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Her Wild American Self
Galang, M. Evelina. Her Wild American Self. Minneapolis, MN: Coffee House Press (27 N. 4th St, #400), 1996. 192p. ISBN 1-56689-040-3(pa), $12.95. Acid-Free.
Comprised of short stories by M. Evelina Galang, Her Wild American Self, contains fictional works that focuses on Filipino American women and their role in the American culture from their point of view. As a reader progresses through the book they can see the issues Filipino American women face at each generation. The collection of short stories starts by introducing to the reader, women from the Philippines that were raised on traditional values and the culture shock they experience in America. Galang eases the reader into the roles of each woman in each of the stories to focus on the emotions and experiences she goes through. By the end of the book, the reader will have experienced what it was to be a Filipino woman new to America and also what it is like for Filipino American women that struggle to live in both Filipino and American cultures while dealing with stereotypes that are placed upon Asian women.
M. Evelina Galang has published two fictional works, edited an anthology, and also teaches at the University of Miami’s MFA Creative Writing Program. Her published works consist of Her Wild American Self and One Tribe. Screaming Monkeys is an anthology that has won the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awards Advancing Human Rights. It is also published by Coffee House Press. One Tribe, published by New Issues Western Michigan University, won the Association of Writers & Writing Program (AWP) Series Prize in 2004. Currently, Galang is working three books: Angel de la Luna is a fictional story about a young Filipino girl’s acceptance of America, Lolas’ House: Women Living with War are essays from 15 surviving Filipino comfort women from World War II, and Smooches is another collection of short stories about kisses.
The contents of the book more than met my expectation. My initial reaction from the promise of the title had me expecting mediocre stories about the struggles of Filipino women but Galang manages to involve the emotions of the reader and also stimulate the mind about the issues at hand. As an Asian American women myself, I thought her voice and style of writing appealed to me in and grasped my emotions in a strong but subtle manner. Though there is some Tagalog language used in the book, there is enough context and explanations for the reader to understand the story. The use of Tagalog enhances the story as it carries with it the emotions associated with certain words and gives a glimpse of the culture to the reader.
There have been a number of books written about Asian females fitting in with the American culture yet trying to maintain their own culture at home. Books such as Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings by and About Asian American Women by Diane Yen-Mei Wong (Beacon Press, 1989) and YELL-Oh Girls! Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian American by Vickie Nam (Harper Paperbacks, 2001). They all deal with the cultural mesh of Asian American Asian cultures, what makes Her Wild American Self unique is that it chooses to focus only on the Filipino American women’s perspective. There are one or two stories that could be applied to all Asian women but most of the stories deal with Filipino women.
The book is bounded using the Smyth Sewn method and printed on thick acid-free paper, creating a book that is durable and archival safe at a retail price that is under $15.00. There is no index but a clear table of contents and use of italics to highlight the stories that are the author’s narratives. The typeface is set in Caslon type, a serif font, for comfortable reading and the titles and display names are set in Delphian to highlight the start of a new story.
This book would be of interest to Womens’ Studies as its focus is quite narrow in respects to the women’s perspective of the cultures it touches upon. Galang’s storytelling styles varies from first person point of view in most of the stories to the journal style in Filming Sausage and to her lyrical narratives. These would be excellent examples for students enrolled in a creative writing class as well as film school students who need to compose stories that are emotionally strong enough to be transferable to film.
Comprised of short stories by M. Evelina Galang, Her Wild American Self, contains fictional works that focuses on Filipino American women and their role in the American culture from their point of view. As a reader progresses through the book they can see the issues Filipino American women face at each generation. The collection of short stories starts by introducing to the reader, women from the Philippines that were raised on traditional values and the culture shock they experience in America. Galang eases the reader into the roles of each woman in each of the stories to focus on the emotions and experiences she goes through. By the end of the book, the reader will have experienced what it was to be a Filipino woman new to America and also what it is like for Filipino American women that struggle to live in both Filipino and American cultures while dealing with stereotypes that are placed upon Asian women.
M. Evelina Galang has published two fictional works, edited an anthology, and also teaches at the University of Miami’s MFA Creative Writing Program. Her published works consist of Her Wild American Self and One Tribe. Screaming Monkeys is an anthology that has won the Gustavus Myers Outstanding Book Awards Advancing Human Rights. It is also published by Coffee House Press. One Tribe, published by New Issues Western Michigan University, won the Association of Writers & Writing Program (AWP) Series Prize in 2004. Currently, Galang is working three books: Angel de la Luna is a fictional story about a young Filipino girl’s acceptance of America, Lolas’ House: Women Living with War are essays from 15 surviving Filipino comfort women from World War II, and Smooches is another collection of short stories about kisses.
The contents of the book more than met my expectation. My initial reaction from the promise of the title had me expecting mediocre stories about the struggles of Filipino women but Galang manages to involve the emotions of the reader and also stimulate the mind about the issues at hand. As an Asian American women myself, I thought her voice and style of writing appealed to me in and grasped my emotions in a strong but subtle manner. Though there is some Tagalog language used in the book, there is enough context and explanations for the reader to understand the story. The use of Tagalog enhances the story as it carries with it the emotions associated with certain words and gives a glimpse of the culture to the reader.
There have been a number of books written about Asian females fitting in with the American culture yet trying to maintain their own culture at home. Books such as Making Waves: An Anthology of Writings by and About Asian American Women by Diane Yen-Mei Wong (Beacon Press, 1989) and YELL-Oh Girls! Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian American by Vickie Nam (Harper Paperbacks, 2001). They all deal with the cultural mesh of Asian American Asian cultures, what makes Her Wild American Self unique is that it chooses to focus only on the Filipino American women’s perspective. There are one or two stories that could be applied to all Asian women but most of the stories deal with Filipino women.
The book is bounded using the Smyth Sewn method and printed on thick acid-free paper, creating a book that is durable and archival safe at a retail price that is under $15.00. There is no index but a clear table of contents and use of italics to highlight the stories that are the author’s narratives. The typeface is set in Caslon type, a serif font, for comfortable reading and the titles and display names are set in Delphian to highlight the start of a new story.
This book would be of interest to Womens’ Studies as its focus is quite narrow in respects to the women’s perspective of the cultures it touches upon. Galang’s storytelling styles varies from first person point of view in most of the stories to the journal style in Filming Sausage and to her lyrical narratives. These would be excellent examples for students enrolled in a creative writing class as well as film school students who need to compose stories that are emotionally strong enough to be transferable to film.
Review submitted in April 2007 by Alice Tran, LIS Student, University of Hawaii at Manoa.
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