salamanca reviews

Vince Groyon (DLSU, author of "The Sky Over Dimas", Palanca novel winner 2002) writes:

This slim novel won the Palanca Grand Prize last year. It's a love story with a gay angle that spans several decades, told magical-realist style. There are numerous striking images, characters, and scenes piled one on top of the other, like a flying encounter in the midst of a whirlwind, a profanity-spouting missionary, and a hut turned to glass by a woman's beauty, all rendered with precision and skill.

The Varsitarian (official organ of the University of Santo Tomas - which is, incidentally, Gaudencio Rivera's alma mater) review is over here.

I'm tickled by this: "Alfar relays the love story of Gaudencio Rivera and Jacinta Cordova without cheesy idylls, using reverie rather than sentimentalism."

One of the things the reviewer wrote: "readers must have a minimum knowledge of contemporary history in order to appreciate the book’s historical reference."

And you know, I wouldn't have it any other way. ;)