for human emotions and behaviours. She intertwines food, local culture and myth to understand and make sense of the world around her, including the antics of her neighbours, their joys and their heartbreaks. Nana Dora shares her secrets with Nenita, especially the legend of the banana heart. "Close to midnight, when the heart bows from its stem, wait for its first dew. It will drop like a gem. Catch it with your tongue. When you eat the heart of the matter, you'll never grow hungry again."
As Nenita prepares her glorious dishes she learns about life. That, “pride is a sin, but dignity is a saviour,” that “desire is bigger than anything that can fill it. Desire is a house with infinite extensions.” And that, “Love on the rebound is always suspect. Perhaps because, on the rebound, passion may not have the projectile capacity of the first bounce.” We gain an insight into the foibles of her neighbours and a picture of the area, “we lived between the volcano and the church, between two gods. The smoking peak and the soaring cross faced each other in a perpetual stand-off, as if blocked for a duel.”
This is an exquisitely written book that is both visual and gustatory. There is not a great deal of plot or action but the insights into folktales, culture, cuisine and the complexity of human desires, more than makes up for this. I would highly recommend this book, but maybe don’t read on an empty stomach.
Banana Heart Summer is the story of 12 year old Nenita growing up in the lush, colourful surrounds, but also poverty and hardship, of Remedios Street. The narrator is Nenita’s older self recollecting this life. The writing is lyrical and extravagant and focuses on describing the mouthwatering cuisine all the way through. Nenita grows up hungry, both physically-with her 5 siblings and parents struggling to survive-but also emotionally. She spends her life trying to please and placate her angry, discontented mother and to win the crumbs of her affection. Nenita leaves school at twelve, and takes a job cooking and cleaning for the neighbours to help feed her hungry siblings. She pours herself into cooking, creating exquisite dishes. She sees food as a parallel for human emotions and behaviours. She intertwines food, local culture and myth to understand and make sense of the world around her, including the antics of her neighbours, their joys and their heartbreaks. Nana Dora shares her secrets with Nenita, especially the legend of the banana heart. "Close to midnight, when the heart bows from its stem, wait for its first dew. It will drop like a gem. Catch it with your tongue. When you eat the heart of the matter, you'll never grow hungry again."
As Nenita prepares her glorious dishes she learns about life. That, “pride is a sin, but dignity is a saviour,” that “desire is bigger than anything that can fill it. Desire is a house with infinite extensions.” And that, “Love on the rebound is always suspect. Perhaps because, on the rebound, passion may not have the projectile capacity of the first bounce.” We gain an insight into the foibles of her neighbours and a picture of the area, “we lived between the volcano and the church, between two gods. The smoking peak and the soaring cross faced each other in a perpetual stand-off, as if blocked for a duel.”
This is an exquisitely written book that is both visual and gustatory. There is not a great deal of plot or action but the insights into folktales, culture, cuisine and the complexity of human desires, more than makes up for this. I would highly recommend this book, but maybe don’t read on an empty stomach.
September 4, 2021
It took months of searching, but I found it at last: my first five-star read since (if you disqualify rereads) April. And God, the wait was worth it if it brought me to Banana Heart Summer.
This was the most delectable, mouthwatering book I've ever read—and I've spent hours of my childhood poring over my mother's collection of cookbooks. An ode to carefully prepared food and carefully presented personalities, Merlinda Bobis's novel is far more a character study than any progression of plot (though there is a significant amount of the latter). That's my favorite type: watching characters grow both individually and in relation to the people around them makes for the best kind of book.
The writing was beautiful, too, using lyrical prose to invoke clear images, sounds, smells and tastes in the reader's mind of the food it described. Tilmok, chicken adobo, palitaw—dishes I've never so much as seen let alone tried, and yet I felt as if I could taste them. (Now I'm infinitely curious to find out if I'd like them as much as I did reading about them.)
Although categorized as young adult fiction—it's a coming-of-age story about Nenita, a twelve-year-old girl who wants nothing more than to make up for the fish she spoiled that made her mother angry—I believe it's just as geared towards adults. I highly recommend this book to, well, literally everyone; please read it.
This was the most delectable, mouthwatering book I've ever read—and I've spent hours of my childhood poring over my mother's collection of cookbooks. An ode to carefully prepared food and carefully presented personalities, Merlinda Bobis's novel is far more a character study than any progression of plot (though there is a significant amount of the latter). That's my favorite type: watching characters grow both individually and in relation to the people around them makes for the best kind of book.
The writing was beautiful, too, using lyrical prose to invoke clear images, sounds, smells and tastes in the reader's mind of the food it described. Tilmok, chicken adobo, palitaw—dishes I've never so much as seen let alone tried, and yet I felt as if I could taste them. (Now I'm infinitely curious to find out if I'd like them as much as I did reading about them.)
