Book Review: "Alternative Alamat" edited by Paolo Chikiamco
*Spoiler alert!*
Because I
am curious about mythology from around the world, Alternative Alamat: Myths
and Legends from the Philippines, edited by Paolo Chikiamco, was an
easy choice to pick out from the library. A collection of short stories—by various
authors—taking place in the modern day and based on Filipino mythology, Alternative
Alamat was a very interesting and culturally rich anthology.
Until Spanish
occupation, Filipino mythology was a geographically defined phenomena, with
each region having slightly different words and characterizations of mythical
figures like Anagolay, Hukloban, and Mariang Makiling. A sort of unification of
these myths and legends coincided with a greater sense of nationality
post-occupation. Coincidentally, those deities were the subject of my two
favorite stories from the anthology: “Ana’s Little Pawnshop on Makiling St.”
and “Remembrance.”
In the
author’s note preceding “Ana’s Little Pawnshop,” I learned that the story dealt
with Anagolay, a more obscure divinity in the Filipino tales. In this story,
she goes by Ana, and tells her newest employee, Eric, that, “I deal with lost
things…Lost humans are beyond my realm.” (Random fun fact: in December 1982, “a
potentially hazardous” asteroid was discovered and later named Anagolay.)
“I wonder though, if somebody asked you to part with your unpleasant memories, wouldn’t you say yes?”
A modern-day
Maria Makiling has reinvented herself as a stockholding businesswoman who owns
the land Ana’s shop is on. When Makiling’s human clients wish to build a mall
on that same land, she offers Ana the keeping of her shop in exchange for Ana’s
“memories of your life’s greatest love,” those memories pertaining to Ana’s husband
and daughter. The story ends ambiguously, with the reader not knowing what Ana’s
decision would be. (What a cliffhanger! I need to find out what happens.)
“‘Why do you grieve,’ Tala said, ‘when you’ve just held hope in your hands?’”
As for “Remembrance,”
this short story ends with a bit more happiness, even if it starts out with
violence and melancholy. Stella loses her girlfriend, Kaitlin, during a
shooting on a mass-transit bus, and is suicidal when Hukloban, “one of the four
mortal agents of Sitan” (Sitan being the god who ruled Kasanaan, the Filipino
version of hell), gives Stella a collection of marbles. These marbles contain
both the good and bad of Stella’s life, but also one that ends up being a “future
memory.” A future memory in which Stella survived Kaitlin’s loss and is happy
once more.
As someone
who was once suicidal, “Remembrance” is one of the more relatable of the tales.
I appreciated that some of the mythological figures in Alternative Alamat are
concerned with the wellbeing of mere mortals.
I would
recommend Alternative Alamat for all those mythology nerds out there, to
explore a less-known mythological tradition.
Happy
reading!
--BookOwl
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