21st LITERATURE REVIEWER culture at the World Forum for

Democracy and the World Economic

Forum. He currently serves on the
MIGUEL SYJUCO advisory councils of the Civitella Ranieri
Foundation, an international arts
- Some of his goals in life are to have residency program, and the Resilience
everyone be able to pronounce his Fund, a project by the Global Initiative
surname properly (see-hoo-coh) and to Against Transnational Organized Crime
introduce the world to the storied to empower communities most
Philippine culture that is far more than threatened by criminality.
just domestic helpers, Imelda Marcos - He’s interested in how fiction can be
and the guy who shot Versace. used to examine complicated issues
- born in a political family from Manila in such as cultural identity, sexuality,
November 17, 1976 religion, personal freedom, and political
- Syjuco received his bachelor's degree corruption. His protagonists are a means
from Ateneo de Manila University, took to understand often disagreeable ideas,
his master's from Columbia University, a and his work seeks to unpack the
PhD from the University of Adelaide and rationalizations we humans must make
a Radcliffe Fellowship at Harvard to live with ourselves. Syjuco is also
University. Miguel Syjuco is a Filipino interested in the possibilities that come
author, journalist, civil society advocate, from mashing together polarities—East
and professor at New York University and West, highbrow and lowbrow.
Abu Dhabi.
- His debut novel, Ilustrado, was a New
York Times Notable Book of the Year, ILLUSTRADO
and its acclaim includes both the Man
Asian Literary Prize and the Grand Prize
at the Palanca Awards, his country’s top
literary honor; it has been translated into CHARACTERS
16 languages. Protagonist: Miguel Syjuco
- He ran away to become a writer and has
eked out a living as a medical guinea- Miguel is the narrator and protagonist of
pig, B-movie extra, eBay power seller of Ilustrado. He is a Filipino-Canadian writer
ladies' designer handbags and an who lives in New York at the beginning of
assistant to a bookie at the horse racers. the novel, and goes to Manila in search of
He has done work for major international the missing manuscript of Crispin Salvador,
publications, most recently as a copy his mentor. In the Philippines, he focuses
editor at The Montreal Gazette, and has only on his quest for answers about Crispin
a weekly book-review column called the and his death, remaining largely
Biblio-File on CBC's Radio Canada disconnected from major political
International. movements and the news. Miguel has five
- Miguel's current literary writing explores siblings, although one of his older sisters,
the possibilities of narrative fiction and Charlotte, ran away from home and was
examines the complexities of a Third estranged from the family. Miguel was born
World society involved in reckless decay in the Philippines, but his parents were killed
and hopeful progress. Both his fiction for their political involvement when he was
and non-fiction focus on politics, history, young. Thus, him and his siblings moved to
inequality, cultural identity, literature, Vancouver, where they were raised by their
and formal experimentation. grandparents.
- Dr. Syjuco has written for many of the
world's most respected publications and
spoken on Philippines politics and
SETTINGS between reckless decay and hopeful
progress.
Philippines, December 2002

The majority of the novel takes place in the

Philippines and begins with Miguel's
prologue, signed and dated December 1,
2002. The Philippines is Miguel's home
country, although he is equally tied to the
West as a Filipino-Canadian and later
American writer. Its status as "home" is a
major theme throughout the novel, as it is a
homeland while simultaneously a foreign
place to those who have been away from it
for so long. The novel frequently invokes the
numerous colonial forces which have
occupied the Philippines, including Spain,
the US, and Japan.

POINT OF VIEW

The point of view of Ilustrado changes

numerous times throughout the novel, but is
primarily in the present tense first person
from Miguel's perspective. The reader
becomes invested in Miguel's quest for
answers, as the mystery of Crispin's death is
explored through Miguel's perspective.
However, the reader is also able to gain
another perspective on the novel's events
from a mysterious third person omniscient
narrator, which the reader later learns is the
voice of Crispin Salvador. Information
provided by the third person narrator and
inconsistencies in Miguel's narration make
the reader realize that Miguel is an
unreliable narrator. He frequently omits
information or only reveals it later in the
novel, despite his promise in Chapter 2 to
"tell the truth" (47). Miguel narrates his
memories in the past tense.

