By Bettina Jean E. Rayos del Sol
Title: Banana Heart Summer
Author: Merlinda Bobis
Publisher: Anvil Publishing House
Date Published: May 20, 2008
Details: Paperback, 308 pages
To those who are into loving and eating, this book is for you. Exquisitely written and richly imagined, Banana Heart Summer is a touching tale of a young girl’s zest for life. It is a memoir to all mothers and daughters around the world, a tribute to friendship, kinship, culture and community. This masterpiece is truly an original work—a novel that reads like poetry and combines metaphors that appeal to both the intellect and imagination. The lush and poetic words will captivate you as the tastes, smells and sounds leap off the pages and surround you—the sizzle of turon, the piquant aroma of shrimp paste, the glimpse of colorful halo-halo… Everything just seems so alive—a real feast for the senses.
At the center of this tale is Nenita’s hunger for life and everything in it: food, friendship, success, love. Set in the early 1960s, this is the story of twelve-year-old Nenita finding happiness in the unlikeliest of places. Everything started when she began to cook for the lovely Miss VV, the most beautiful woman in their small town in Bicol. While growing up, she made new friends, became more hopeful, and learned the secrets and intricacies of adult life. Along the way, she savored a remarkable journey of self-discovery, sharing her recipes for all to enjoy.
The book weaves food and life in one fascinating narrative ripe with metaphors. It serves up compassion and tenderness in great portions while still capturing the intensity of love and hunger in its sentences. Food was constantly used to compare life situations that the characters go through in the novel. It makes you look at love and life with a different perspective, putting cooking and life parallel to one another. This is a story of strength and positivity even after years of trials and setbacks. Nenita’s tale may break your heart but at the same time, it will leave you admiring her for never allowing herself to wallow in self-pity. She manages to see the beauty around her in spite of the pain and ugliness of the poverty-stricken world she lives in. It's as if the beauty is more vibrant because of the pain, just as the sensation of taste is enhanced by hunger.
What makes the novel uniquely Filipino is its gastronomical complexion alongside other important elements in the average Filipino’s life—family, food, friendship and culture. Indeed, it is impossible for the reader to escape the fantastic narratives on food. It is a ubiquitous presence throughout Banana Heart Summer and plays an important cultural and psychological role. Love and food are two sides of the same coin of life, as depicted by the story. Although simple, the book reaffirms the passion and perseverance of the Filipinos in the face of life’s many challenges.
At times, it is the simple things that we tend to overlook yet these are the things that are the most meaningful and touching. This book is a great reminder that the important things in life need not be material. Happiness can be found in the simplest of events. The charming, brave, and loyal Nenita teaches us all these lessons in this straightforward story that captivates the heart and soul.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Merlinda Bobis, a Thomasian alumna, is an award-winning poet, playwright, novelist, dancer, visual artist, stage and radio performer both in the Philippines and Australia. Among the awards she received are the Steel Rudd Award for the Best Published Collection of Australian Short Stories, the Judges' Choice Award and the Philippine National Book Award for White Turtle and The Kissing, the Golden Book Award for Banana Heart Summer, and the Philippine Balagtas Award, a lifetime achievement award for her fiction and poetry in English, Filipino and Bicol. Her plays have been performed in Australia, the Philippines, France, China, Thailand and the Slovak Republic. She resides in Australia and teaches Creative Writing in the University of Wollongong.
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