Planet Waves: A Novel

by Eric Gamalinda

Eric Gamalinda was born in Manila in 1956 and attended the University of Santo Tomas and the University of the Philippines. He was appointed local fellow for poetry in 1983 by the UP Creative Writing Center, for which he submitted Popular Delusions, a collection of poems. He has published an earlier collection of verse, Fire Poem/Rain Poem (Oriental Media, 1976). He has won the Carlos Palanca Memorial award for a one-act play (1981), poetry (1985,1988) and short fiction (1988), as well as the Asiaweek third prize for short fiction (1985) and a Focus magazine award for poetry (1981). He has been published in Frank, a journal on the arts produced in Paris, and had written columns and articles on art, rock music and current events for several Manila publications. He is an associate fellow of the Philippine Literary Arts Council.

Genres: Fiction

141 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Born and raised in Manila, Eric Gamalinda first published in the Philippines four novels: Planet Waves, Confessions of a Volcano, Empire of Memory, and My Sad Republic; a short story collection, Peripheral Vision; and a collection of poems, Lyrics from a Dead Language. All were written and published in the last decade of the twentieth century to literary acclaim and recognized with National Book Awards and the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards many times over, on top of his nonfiction and plays. His fifth novel, The Descartes Highlands, was shortlisted for the Man Asian Prize. His other US publications include the poetry collections Zero Gravity, winner of the Asian American Literary Prize, and Amigo Warfare; and a short story collection, People are Strange.

Reviews

[Johnny Altomonte · Rating 1 out of 5]

Obscene sexuality, graphic violence, glamorization of poverty, religious overtones, and a robust vocabulary do not a good novel make. This felt pretentious and lacked real teeth.