THEME

Exuberant and wise, wildly funny and deeply

moving, Ilustrado explores the hidden truths
that haunt every family. It is a daring and
inventive debut by a new writer of
astonishing talent. we are treated to an
unhindered view of a society caught
 see what has become of the people and
places of his past. In reality, Dom is still
an addict, and the novel comprises the
JEET THAYIL content of his latest drug-induced
dream.
- Jeet Thayil is an Indian poet, novelist,
librettist, and a musician. He was born in SETTING
Kerala, India on October 13, 1959 and - An unspecified Bombay in 1970's slum
was educated in Hong Kong, New York serves as the primary setting for the
City, and Bombay. Poet Vijay Seshadri novel. The slum is described as a crime-
noted that Thayil is “contemporary ridden, dirty, and hopeless place where
precisely because he has such people are quick to seize or manipulate
command of the poetic and historical one another for their own ends, or for
past, and because his invented drugs. People use the bathroom in the
language has such depth, middle of the street; homeless people
archaeological richness, and reality.” are common; a serial killer is believed to
- In 2012, Thayil's poetry collection These be roaming the streets; crimes of all
Errors are Correct was awarded the sorts are regular; and many people are
Sahitya Akademi Award for English. He in poor health. It is a place many of the
was short-listed for the Man Booker poor seek to escape, while many of the
Prize 2012 and The Hindu Literary Prize wealthy venture into the slums for
(2013) for his debut novel Narcopolis. In pleasure and adventure.
2013, Jeet Thayil became the first Indian
author to win the DSC Prize for South THEME
Asian Literature, worth $50,000, for the
novel Narcopolis. - India in transformation is a strange and
- In Thayil's adolescence, he mentioned heartbreaking place, argues Jeet Thayil
“being in trouble with the police” at age in his novel Narcopolis. The India in
15, and by age 19, he had found his way which the novel begins is the India of the
to the opium dens of Bombay. In his 1970s, sometime but not a long time
prose, he has introduced new areas of after the end of British colonial rule.
feelings and emotions to Indian Indians are now free to fully determine
literature, and has often concerned their own lives and their own future. But
himself with the pleasures and pains of far too many have embraced freedom
drugs and alcohol, sex and death – irresponsibly rather than responsibly.
emblematic of Keats and Baudelaire. POINT OF VIEW

