Scent of Apples
University of Washington Press
1955
178 pages
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Book Jacket Entry
Excerpt
Reviews |
Book
Jacket Entry
"Santos writes simply and skillfully of his countrymen who leave home for America, of
the pain of separation, loneliness, longing, yesterday's hopes and tomorrow's dreams. His
portraits of these gentle, courageous exiles are moving as he shows how each struggles to
make his way in the new land, trying to find a life far from his roots while sustained by
the dream of a return home. . . . Santos gets to the heart of what it is like to be
uprooted, alone, alien." -- Publishers Weekly
"Santos is a writer of deceptive
simplicity, one whose graceful storytelling conceals considerable political commitment. .
. . His stories capture with warmth and deep humanity the pain of exile and the cost of
progress." -- Washington Post
"Mr.
Santos is a master at giving the reader a sense of people speaking in many languages and
dialects." -- Maxine Hong Kingston, The New York Times Book Review
"The
whole collection is affecting - a small, unexpected gift from a writer with a welcome new
voice." -- Kirkus Reviews
"Mr.
Santos's best pieces are exquisitely crafted works which examine with irony, humor, and
humanity the plight of Filipinos in America." -- Studies in Short Fiction
Excerpt
When I arrived in Kalamazoo it was October and the war was still on. Gold and silver stars
hung on pennants above silent windows of white and brick-red cottages. In a backyard an
old man burned leaves and twigs while a grey-haired woman sat on the porch, her red hands
quiet on her lap, watching the smoke rising above the elms, both of them thinking of the
same thought perhaps, about a tall, grinning boy with blue eyes and flying hair, who went
out to war: where could he be now this month when leaves were turning gold and the
fragrance of gathered apples was in the wind?
Reviews
"Santos
writes simply and skillfully of his countrymen who leave home for America, of the pain of
separation, loneliness, longing, yesterday's hopes and tomorrow's dreams. His portraits of
these gentle, courageous exiles are moving as he shows how each struggles to make his way
in the new land, trying to find a life far from his roots while sustained by the dream of
a return home. . . . Santos gets to the heart of what it is like to be uprooted, alone,
alien."--Publishers Weekly
"Santos is a writer of deceptive
simplicity, one whose graceful storytelling conceals considerable political commitment. .
. . His stories capture with warmth and deep humanity the pain of exile and the cost of
progress."--Washington Post |