Although categorized as young adult fiction—it's a coming-of-age story about Nenita, a twelve-year-old girl who wants nothing more than to make up for the fish she spoiled that made her mother angry—I believe it's just as geared towards adults. I highly recommend this book to, well, literally everyone; please read it.
November 26, 2023
i became so attached to this book i didn't want it to end
March 29, 2021
At first I had my apprehensions. I thought that there were gaps between the writing style and the character, making me not believe in the book as much. However, I still enjoyed the book for the imagery and how the relationship between each woman in the story was portrayed. With care, and with heart.
July 25, 2008
I'm not going to give a description of this book because I think the description given by GoodReads fits this book to a T. The novel was just that -- lush and descriptive. In fact, I could smell the food Nenita was cooking just as well as I could visualize the scenerios in Nenita's life.
I will discuss the comparison made between this book and The House on Mango Street. I saw that they were compared, so I read Mango Street first and Banana Heart second. I enjoyed both of the books. They were both well written, poetic coming of age stories. The greatest similarity was that the setting in each novel took place on a street; Esperanza told her story from Mango Street while Nenita told hers from Remedios Street. How perfect and true to life -- when you're young everything of importance happens in your neighborhood, on your block, on your street.
Now, for me, the difference between these two books was the writing. Cisnero's writing in Mango Street remained poetic yet very straight forward, but lacked somewhat in plot as it was written in vignettes and not as a whole. Bobis' novel seemed to focus more on the muli-sensory descriptions before the plot, yet the plot was continuous. Because the writing styles were so different, I can't really say one was better than the other. I think they're both worth a read and I'm happy that I became acquainted with each of them.
I will discuss the comparison made between this book and The House on Mango Street. I saw that they were compared, so I read Mango Street first and Banana Heart second. I enjoyed both of the books. They were both well written, poetic coming of age stories. The greatest similarity was that the setting in each novel took place on a street; Esperanza told her story from Mango Street while Nenita told hers from Remedios Street. How perfect and true to life -- when you're young everything of importance happens in your neighborhood, on your block, on your street.
Now, for me, the difference between these two books was the writing. Cisnero's writing in Mango Street remained poetic yet very straight forward, but lacked somewhat in plot as it was written in vignettes and not as a whole. Bobis' novel seemed to focus more on the muli-sensory descriptions before the plot, yet the plot was continuous. Because the writing styles were so different, I can't really say one was better than the other. I think they're both worth a read and I'm happy that I became acquainted with each of them.
July 4, 2023
oh, this was so lush - it perfectly captured every second of a tropical summer. it made me so hungry and thirsty! the sense of place was admirable, i enjoyed how it explores the nuances of life in bicolandia at a very specific time through its food and the mayon. i devoured this while waiting in line at various government offices haha
December 2, 2024
Previous: 3.5⭐ (Will write a review after I've collected my thoughts)
Edit: Almost 3 years later and I can now look back at this book without its shadow of being an undergrad reading requirement, this has earned its place as one of the most memorable books I've read. I remember struggling to downsize my scope for my Formalist Reading of it because it is so compact with interesting characters, very likeable and sympathetic lead and narrator, and masterful writing. I highly recommend this novel, especially if you're curious with reading Philippine literature in English and/or Food Studies in Literature.
>>I'm going to share some of my favourite quotes from BHS
"But don't we always have a problem anyway? Because desire is bigger than anything that can fill it. Desire is a house with infinite extensions, even renovations."
"When your heart has kept itself from breaking for a while, the littlest gesture of kindness can easily snap it in two."
"Strange that, all the time, we attempt to make better the smell, taste, texture, or look of nature. We cannot leave well enough alone. Perhaps because nothing is well enough alone. Perhaps because the heart of the matter offends the palate, and where it does not offend, it scares. So we arm ourselves with herbs and spices, and we consider ourselves improved as species."
"There is in fact, dignity even in the abject state of begging. It takes great courage to beg and even greater courage to bear rejection."
"Perhaps a wish needs to be tested in different keys. This allows us to test out the act of wishing in our mouth, our ears. Thus, we are able to check ourselves, certain one moment, ambivalent the next: how does this taste? how do I sound, is this what I want, and how desperately so?"
"It was just rain, just water. Without sweets or spices or condiments, without our expert or fumbling interventions to make it taste better, without our need to disguise its nature, but how we reveled in each drop. Sadly, love is not water: we do things to it. We dilute it with our daily longings or the wishes for more, or our fears, angers and sorrows, then our pangs and recriminations, our ludicrous inclination towards endings. If only we could leave love alone, like the uncompromising and uncompromised glass of water on our table.
"Hunger we all experience. Hunger is the greatest leveler of humankind, if it wishes to be leveled. But how and whether we appease it always restores the social order."