NARCOPOLIS - The book is that structural oddity, a first

- "Narco" is an informal word for narcotics person narration with a (mostly) absent
or illegal drugs narrator, a story that switches quickly to
- "Polis" means a city-state in ancient the third person and stays there for most
Greek of the duration. This is because Thayil
presents the reader in an interesting
CHARACTERS authorial device, not only with a single
- Dom Ullis is a Bombay man of uncertain omniscient narrator to guide the
age who becomes an opium addict early uninitiated through the potholed journey
in his life. Very little is known about Dom on Shuklaji street, but with a cast of
except that he disappears for much of narrators, each taking over the telling of
the novel, reappearing only later on. the story so seamlessly that sometimes
Dom returns to the events of the novel in it is unclear whether one narrator has
2004, presumably now clean and sober left off and another has picked up.
after getting into trouble in New York, to
 - He always want to make sure that his
readers can easily capture the message
and understand it clearly probably
TAN TWAN ENG because he is a lawyer.
- According to his personality he don’t like
- Tan twan eng wants to write primary reading books where the author thinks
period in gathering data who he he’s being clever by making things
interested in, find that it is very strange difficult for the reader.
and he only one among all friends who - He also once said that "I'm like that by
are interested in. nature" referring to the pervasive mood
- The struggle for independence of his book. “All my favourite books don’t
throughout Asia fascinates the huge have happy endings.”
dividing line and he really likes to - And lastly Tan speaks mainly English,
explore the dividing line and ordinary Penang Hokkien, and Malay as well as
people react to these huge events. some Cantonese.
- Tan Twan Eng was born in Penang,
January 1, 1972, an island off the
northwestern coast of Malaysia, and GARDEN OF EVENING MISTS
grew up in Penang and in the nation's
capital, Kuala Lumpur (KL). A former - It was shortlisted for the Booker
intellectual property lawyer, he began Prize, and awarded the Man Asian
writing his debut novel The Gift of Rain Literary Prize and the Walter Scott
(2007) while studying for a master's Prize for Historical Fiction.
degree in law at the University of Cape
Town. CHARACTERS
- He studied law through the University of - • Teoh Yun Ling - The main character
London, and later worked as an - • Nakamura Aritomo - The gardener of
advocate and solicitor in one of Kuala Emperor Hirohito
Lumpur's most reputable law firms. He - • Magnus Pretorius - An expatriate from
has a first-dan ranking in akido and is a Transvaal
strong proponent for the conservation of - • Yoshikawa Tatsuji - A japanese
heritage buildings. He spent a year historian
travelling around South Africa, and - • Frederik Pretorius - Magnus's nephew
currently lives in Cape Town. His novels and heir
have been translated into Spanish, - • Yun Hong - Yun Ling's older sister
Italian, Romanian, Greek, Serbian, - • Emily - Magnus's lover
Czech, French, German, Dutch, Polish - • Ah Cheong - Aritomo's servant
and Chinese.
- Tan Twan Eng is extremely perceptive, SETTING
which has earned him numerous
- The Garden of Evening Mists takes
awards. He is a deep thinker and
place in the Cameron Highlands of
analyst, forming opinions and judgments
Malaysia, on a tea plantation owned by
about why people do what they do and
a Boer friend of Yun Ling's family.
observing the results of their actions.
Adjoining the plantation is Yugiri
- He doesn't give up easily. Tan Twan
“Evening Mists”, where Aritomo has built
Eng parses his prose until he is happy
a traditional Japanese house and
with how it flows. It is a long process
garden.
that involves constant thought, rereading
and rewriting, reading passages aloud, POINT OF VIEW
the input of literary friends and having
an ear for words and nuances. - Tan Twan Eng writes in the first person,
limited perspective of Yun Ling. The
 limited perspective is vital in keeping the
twist a secret until the end of the novel.
Through the limited perspective, the
reader only learns things as Ling learns
them.

CONFLICT

- A dispute over a garden design with a

Japanese notable. After resettling in
Malaya to work on his own garden, he
continues to work with the Japanese
government to save locals from
internment.

