Status Updates From Stories of a Bitter Country

“He was a very young-looking young man and would probably remain that way for many years — a man-boy or boy-man caught in the treadmill of having to prove himself.”

“Sometimes when the skies were clear, the mountains stood like brown fists against the light… But the moments would pass, the mountains would drop back to inanimate, unable to harbor the little angers of men.”

Look at me, slowly expanding the discomfort I’ll allow myself to experience for art. I feel like this book validates my experience in the Philippines: familiar and yet agonizing, furious.

“‘I am sick of this place,’ he said suddenly, his black eyes mirroring some undisclosed bitterness as they sought her own. ‘I am tired of doing things which are defeated even before they begin.’”