Edit: Almost 3 years later and I can now look back at this book without its shadow of being an undergrad reading requirement, this has earned its place as one of the most memorable books I've read. I remember struggling to downsize my scope for my Formalist Reading of it because it is so compact with interesting characters, very likeable and sympathetic lead and narrator, and masterful writing. I highly recommend this novel, especially if you're curious with reading Philippine literature in English and/or Food Studies in Literature.
>>I'm going to share some of my favourite quotes from BHS
"But don't we always have a problem anyway? Because desire is bigger than anything that can fill it. Desire is a house with infinite extensions, even renovations."
"When your heart has kept itself from breaking for a while, the littlest gesture of kindness can easily snap it in two."
"Strange that, all the time, we attempt to make better the smell, taste, texture, or look of nature. We cannot leave well enough alone. Perhaps because nothing is well enough alone. Perhaps because the heart of the matter offends the palate, and where it does not offend, it scares. So we arm ourselves with herbs and spices, and we consider ourselves improved as species."
"There is in fact, dignity even in the abject state of begging. It takes great courage to beg and even greater courage to bear rejection."
"Perhaps a wish needs to be tested in different keys. This allows us to test out the act of wishing in our mouth, our ears. Thus, we are able to check ourselves, certain one moment, ambivalent the next: how does this taste? how do I sound, is this what I want, and how desperately so?"
"It was just rain, just water. Without sweets or spices or condiments, without our expert or fumbling interventions to make it taste better, without our need to disguise its nature, but how we reveled in each drop. Sadly, love is not water: we do things to it. We dilute it with our daily longings or the wishes for more, or our fears, angers and sorrows, then our pangs and recriminations, our ludicrous inclination towards endings. If only we could leave love alone, like the uncompromising and uncompromised glass of water on our table.
"Hunger we all experience. Hunger is the greatest leveler of humankind, if it wishes to be leveled. But how and whether we appease it always restores the social order."
January 27, 2010
The book uses food as an introduction to each chapter, along with mouthwatering descriptions of the dishes. The protagonist, Nenita (which means "little girl" in Spanish) lives in a poor barrio in the Philippines in the 1960's. She is the oldest of five and decides to drop out of school at 12 to work as a maid for a wealthy woman. Nana Dora, the local cook, who teaches Nenita how to cook also tells her the legend of the Banana Heart, where if someone eats it, they will never be hungry. She starves for her mother's love and often uses food to get a connection with her family. Nenita's coming of age happens during one dramatic summer where she finds her own banana heart.
I loved this novel. Merlinda Bobis is a poet and you can tell that with her gift of language. I couldn't find any information that the book was translated and think it is amazing that people can write beautifully in a language that is not their native tongue. I loved all the Filipino used in the novel, I am not sure if it was Tagolog because I don't recognize, but I could figure out what was said through the context and the bit of Spanish that is used in the Filipino languages. I can't wait to be able to eat real food again so I can try some of these dishes, in small quantities of course.
I loved this novel. Merlinda Bobis is a poet and you can tell that with her gift of language. I couldn't find any information that the book was translated and think it is amazing that people can write beautifully in a language that is not their native tongue. I loved all the Filipino used in the novel, I am not sure if it was Tagolog because I don't recognize, but I could figure out what was said through the context and the bit of Spanish that is used in the Filipino languages. I can't wait to be able to eat real food again so I can try some of these dishes, in small quantities of course.
February 20, 2013
this book makes me realize how hard your life would be if you don't have someone to lean on, having family or a true friend. They are the reason why you do that, do these things. Just like you wake up for them. I felt pity for her for the hurt and pain she had, physically or emotionally, at the same time, I'm proud because she has that good trait that a girl/sister/daughter like her should possess. Being patient, hard-working, loving and caring. She'd do everything for her love ones' Moreover, the Filipino cuisines.. I have tasted some .. Absolutely delicious. ! Not hard for me to imagine . haha!
Now I hope that I will be able to answer all the questions in my Popular literature midterm examination regarding this novel. :)
Yayeyyy! Banana <3 Summer
Now I hope that I will be able to answer all the questions in my Popular literature midterm examination regarding this novel. :)
Yayeyyy! Banana <3 Summer
May 27, 2021
Loved this really light read! I loved the way food was very present in their everyday lives (especially of course, to the narrator). This was really good representation of a chop suey (heh) of cultures that describes The Philippines: the precolonial traditions, Spanish traditions, American pop culture, Chinese families, and even a bit of Japanese.
I'd honestly like it better if it were written/if there was a copy of this in Filipino, though!
I'd honestly like it better if it were written/if there was a copy of this in Filipino, though!
February 20, 2013
I only read this book because it was our requirement. I really find it boring at first but as I'm reading it and nearly coming to last part I started to like it and realized that it was just more than a normal story that we can predict the ending. This novel taught me a lot of things in life. I learned how to appreciate and give importance about everything that you have.