THEME

- The novel ticks many boxes. Its themes

are serious, its historic grounding solid,
its structure careful, and its old-
fashioned ornamentalism respectable.
Exploring themes of memory, guilt,
forgiveness, cultural expectations, and
the lingering trauma of war, The Garden
of Evening Mists received overwhelming
critical acclaim.
 to accept apartheid, the inability to
change it, and the refusal of exile.
- Booker Prize (1974) The booker prize’s
bugbear- raised its head for the first
time when the award was split between
Nadine Gordimer’s Conservationists and
NADINE GORDIMER
Stanley Middleton’s Holiday
- NADINE GORDIMER "South African - Nobel Prize in Literature (1991)
writer and Political Activist" Born on - France has awarded her Ordre des Arts
November 20, 1923, Springs, Transvaal et des Commandeur (The Order of Arts
[now in Gauteng], South Africa. South and Lettres) to recognize eminent
African writer and political activist. A artists and writers, and people who
novelist and short-story writer whose have contributed significantly to
major theme was exile and alienation. furthering the arts in France and
Recognized as a writer “who through throughout the world.
her magnificent epic writing has - in the MY SON’S STORY
words of Alfred Nobel - been of very
great benefit to humanity” The novel - The novel was published in 1990 at
entitled The Conservationist (1974) South Africa. The Son's Story tackles
gave her her international about the racism issue in South Africa
breakthrough. Died on July 13, 2014, wherein the protagonist, Sonny, a
Johannesburg, South Africa school teacher is experiencing a hard
- She attended the University of the time to adjust in communicating with
Witwatersrand for one year. In addition the white people. Nadine Gordimer
to writing, she lectured and taught at writes this novel on what she is seeing
various schools in the United States in their country that interest her to
during the 1960s and ’70s. write about the racial and gender
- Among honorary degrees from Yale, inequalities. She writes this to share
Harvard, Columbia, New School for what is the point of view of the black
Social Research (USA),University of people who are communicating with
Leuven (Belgium) University of York white people
(England), Universities of Cape Town
CHARACTERS:
and the Witwatersrand (South Africa),
Cambridge University (England). Sonny - Aila's Husband
- She began writing at the age of nine,
Aila - Sonny's Wife
and at the age of fifteen, she had her
first story published in a magazine. Baby – Baby is Sonny and Aila's teenage
- Her stories concern the devastating daughter
effects of apartheid on the lives of
South Africans—the constant tension Will - Will is Sonny and Aila's teenage son
between personal isolation and the Hannah Plowman - human rights activist
commitment to social justice, the whom Sonny has an affair with
numbness caused by the unwillingness
THEME
 - Set in South Africa under apartheid, the into the story before inserting the wounds with
novel explores how the members of sweetness, affection, and hope. Forna is really
one black family are transformed interested in how war affects thousands of
through resistance to the unjust regime. civilians.
Nadine Gordimer focuses on differences
CHARACTERS
between generations as they pursue
different avenues of personal fulfilment Elias Cole- Mid-grade history professor
and creating effective social change
Adrian Lockheart- Elias Psychiatrist
AMINATA FORNA (AFRICA)
Kai Mansaray- orthopedic surgeon
- "Africa scares the west, but there's as
much reason to be scared in Croatia as Saffia Kamara- wife of Julian
in Sierra Leone" -AMINATTA FORNA Julian- Elias colleague
- Aminatta Forna was born in Scotland on
November 1, 1964, raised in Sierra Ade- Julian's Friend
Leone and Great Britain, and spent Kekura- Julian's Friend
periods of her childhood in Iran,
Thailand, and Zambia Agnes- Hospital Patient
- Aminatta is a Fellow of the Royal
Tejani- friend and fellow medical student of Kai
Society of Literature and a member of
the Folio Academy. She has acted as Nenebah (Mamakay)- daughter of Elias
judge for the Samuel Johnson Prize, the
Bailey Prize for Women’s Fiction, the
Sunday Times EFG Short Story Award, SETTING
the Caine Prize and the International
- The setting for this story is a hospital in
Man Booker Prize
Freetown, Sierra Leone, soon after the
- Aminatta Forna is the awardwinning
government has declared an end to an
author of the four novels Happiness,
11 years civil war
The Hired Man, The Memory of Love
and Ancestor Stones, and the critically CONFLICT
acclaimed memoir The Devil that
Danced on the Water - During this time there is a civil war, all
- Aminatta’s second novel, The Memory the patients of Dr. Adrian are all
of Love, a story about friendship, war, mentally illed due to a past traumatic
and obsessive love, was published in experience of civil war in Sierra Leone.
2010 and won the 2011 Commonwealth At the dawn of peace after ten years of
