sleepingsunbird's review
4.0
3.50
I picked this up from the shelf of our local library because the title called out to me. The cover was nondescript and it didn't have a blurb at the back so I was clueless about what it was about, going in. This short story collection was like a found box of trinkets - some of them, I liked more than others.
The first story in the lineup is easily my favorite: a young man shaded and disillusioned by his privilege fails to see things for what they are. it is told in snippets, showing interactions he has with his father - a retired military man, and an activist - his friend with whom he imagines plays the other part in a Before Sunrise-esque romance.
Other stories put us in the shoes of a man rummaging through shelves of secondhand books in a National Bookstore Super Branch in Quezon City who then chances upon something unexpected, and a pastor well-equipped with answers and well-versed in religious texts loses the chance to say the right words when he needs them most.
I appreciated De Guzman's characters - despite them not being very likable - and the seemingly mundane situations he puts them in, touched by a hint of odd, unlikely, or interesting.
I enjoyed this collection, but I still have no idea why this was called "About the dying dog."
I picked this up from the shelf of our local library because the title called out to me. The cover was nondescript and it didn't have a blurb at the back so I was clueless about what it was about, going in. This short story collection was like a found box of trinkets - some of them, I liked more than others.
The first story in the lineup is easily my favorite: a young man shaded and disillusioned by his privilege fails to see things for what they are. it is told in snippets, showing interactions he has with his father - a retired military man, and an activist - his friend with whom he imagines plays the other part in a Before Sunrise-esque romance.
Other stories put us in the shoes of a man rummaging through shelves of secondhand books in a National Bookstore Super Branch in Quezon City who then chances upon something unexpected, and a pastor well-equipped with answers and well-versed in religious texts loses the chance to say the right words when he needs them most.
I appreciated De Guzman's characters - despite them not being very likable - and the seemingly mundane situations he puts them in, touched by a hint of odd, unlikely, or interesting.
I enjoyed this collection, but I still have no idea why this was called "About the dying dog."
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