February 14, 2011
I liked the setting and the description of food, not much else.
August 18, 2012
Me and my mom read this book together. She could really relate with the main character Nenita because she's from the rural province area and my mom's name is Nenita.
December 21, 2023
4.5
Miss Merlinda SERVED and I ATE it all up
Miss Merlinda SERVED and I ATE it all up
April 29, 2024
TW: it is advisable to not read this with an empty stomach.
I remember one morning from my childhood when my mother unleashed a torrent of hurtful words and threw the closest object in my direction. Her rage seemed so powerful—as a kid, I often wondered if it was more powerful than the love she had for me—if there was ever a place for me in her heart. My father never had a lot to say about anything happening in our home. I, too, used to wonder if ‘the devil ate his tongue’. But that morning, he drove me to school in silence, with me looking away at the window, trying to hide my tears—to my surprise, he broke the silence by saying, “I would've left your mother years ago if it hadn’t been for you and your sisters.”
One thing I love about reading is that it humanizes you—you get to see how all sorts of people live: their culture, their struggles, and their diversity. It opens you to a new world, a new place. Banana Heart Summer introduced myriads of characters to each their own possessing a story worth telling. It was with Nenita I connected the most— her being her mother’s shame and sorrow, her trying to win her mother’s love, and her continuously trying until the very end.
As the story unfolded, I found myself empathizing not only with Nenita but also with her mother… I couldn’t even bring myself to despise her mother anymore… I started to sympathize with her because she must have been suffering from postpartum depression—from the very moment she gave birth to her first child, she kept losing a part of herself—her individuality—as her children grew plenty. Her sudden downfall to poverty and her family disowning her… I get her now… Hay, life.
This was a required reading for our oral midterm examination, but the book didn’t feel like a chore to read—with Bobis’ mouth-watering writing and skillful way of making you empathize with her characters. This is so Filipino, and I’m thankful my professor introduced us to Merlinda Bobis!
I remember one morning from my childhood when my mother unleashed a torrent of hurtful words and threw the closest object in my direction. Her rage seemed so powerful—as a kid, I often wondered if it was more powerful than the love she had for me—if there was ever a place for me in her heart. My father never had a lot to say about anything happening in our home. I, too, used to wonder if ‘the devil ate his tongue’. But that morning, he drove me to school in silence, with me looking away at the window, trying to hide my tears—to my surprise, he broke the silence by saying, “I would've left your mother years ago if it hadn’t been for you and your sisters.”
One thing I love about reading is that it humanizes you—you get to see how all sorts of people live: their culture, their struggles, and their diversity. It opens you to a new world, a new place. Banana Heart Summer introduced myriads of characters to each their own possessing a story worth telling. It was with Nenita I connected the most— her being her mother’s shame and sorrow, her trying to win her mother’s love, and her continuously trying until the very end.
As the story unfolded, I found myself empathizing not only with Nenita but also with her mother… I couldn’t even bring myself to despise her mother anymore… I started to sympathize with her because she must have been suffering from postpartum depression—from the very moment she gave birth to her first child, she kept losing a part of herself—her individuality—as her children grew plenty. Her sudden downfall to poverty and her family disowning her… I get her now… Hay, life.
This was a required reading for our oral midterm examination, but the book didn’t feel like a chore to read—with Bobis’ mouth-watering writing and skillful way of making you empathize with her characters. This is so Filipino, and I’m thankful my professor introduced us to Merlinda Bobis!
April 17, 2021
Banana Heart Summer follows the story of twelve year old Nenita “Nining”, who lives in a small town in the province of Bicol. The book follows her throughout the summer after she drops out of school, navigating familial trauma, friendship, poverty, and societal expectations. Nining comes to work for a wealthy family, as a means to earn extra money for her parents and five siblings. Nining becomes participant-observer to the daily ins and outs on their street. She’s never fully immersed in the drama at all times, but is always quick to share her opinions and realizations on events that transpire.
One critique is Nining’s age as the narrator reads as inconsistent. At times you’d think that the book is told from the perspective of a twelve-year old Nining, but sometimes, the narrator would share realizations and information that sounded more like a 40-year old Nenita reminiscing. I would have preferred that it be more consistent to drive the idea of the coming of age novel more, or if anything even a clear divide between the two perspectives.
For such a short book (260 pages), there are a lot of themes and stories to be unpacked among Nining’s family and friends. While this can be characteristic of how complicated life can be, I do feel that certain themes could have been focused on more to make the story tighter, and highlight certain points more, as tackling certain issues with a light hand leaves something to be desired.
The book is lush with description and is lyrical in quality, and will be a treat for anyone who loves learning about food. Overall, I still have mixed feelings about this one, but would recommend you give it a read, and let me know what you think as well!