Writers' Prize (Overall Winner, Best civil war, and grapples with how
Book). In 2010, she was also shortlisted survivors of widespread wartime
for the BBC National Short Story Award atrocities cope with their collective
trauma. Sierra Leone’s civil war
between government forces and rebel
insurgents began in 1991
THE MEMORY OF LOVE
THEME
The writing of Aminatta Forna is sincere, real,
and expressive. She induces grief and passion
 - It is a story of four lives colliding; a story  uses her works of fiction and nonfiction
about friendship, about understanding, literature to portray and represent
absolution and the indelible effects of women in both Nigeria and the United
the past; about journeys and dreams States
and loss, and about the very nature of  uses her work to challenge the
love. Friendship is one of the central stereotypes people have of feminists
themes – how easily we find and create  uses her power as a writer to educate
connections and how it takes just a people on what it means to be a
moment, a misunderstanding, a cruel feminist
coincidence, to tear them apart.  In an interview with Trevor Noah in
2018, Adichie states, “People think a
CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE
feminist is a crazy woman, who hates
 born in Enugu, Nigeria in September 15, men and doesn’t shave” (Trevor Noah
1977 Show). Adichie aims to educate the
 grew up on the campus of the world on feminism and clear the taboo
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, where her of being a feminist. She stresses the
father was a professor and her mother importance of, “teaching boys and
was the first female Registrar young men to feel comfortable around
 attended the University of Nigeria and women who are powerful, who make
studied medicine and pharmacy more money, are more talented or even
 moved to the United States to continue more vocal" (Chimamanda Ngozi
her studies after a year and a half Adichie and Feminist Activism).
 nurtured her long-standing interest in  defines feminism as believing in the
writing, despite the fact that she did not social, political and economic equality
initially study literature of the sexes
 worked as an editor for her university's  sees gender as a social construct
student-led publication and published a  notes that it’s important not to mistake
collection of poems as well as a play women’s rights for “human rights”
before finishing her undergraduate because to do so would mean ignoring
studies the systematic oppression women have
 In 2001, she received a summa cum faced (feminism focuses on women
laude from Eastern Connecticut State because women are often mistreated
University and later earned master's by society)
degrees from John Hopkins University  an outspoken activist who focuses on
and Yale University. race, feminism and politics
 author of the award-winning and best
selling novels including Americanah and
half of a yellow; the short story PURPLE HIBISCUS
collection The thing around your neck;
 Adichie's first novel
And the essay We should All Be
 published in 2003
Feminists and Dear ljeawele, or A
Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen  nominated for an Orange Prize
Suggestions  won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize
for Best First Book
CHARACTERS intentionally expresses the Catholic
upbringing of the protagonist in the
 Kambili Achike - She is a quiet, shy
novel and her brother, Jaja, as a stark
fifteen-year-old girl. She narrates
contrast to their extended family's
"Purple Hibiscus," in addition to playing
strong Igbo traditional customs.
the lead role.
 Mama (Beatrice Achike) - She is THEME
Eugene's wife and the mother of
 The search for freedom as a result of
Kambili and Jaja.
tyranny is the central theme of the
 Papa (Eugene Achike) - He is the father
short story "Purple Hibiscus." The
of Jaja and Kambili.
reader can, however, enjoy other
 Jaja (Chukwuku Achike) - He is
subjects that are brought up as a result
seventeen years old and is Kambili's
of the story, such as violence,
older brother.
corruption, and even religion.
 Aunty Ifeoma - She is the sister of Papa.
 Father Benedict - The white, British, POINT OF VIEW
conservative Catholic priest at St.
 Purple Hibiscus is written in first person
Agnes. Father Benedict sees Catholicism
point-of-view of a 15-year-old girl,
as a rigid set of rules, like Papa does.
Kambili.
 Ade Coker - Papa’s friend and the editor
of the Standard, a round and kindly man
who writes dangerous stories criticizing
the government.
 Papa-Nnukwu - The father of Papa and
Aunty Ifeoma.
 Amaka, Obiora, Chima - Aunty Ifeoma's
children.
 Father Amadi - A young, handsome
Nigerian priest who is friends with
Aunty Ifeoma and her children.

SETTING

 Enugu, Nigeria
 Post-colonial Nigeria in the late 1960s
during the Civil War

CONFLICT

 In the novel, Adichie clearly portrays

the clear oppression of freedom
experienced by the Achike siblings
(Kambili and Jaja) due to the strict
schedule that Eugene Achike (Papa)
made them follow. The author also