It's Recommended by the Wall Street Journal!

Last summer, I read Jessica Hagedorn's look-back at 1950's Philippines, "Dogeaters". It is layered with a great variety of characters: a clever, wealthy little school girl who starts the book, her family, a mom who is like an American film star, a silly, shallow cousin; other parts of the novel show the lives of gay male prostitutes in the bars of Manila, and many more. Over them all is a crazy all-powerful dictatorship that rules the land; people can be caught up in mortal danger for any reason or no reason at all; they can disappear or be killed almost anytime. The other day I noticed the book was recommended for the Wall Street Journal Book Club by author Marlon James, who says the book could have been written about Jamaica or Columbia (or any tropical paradise ruled by dictators and thugs, it seems). I thought I better write my little review! It was interesting, funny, complicated, sad, poetic, easy to read yet difficult to comprehend; I am an "apple-cheeked" suburbanite to the core; but once in a while I like to try to "walk (gingerly)on the wild side".