One critique is Nining’s age as the narrator reads as inconsistent. At times you’d think that the book is told from the perspective of a twelve-year old Nining, but sometimes, the narrator would share realizations and information that sounded more like a 40-year old Nenita reminiscing. I would have preferred that it be more consistent to drive the idea of the coming of age novel more, or if anything even a clear divide between the two perspectives.
For such a short book (260 pages), there are a lot of themes and stories to be unpacked among Nining’s family and friends. While this can be characteristic of how complicated life can be, I do feel that certain themes could have been focused on more to make the story tighter, and highlight certain points more, as tackling certain issues with a light hand leaves something to be desired.
The book is lush with description and is lyrical in quality, and will be a treat for anyone who loves learning about food. Overall, I still have mixed feelings about this one, but would recommend you give it a read, and let me know what you think as well!
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September 25, 2025“How do I tell you that we were good kids? That there was no need for your sad, furious hands to set us to rights? That I knew how they longed to multiply the meager rice and fish to feed our thousand yearnings? And that they could have done so, easily, had they held my limbs with a little more tenderness? How do I say that I have kissed those hands again and again in my dreams, and now I understand? And it is all right.”
this made me cry. i’m honestly shocked that i only found out about it through a literature class and not because it is recognized in philippine literature. i wish it was – it deserves to be. as much as it talks about food, it also talks about hunger, weaving tales of filipino cuisine, palates, tastes, and poverty at the same time. this is the reality of majority of the filipino people: esophagus lengthening and making do with rice and soy sauce, dried fish – if one was lucky. it is so good that it was able to tackle so many sociopolitical themes and psychological childhood trauma in a prose that is easy and entertaining to read despite the heaviness that its words carry. i love it so much although it makes me sad but maybe i love it precisely because it makes me sad. nonetheless, i think this book might have made me fall in love with literature all over again
this made me cry. i’m honestly shocked that i only found out about it through a literature class and not because it is recognized in philippine literature. i wish it was – it deserves to be. as much as it talks about food, it also talks about hunger, weaving tales of filipino cuisine, palates, tastes, and poverty at the same time. this is the reality of majority of the filipino people: esophagus lengthening and making do with rice and soy sauce, dried fish – if one was lucky. it is so good that it was able to tackle so many sociopolitical themes and psychological childhood trauma in a prose that is easy and entertaining to read despite the heaviness that its words carry. i love it so much although it makes me sad but maybe i love it precisely because it makes me sad. nonetheless, i think this book might have made me fall in love with literature all over again
August 12, 2023
"Believe me, there are things that you can't eat, but that feed you anyway."
This story follows a woman recounting her summer when she was a 12 year old girl in the Philippines, at a time when she has left school to find a job in order to help release the burden on her poverty stricken family. Food is used as a parallel for feelings and behaviours, the act of cooking or consuming a meal mirroring certain relationships. Food is used to represent joy, yearning, sadness, and anger. She is also trying to fill up where she feels she is empty, constantly trying to win approval from her mother, their relationship a really fraught and poignant point in this novel.
This story is so hearty and vibrant, weaving food and culture and myth into a coming of age tale, with some really moving and tearful moments. A lovely read.
This story follows a woman recounting her summer when she was a 12 year old girl in the Philippines, at a time when she has left school to find a job in order to help release the burden on her poverty stricken family. Food is used as a parallel for feelings and behaviours, the act of cooking or consuming a meal mirroring certain relationships. Food is used to represent joy, yearning, sadness, and anger. She is also trying to fill up where she feels she is empty, constantly trying to win approval from her mother, their relationship a really fraught and poignant point in this novel.
This story is so hearty and vibrant, weaving food and culture and myth into a coming of age tale, with some really moving and tearful moments. A lovely read.
August 12, 2022
As someone who spent a part of her childhood in the province, this definitely brought me back to the place i once called home; a place where neighbors share food, sing karaoke and stick one's nose in each other's affair.
The lyrical prose was mouthwatering, infused with stories of hope, love, and deep longing.
I think at some point, we all use food as a channel to let other people know that we care for them. In the case of Nenita, the protagonist of the story, she wanted to soothe her family's hunger—in both food, and love.
Ang husay mo, Merlina Bobis!
The lyrical prose was mouthwatering, infused with stories of hope, love, and deep longing.
I think at some point, we all use food as a channel to let other people know that we care for them. In the case of Nenita, the protagonist of the story, she wanted to soothe her family's hunger—in both food, and love.
Ang husay mo, Merlina Bobis!
April 2, 2021
solid 4.5 read. it's short and reads almost like an evocative cookbook. all those long-form articles that go "i once broke my arm balancing plates for my mother. it was only then that i learned the sweetness of apple pie" must've taken it from here.
the asian eldest daughter experience is truly one worth writing about. i want to hug the narrator tightly.
the asian eldest daughter experience is truly one worth writing about. i want to hug the narrator tightly.
