Appetite for Sob Stories?

On Banana Heart Summer (2005) by Merlinda Bobis 

A Pinay maid in the US recalls her starving girlhood in a somber 1960s Third World neighborhood. She finds inspiration in the myth of the banana heart, turns to cooking for comfort, and discovers that her hunger can be appeased only in dreams. Cuisine clashing with grief can cause indigestion.

Paperback. Pasig: Anvil.

The Impersonal is Political

On Pacman: My Story of Hope, Resilience, and Never-Say-Never Determination (2010) by Manny Pacquiao 

                                                  

The story of Manny Pacquiao’s life is told, or so we are told, by Pacquiao himself, in this “personal autobiography” written (with a certain Timothy James) in exotified English. Doubt surrounds the lyrical and disembodied narrative voice, which confuses rather clarifies. Part biography, part fiction, totally shameless advertising. 

Paperback. Pasig: Anvil.