Talking to the Moon - Softcover

Perseus

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0786716290 ISBN 13: 9780786716296

Publisher: Da Capo Press, 2007

Synopsis

When Jory Lalaban, a Filipino postman, finds himself the target of a racially motivated shooting, he is forced to confront long buried memories of his life in the Philippines ? how he came to abandon the priesthood to become a worshipper of the Moon; his youth in an orphanage after World War II; the devastating "curse" that forced him and his new bride, Belen, to flee the Philippines for the United States. The shooting makes international headlines, disturbing the quiet life of the Lalabans, a family forced to face its darkest fears. The reader is introduced to a cast of memorable characters like Emerson Lalaban, the son who talks to his dead brother on the phone, but fails to properly communicate his feelings to the man he loves; Michael, Emerson's Taiwanese boyfriend, who vows to never fall in love with an American again; the wife Belen Lalaban, a woman who hears the quirky voice of the Virgin Mary; and William, the racist gunman who demands to be heard. Inspired by an actual event, this funny, rich novel unflinchingly tackles the most explosive topics facing America today: race, religion, and sexuality. .

About this title

About the Author

Noel Alumit was born in the Philippines and earned his Bachelor degree of Fine Arts in Drama from the University of Southern California. He studied playwriting at the prestigious David Henry Hwang Writers Institute of East West Players in Los Angeles. His plays have been read at East West Players, at Teatro Ng Tanan in San Francisco, and at the Ma Yi Theater Company in New York, as well as other venues in Boston and Philadelphia. His work has also been published in Take Out: Queer Writing from Asian Pacific America, Tilting the Continent: Southeast Asian American Writing, DisOrient, and the Asian Pacific American Journal. He is also a volunteer for the Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team in Los Angeles.

As an actor, he has appeared in Beverly Hills 90210, The Young and the Restless, and Red Surf with George Clooney. He has performed in many Los Angeles productions, including the world premiere of Chay Yew's A Language of Their Own at the Celebration Theatre, which garnered him an LA Weekly award. Most recently, he starred in the premiere of Michael Kearns' Who's Afraid of Edward Albee?.

Talking to the Moon is his second novel, following Letters to Montgomery Clift.

Reviews

Nurse Belen Lalaban and her letter-carrier husband, Jory, came to America from the Philippines to escape, among other things, their class-crossed origins (she was a rich debutante, he a poor seminarian). In 1999, the couple are just three years away from paying off the 30-year mortgage on their Los Angeles home when Jory is shot by a white supremacist. Alumit entwines the inner lives and memories of Jory; Belen; and their American-born, 30-year-old son Emerson, as the family copes with hospital life, media attention and their disintegrating relationships with religion and each other. None can speak frankly, but each finds comfort in apostrophe; Jory talks to the moon, Belen to the Virgin Mary, and Emerson to the ghost of his dead brother, Jory Jr. ("Jun-Jun"). Meanwhile Michael Zhang, a Taiwanese flight attendant who had previously dumped Emerson, reconsiders when he sees Emerson on TV. Alumit's Letters to Montgomery Clift made a mark in queer and Filipino fiction, but the whimsy of the magical realism here cloys quickly, and the flashback structure, which ping-pongs between a colorful Luzon Island past and a grim future, becomes rote. Though Alumit keeps the historically rich story moving, the characters end up thin. (Feb.)
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Edition details

• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0786716290
• ISBN 13: 9780786716296
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 300