December 30, 2022
"How do I tell you that we were good kids? That there was no need for your sad, furious hands to set us to rights? That I knew how they longed to multiply the meager rice and fish to feed our thousand yearnings? And that they could have done so, easily, had they held my limbs with a little more tenderness? How do I say that I have kissed those hands again and again in my dreams, and now I understand? And it is all right."
read during this cold december season, banana heart summer gives enough warmth of the familiar smell of food you grew up tasting & the familiar filipino culture. it is a novel that carved out its heart and spleen on a golden platter then served itself to you as a delicacy. it reeks of the innocence of youth and the taint that comes with it: the becoming and unbecoming of a young teen.
here, we follow nenita, often called nining when she is loved. with six siblings that almost became seven, a mother who loved and fed her after the hurt cut deep, a father whose words always eaten by the devil. nining tells the myths within tales during one eventful summer in remedios st., along the region of bicol—a church, a volcano, gardens of fruits and vegetables and spices, then the people that make up this place, each having their own stories too.
this novel tells of the unpriveleged filipino families. of the goings-on in a family. of sisters, brothers, and siblings. of friends going away. of the culture between neighbors, the gossips, the realities, the neighboring. of the metaphors to each ingredient and to each dish; how meticulously made are those that we savor. of a heart so young whose only desire is to be of help to her family as a firstborn. of a street so somber, that never stayed as it is.
each chapters are named after dishes, and the epilogue did twist my heart & upturned my stomach. i cried a little, and there's like a longing in there. for what? i can't quite decipher.
i didn't have the childhood like nenita's, but maybe there were some similarities then and there. god knows how bloody my hands were as a child, and how little i've known, and how much i should not have known.
but perhaps, we have to know grief and the other oddities of life at such a young age, maybe?
maybe the guava trees have not endured the ashfalls. maybe the plants were left untended. maybe the floors at the valenzuela's house were not often tidied at all. there's nothing that stayed as it is in the street, maybe. yet this novel lasts longer than its purpose to appease the stomach and satisfy the heart. a quick swallow, a punch to the gut—this novel is a chef's kiss. literally and figuratively.
read during this cold december season, banana heart summer gives enough warmth of the familiar smell of food you grew up tasting & the familiar filipino culture. it is a novel that carved out its heart and spleen on a golden platter then served itself to you as a delicacy. it reeks of the innocence of youth and the taint that comes with it: the becoming and unbecoming of a young teen.
here, we follow nenita, often called nining when she is loved. with six siblings that almost became seven, a mother who loved and fed her after the hurt cut deep, a father whose words always eaten by the devil. nining tells the myths within tales during one eventful summer in remedios st., along the region of bicol—a church, a volcano, gardens of fruits and vegetables and spices, then the people that make up this place, each having their own stories too.
this novel tells of the unpriveleged filipino families. of the goings-on in a family. of sisters, brothers, and siblings. of friends going away. of the culture between neighbors, the gossips, the realities, the neighboring. of the metaphors to each ingredient and to each dish; how meticulously made are those that we savor. of a heart so young whose only desire is to be of help to her family as a firstborn. of a street so somber, that never stayed as it is.
each chapters are named after dishes, and the epilogue did twist my heart & upturned my stomach. i cried a little, and there's like a longing in there. for what? i can't quite decipher.
i didn't have the childhood like nenita's, but maybe there were some similarities then and there. god knows how bloody my hands were as a child, and how little i've known, and how much i should not have known.
but perhaps, we have to know grief and the other oddities of life at such a young age, maybe?
maybe the guava trees have not endured the ashfalls. maybe the plants were left untended. maybe the floors at the valenzuela's house were not often tidied at all. there's nothing that stayed as it is in the street, maybe. yet this novel lasts longer than its purpose to appease the stomach and satisfy the heart. a quick swallow, a punch to the gut—this novel is a chef's kiss. literally and figuratively.
December 30, 2008
I'm about halfway through this book, and so far it's such an interesting story. Nining, the protagonist/heroine is really a very sweet girl. The story is told from her point of view, in retrospect; that is, her older self is retelling the story, and this would account for the kind of language that I am pretty sure a poor, 12 year old girl in the Philippines with a middle school education would not use.
Merlinda Bobis's language is very poetic, and I think this is appropriate, as I knew of her as a poet before she published books of prose. As well, I think Nining's older self, who is 20 years older and living abroad, recalls her childhood with an almost predictable nostalgia for the homeland she's left.
The neighborhood in which she grow up is very self-contained, with its regular fisherman selling his catch, the tindahans, the poor families' little homes squished in between the wealthy families' larger homes. The neighborhood is also well-contained metaphorically, with the large imposing Catholic church at one end, and the volcano at the opposite end; the people have lived and continue to live squished in between the colonizer's God and their native deity.
