"There are two motives for reading a book; one, that you enjoy it; the other, that you can boast about it." Bertrand Russell







Vicente's bookshelf: read

Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
The Golden Notebook
Freedom
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Pillars of the Earth
The Kite Runner
The Satanic Verses
World Without End
Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana
Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt
Einstein's Dreams
The Master and Margarita
State of war: A novel
Love in the Time of Cholera
Middlesex
The Unbearable Lightness of Being
The Lost Language of Cranes
Angels and Demons
Twisted: the night of the living twisted by Jessica Zafra


Vicente M.'s favorite books »
}

Monday, November 21, 2011

Enlightened One

From Time's Entertainment.

In Spanish, Ilustrado means "enlightened one." During the 19th century, it referred to the Philippines' Europe-educated literati, whose revolutionary ideas helped establish the foundations for Asia's first democracy. Fast-forward 200 years: expatriate Filipino author Miguel Syjuco has put a modern spin on this dated term with his 2008 Man Asia Literary Prize–winning novel Ilustrado. Syjuco's novel follows the exploits of a young Filipino protagonist — also named Miguel Syjuco — who returns to the Philippines and the past he left behind to investigate the death of his dissident mentor Crispin Salvador. This satire of Philippine society comes at a time when this Southeast Asian nation stands at a political crossroads. Born into a well-to-do political family himself, Syjuco is not unfamiliar with the elite class he parodies, but he is quick to point out the differences between himself and his fictional namesake. During his whirlwind Asian promotional tour, Syjuco spoke with TIME in Hong Kong about the power of the written word and his transnational exploits as a modern-day Ilustrado.
Nobel Prize Winners
Nobel Prize Winners 69 members
From the sublime to the abstruse, from the bestsellers to the rightly unknown. To read the winners o...

Books we've read





View this group on Goodreads »