Peter Bacho
Dark Blue Suit : And Other Stories
The New York Times Book Review, Anderson Tepper :
A middle-aged Philippine-American son pauses thoughtfully at a cluster of graves in a
Seattle cemetery: alongside the body of his enigmatic father lie several other colorful
characters from the same generation of Philippine immigrants who came to America in
the 1920's and 30's.... In rough-hewn and wistful style, Bacho's stories bring to life
the hardscrabble years of the first wave of migrant laborers--and capture as well the
ambivalence of their American-born children, who come of age during the 1960's.
Throughout these tales of embattled lives, there is the reminder of the original
immigrants' dream--shiny blue suits, but word and faded over time.
Ordering Information - paperback
Ordering Information - hardcover
Cebu University of Washington Press, 1991.
I read this when it first came out - about the same time when I was writing, well, toying with writing stories. Pretty good book I think, especially that it portrayed the life of an Asian American (in Seattle) which is a totally foreign life to me. And what particularly struck me is that Bacho was able to effectively contrast that life to Filipino life by also including chapters set in Cebu. For some reason though, the novel left me a little bit disturbed. I now forgot the story, but that feeling still lingers on. It probably was a good book.
Order Cebu now.