The narrative of Nining's life is, again, well-contained within the book's structure of a recipe or particular food item per chapter title. So Bobis provides us with all of these neat containers, and I don't really have a complaint about this. It's neat, and it's meticulous. My only complaint so far is that there must be a way to write food preparation in the narrative without sounding like the instructional portion of the recipe. As it stands, these instructions are inconsistent with the lush, vivid, beautiful, mostly childlike descriptions of the land, the people, the food, the human interactions.
The last thing I will say for now is that this book is about the girl's hunger. There is the physical hunger as she is the eldest daughter of a very, very poor and large family. As the eldest daughter, there is also the hunger to help support the family as her ineffectual and emasculated father cannot do so. Then there is Nining's hunger to win her mother's love, her mother being this rage-filled woman, who curses her fate for having been disowned by her wealthy family for getting knocked up by the poor stonemason, and who views and treats Nining as the manifestation of this fate.
[Additional thoughts upon finishing the book are here: http://bjanepr.wordpress.com/]
Merlinda Bobis's language is very poetic, and I think this is appropriate, as I knew of her as a poet before she published books of prose. As well, I think Nining's older self, who is 20 years older and living abroad, recalls her childhood with an almost predictable nostalgia for the homeland she's left.
The neighborhood in which she grow up is very self-contained, with its regular fisherman selling his catch, the tindahans, the poor families' little homes squished in between the wealthy families' larger homes. The neighborhood is also well-contained metaphorically, with the large imposing Catholic church at one end, and the volcano at the opposite end; the people have lived and continue to live squished in between the colonizer's God and their native deity.
The narrative of Nining's life is, again, well-contained within the book's structure of a recipe or particular food item per chapter title. So Bobis provides us with all of these neat containers, and I don't really have a complaint about this. It's neat, and it's meticulous. My only complaint so far is that there must be a way to write food preparation in the narrative without sounding like the instructional portion of the recipe. As it stands, these instructions are inconsistent with the lush, vivid, beautiful, mostly childlike descriptions of the land, the people, the food, the human interactions.
The last thing I will say for now is that this book is about the girl's hunger. There is the physical hunger as she is the eldest daughter of a very, very poor and large family. As the eldest daughter, there is also the hunger to help support the family as her ineffectual and emasculated father cannot do so. Then there is Nining's hunger to win her mother's love, her mother being this rage-filled woman, who curses her fate for having been disowned by her wealthy family for getting knocked up by the poor stonemason, and who views and treats Nining as the manifestation of this fate.
[Additional thoughts upon finishing the book are here: http://bjanepr.wordpress.com/]
August 18, 2021
For Filipinos, food is symbolic to human relations, most notably, with families. So it is no wonder that Merlinda Bobis' debut novel exudes a literary continuity between food and relationships.
Banana Heart Summer is a coming-of-age novel that follows 12-year-old Nenita, oldest of six children of a poor family. With a jobless father and pregnant mother, she sets out to earn money, and hopes to assuage her hunger for food as a maid during one summer in 1960s.
This book will make you hungry. Nenita tells her story with detailed descriptions of various local dishes that she prepares (𝙢𝙖𝙟𝙖 𝙗𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙖, a corn and milk-based, melt-in-your-tongue cake with strips of young coconut! Or 𝙗𝙞𝙗𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙠𝙖, made of grated cassava baked with coconut milk, melted butter, shredded young coconut meat, cheddar, topped with boiled egg yolk and strips of cheese!).
Bobis, in her poetic and lyrical prose, creatively interjects how food is very much like invoking human emotions. Take for example 𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙤𝙣 (a half slice of sugar banana and a strip of jackfruit rolled in paper-thin rice wrapping and dusted with palm sugar), which when deep-fried sounds like happiness.
For Nenita, she is "hungry" for both love (from her mother) and food. Hunger, at its core, also shows poverty as a major theme of the novel. The characters' poverty (let's say spiritual poverty) shows in their search for inner peace amidst their troubling existence.
All in all, this was a light read that I could consume in one seating like 𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙗𝙤 (yes, another food!). Although fair warning, I'm not kidding when I said Bobis' writing is poetic and lyrical, in a sense that there seems to be a ton of rambling and a throng of metaphors waiting for you. So if you're not into that, you could skip this book.
Banana Heart Summer is a coming-of-age novel that follows 12-year-old Nenita, oldest of six children of a poor family. With a jobless father and pregnant mother, she sets out to earn money, and hopes to assuage her hunger for food as a maid during one summer in 1960s.
This book will make you hungry. Nenita tells her story with detailed descriptions of various local dishes that she prepares (𝙢𝙖𝙟𝙖 𝙗𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙖, a corn and milk-based, melt-in-your-tongue cake with strips of young coconut! Or 𝙗𝙞𝙗𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙠𝙖, made of grated cassava baked with coconut milk, melted butter, shredded young coconut meat, cheddar, topped with boiled egg yolk and strips of cheese!).
