Miguel Syjuco's debut novel, Ilustrado, opens with Crispin Salvador, lion of Philippine letters, dead in the Hudson River. His young student, Miguel, sets out to investigate the author's fatal departure from his encroaching obscurity and the suspicious disappearance of an unfinished manuscript—a work that had been planned to not just return the once-great author to fame, but to expose the corruption behind rich families who have ruled the Philippines for generations.
To understand the death, Miguel scours the life, charting Salvador's trajectory via his poetry, stories, interviews, novels, polemics, and memoirs. The literary fragments become patterns become stories become epic: a family saga of four generations tracing 150 years of a country's history forged under the Spanish, Americans, and Filipinos themselves. In the end, the story twists, belonging to young Miguel as much as his lost mentor, and readers are treated to an unhindered view of a tropical Third World society caught between reckless decay and hopeful progress. In this astonishingly inventive and bold novel, Syjuco explores fatherhood, regret, revolution, and the mysteries of lives lived and abandoned.
Praise for Ilustrado:
"Bristling with comic verve, metafictional playfulness, and an undertone of expatriate nostalgia that belies Syjuco's age, Ilustrado is an impressive vibrant mix of Borgesian literary labyrinth and acerbic émigré comedy."
—The Sunday Times
"Beyond Ilustrado's furious skewering of Filipino elites is writing that bristles with surprising imagery... Ilustrado pushed readers into considering matters of authenticity, identity and belonging. Despite its various comic turns, it is ultimately a tragedy—a raw reminder of the fact that we can never, really, find our way back home."
—The Financial Times
"This is a big, bold, cunning, impassioned, plangent and very funny book."
—Scotland on Sunday
"Fusing a cynical sense of humour with an original take on the universal struggle for salvation, [Syjuco] vindicates the idea that individuals and nations alike can, whatever their faults become once again illustrious."
—Time Out
"...a dazzling and virtuosic adventure in reading...a remarkably impressive and utterly persuasive novel. Its author, unlike Crispin, may succeed with the Nobel committee."
—Joseph O'Connor, The Guardian
"Wildly entertaining ... absolutely assured in its tone, literary sophistication and satirical humor ... Syjuco is only in his mid-30s, and he already possesses the wand of the enchanter."
—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
"Ilustrado will provoke audible oohs and ahhs from readers. [T]he writing is gorgeous. Plus, there's an O. Henry twist in the epilogue. This is a great book. Read it."
—Luis Clemens, Senior Editor, Tell Me More
"The novel fizzes with his expertise in language... In Ilustrado, Syjuco uses the potency of words to illuminate the world that both inspires and disappoints him. His novel, written from the heart, will excite and delight you."
—Waterstones Books Quarterly
"Ilustrado exceeds all expectations&a staggering, indelible debut."
—Quill & Quire (starred)
"Brilliantly conceived, and stylishly executed, it covers a large and tumultuous historical period with seemingly effortless skill. It is also ceaselessly entertaining, frequently raunchy, and effervescent with humour."
—The Man Asian Literary Jury Prize Citation judges
"Syjuco's exceptional novel exceeds its heightened expectations, serving notice that a brilliant new talent has arrived, somehow fully formed."
—The Walrus
"A virtuoso display of imagination and wisdom, particularly remarkable from a 31-year-old author; a literary landmark for the Philippines and beyond."
—Booklist (Starred review)
"A beautiful work of historical fiction that's part mystery and part sociopolitical commentary. Readers who enjoyed Junot Díaz's The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao will enjoy this literary gem."
—The Library Journal (Starred review)
"An author of limitless promise ... [Ilustrado] dazzles as brightly as Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illuminated. First novels rarely show such reach and depth."
—Kirkus (Starred review)
"This dizzying and ambitious novel marks an auspicious start to Syjuco's career."
—Publishers Weekly (Starred review)
"Ilustrado now suddenly reminds... of the best of Roberto Bolano; and many readers will soon be able to marvel, as I did, at the richness and depth of human experience it reveals."
—Pankaj Mishra, Guardian
"Miguel Syjuco's dizzyingly energetic, inventive Illustrado views his native Phillipines with a merciless, yet loving eye, its many voices a chorus illuminating the many facets of this chaotic, complicated country. An ambitious and admirable debut."
—Janice Y.K. Lee, Author of The Piano Teacher
"From the ruckus of rumors, blogs, ambitions, overweaning grandparents, indifferent History, and personal crimes, Miguel Syjuco has innovatively re-imagined that most wonderfully old-fashioned consolation: literature. Ilustrado is a great novel."
—Rivka Galchen, author of Atmospheric Disturbances
Ilustrado is a fantastic literary mystery that draws from the politics and poetics of Manila. It's written in a smart pastiche of fictional newspaper clippings, interviews and novel excerpts, and in the captivating voice of Miguel, a young writer who, far from Manila in his new Manhattan home, wants to piece together this puzzle of his hero's death. Ilustrado is global in all aspects of the story, and frank and unpretentious in every right-on detail. With originality and insight, Syjuco writes of romance and ambition between grad students and lit stars who connive to form a literary island of their own—one that threatens to distract and estrange Miguel from a deeper responsibility to his literary father and their shared past.
—Lee Henderson, Author of The Man Game
"Vulnerable and mischievous, sophisticated and naïve, Ilustrado explores the paradoxes that come with the search for identity and throws readers into the fragile space between self-pursuit and self-destruction. A novel about country and self, youth and experience, it is elegiac, thoughtful and original."
—Colin McAdam, author of Fall and Some Great Thing
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