Talking to the Moon - Noel Alumit. I loved Alumit's first novel, the devastating
Letters to Montgomery Clift, so I was psyched to see he had a second one out. Jory Lalaban is a Filipino mail carrier who gets shot by a white supremacist (an obvious reference to the murder of
Joseph Ileto).
The novel flashes between this incident (& his subsequent hospitalization) & memories of his past, beginning w/his youth as an orphan growing up in the Philippines who ended up in the seminary. Eventually Jory rejects Catholicism & turns to a local, pre-colonial pagan religion, for which he becomes a community spiritual leader when he & his wife, Belen, move to Southern California. Belen is convinced she's been cursed by her mother for marrying Jory (& taking him from the church); the biggest supporting evidence for her belief was the tragic death of their oldest son, Jun-Jun, as a child. Emerson, their second child, grows up feeling second best (& also, btw, gets beyond-the-grave telephone calls from Jun-Jun).
The novel switches between the viewpoints of Jory, Belen, Emerson, & Michael (Emerson's Taiwanese ex-boyfriend; I found his opinions on people who identify as Asian American interesting to hear), & also v. quickly between the past & present, sometimes without much of a marker to indicate. I didn't find that problematic--I thought it was obvious, & liked it--but I read a review where someone found that confusing. Hm.
Anyway--another thing I loved was a little subtheme about naming, which comes up w/both Jory's first & last names, Emerson, & Michael.
This is a really poignant, beautiful book. I finished it on the subway & kind of wished I'd been @ home so I could sit w/it & probably cry a little.
Magic Bites - Ilona Andrews. In this slightly grim fantasy novel, Atlanta is in shambles due to random surges of magic that leave technology useless. Kate Daniels, a mercenary, finds herself investigating the murder of her guardian & in so doing, must work v. carefully to stay on the good side of both the Pack, a group of shapechangers, & the Masters of the Dead, necromancers who control vampires. I enjoyed this a lot. My only nitpick was stylistic: Kate has a tendency to leave out contractions a lot ("did not" instead of "didn't"), but not enough to make it a speech quirk of hers; it just sounds awkward.
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