Bobis, in her poetic and lyrical prose, creatively interjects how food is very much like invoking human emotions. Take for example 𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙤𝙣 (a half slice of sugar banana and a strip of jackfruit rolled in paper-thin rice wrapping and dusted with palm sugar), which when deep-fried sounds like happiness.
For Nenita, she is "hungry" for both love (from her mother) and food. Hunger, at its core, also shows poverty as a major theme of the novel. The characters' poverty (let's say spiritual poverty) shows in their search for inner peace amidst their troubling existence.
All in all, this was a light read that I could consume in one seating like 𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙗𝙤 (yes, another food!). Although fair warning, I'm not kidding when I said Bobis' writing is poetic and lyrical, in a sense that there seems to be a ton of rambling and a throng of metaphors waiting for you. So if you're not into that, you could skip this book.
January 18, 2016
I read this in order to fulfill a reading challenge for the year. I really did not care for it. At first, I thought the food descriptions were okay, but they got old really fast. I understand that the author wanted to give the reader a vivid description, but it was really annoying, especially when she paused in the middle of a thought just to describe what the person was eating and how it may have been cooked.
I didn't care for the story itself. Although in all fairness, this may have been due to the many unnecessary food distractions mentioned above. The novel is about Nenita, her useless parents, and her entire neighborhood in general. I felt that some characters were introduced simply to give you a glimpse of a story that would never evolve. I thought many of the conflicts were resolved too rushed and left me feeling unsatisfied.
If I wanted to read a novel about food, I would pick this one up, otherwise no. 2.5/5
I didn't care for the story itself. Although in all fairness, this may have been due to the many unnecessary food distractions mentioned above. The novel is about Nenita, her useless parents, and her entire neighborhood in general. I felt that some characters were introduced simply to give you a glimpse of a story that would never evolve. I thought many of the conflicts were resolved too rushed and left me feeling unsatisfied.
If I wanted to read a novel about food, I would pick this one up, otherwise no. 2.5/5
April 22, 2022
I so loved the prose in this book, I was inclined to give this a 4 stars just for that. What stopped me? I didn’t expect this to be so painful to read, although I think this is more on my part; it’s my problem. It’s family dynamics like this I just couldn’t stand (if the family had been smaller, my feelings would be different), had everything Nining experienced here happened to me I would have grown up traumatized. I would not have been able to say “it is all right” like Nining, I couldn’t. I decided not to rant about this because I just have too much to say, and they’re not good.
If you are looking for a book set in the Philippines, highlighting the culture and life in the country, this is for you. It’s set in Bicol and incorporates Filipino dishes into the story. I loved the setting, atmosphere, and prose as mentioned (my favorite part of this book). This could have easily been a 4 star or more if this didn’t tug on my bad strings.
If you are looking for a book set in the Philippines, highlighting the culture and life in the country, this is for you. It’s set in Bicol and incorporates Filipino dishes into the story. I loved the setting, atmosphere, and prose as mentioned (my favorite part of this book). This could have easily been a 4 star or more if this didn’t tug on my bad strings.
November 25, 2010
I was first attracted to this book because of my ridiculous live for Pinoy food, and was delighted with the array of foods selected as the muse for each chapter. The book follows the life of a young girl struggling to support her 6 younger siblings as both her mother and father struggle to support their still growing family, as well as the constant ek-ek (drama) of the rest of the villagers. As much as I appreciated the lush descriptions of some of my favorite foods, I often got lost in the analogies and felt the storyline just dragged along. Not a complete waste of time, but certainly wouldn't be at the top of my list to recommend to friends.
July 6, 2008
The book's language is lush and descriptive. That's about all it has going for it. I wanted to read it because it had been compared to Sandra Cisneros's The House on Mango Street, one of my favorite books. I can see vaguely the reason behind the comparison, but Merlinda Bobis is no Sandra Cisneros.
Reason for the one star? It's boring! I made a pact with myself that if it didn't get better by the beginning of Part Two, I would give it up. Once I got to that point, I couldn't will myself to keep going. Life is too short and there are too many other books out in the world to enjoy.
Reason for the one star? It's boring! I made a pact with myself that if it didn't get better by the beginning of Part Two, I would give it up. Once I got to that point, I couldn't will myself to keep going. Life is too short and there are too many other books out in the world to enjoy.
August 19, 2008
This was a wonderful little book. It's a coming of age story set in a tiny, impoverished villiage in the Philippines. The main character is a 12-year-old girl. She's the oldest of four children. The author does a great job of weaving local folk tales (especially those regarding food) into the story, which gives it an almost mythical air. But at its core, it's a story about a daughter's quest for her mother's love. Beautifully written!
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