Very fresh approach in storytelling. Asenjo is said to be one of the new voices in Philippine literature.

Genevieve L. Asenjo (born in 1979) is an assistant professor at the De La Salle University and has a Ph. D. in Literature (High Distinction at Outstanding Dissertation). She finished her undergraduate course, BA Literature 2000 at University of the Philippines Visayas in Ilo-ilo. Lumbay ng Dila (Literal meaning: Sorrow of Tongue) is her second book: her first novel.

What's new in her approach?

1. Dreamlike narration in the denouement

2. Pure and clear Tagalog prose written by somebody who grew up in a non-Tagalog province.

3. Kinary-a (one of the many dialects in the Visayas) incorporated beautifully in the narration. It's like reading a novel written in a foreign language like say Spanish with some untranslated words. It gave the voice, Asenjo's voice, a distinct flavor.

4. Kaleidoscope of local issues tackled: politics, gender, family, extended family, publishing, dating, falling in love and SEX. The last one is capitalized because if you take others away, this work could be classified as For Adults Only since it has explicit sex scenes. It uses vulgar words like titi (penis), tamud (semen), mamasa-masa (referring to vagina that is wet), etc.

Did those new approaches work for me? Some of them, yes. Some of them, no. Some of them was okay at first but became too much at some point.

No. 1 was a dud. It was dreamlike and I thought I was reading the Philippine version of Virginia Woolf. However, Asenjo was not there yet. She decided to be logical and she (spoiler alert) made it to just be a dream. Nananaghinip lang pala talaga si Sadyah (The character was indeed dreaming). I thought that second to the last chapter was comparable to the dead Buendias appearing towards the end of One Hundred Years of Solitude and I liked it so much I thought this novel was amazing. Until, until Asenjo revealed that her main protagonist, Sadyah was just dreaming. She could have gone that way and I would not care a bit whether was not logical since it was beautiful and Sadyah could imagine anything since she has a very imaginative mind, being a poet and a literature professor. Don't be afraid to gamble, Ms. Asenjo.

No. 2 was surprisingly done. Asenjo grew up in the Visayas before moving to Manila to take her Ph.D. at the De La Salle University. Yet, her Tagalog can put shame to all of us who have been dwelling here in Metro Manila. Much more for me who grew up in Quezon Province where the Ama ng Wikang Pambansa (Father of the National Language), President Manuel L. Quezon, came from. Asenjo's choice of words was amazing. Her word plays were enjoyable. Her narration was concise yet she took time to describe her setting and pay attention to details. She showed not told. Her symbolisms were well-handled and you could see the transformation of her characters.

For No. 3, it was my first time to read a Tagalog novel written by a non-Tagalog. It was a revelation and I just have to give my admiration to Asenjo. She was like a young lady knight trying to penetrate the Tagalog literature dominated by males (Bob Ong, Eros Atalia, Edgardo Reyes, Domingo Landicho, atbp) or senior females (Liwayway Arceo, Lualhati Bautista, Ellen Sicat, atbp.) Where her contemporaries (Karen Francisco, Cindy Gourlay, etc) concentrate on writing in English, she takes the challenge of writing in Tagalog peppered with Kinaray-a (Visayan) phrases and words and she succeeding beautifully (without alienating a Tagalog reader like me).

No. 4 was okay at some point but got into my nerves at some. Politics seemed to be the main ingredient. EDSA 1, 2, 3, Marcos, Aquino, Estrada, Arroyo (Ramos was not mentioned). First Quarter Storm, etc. I knew all of those and they bored me. Politics in the Visayas was what I thought would be a new one but Asenjo chose not to dwell on this probably because either she knew just a little of this or that she thought that non-Visayan readers would not be interested. The denouement seemed to be shallow: too good to be true. Sadyah's search of her mother and her wanting to talk to her grandpa who got incarcerated after Marcos' fall in 1986 was the focus in the first half of the story but when the "big scenes" came, they felt lacking in excitement, emotion and energy.

The SEX part is too much. Asenjo might be brave young knight in entering the Tagalog literature but she is too bold for my sensitivities. Bob Ong's books are selling well even if he has no explicit sex scenes. In the Pasasalamat (Acknowledgement) part at the end of the book, Asenjo said that her mentors and students at DLSU read her book and gave her tips. Whaaat? This book has been read by her gurus and students and they approved those explicit sex scenes? I would also imagine that this book is being sold at the campus store since this was published by C & E Publishing for the De La Salle University.

These sex parts deducted that one star from the rating. Those scenes just gave me creeps and I hope my 17-y/o daughter will not look up to Sadyah as her hero. This Asenjo's character is not what Filipino women should be.

Not sure if I am convincing you here, but for Filipinos like me, Asenjo used these lines:

"Ang alak at droga niya (referring to Stephen, Sadyah's 1st boyfriend) ay ang bibig ni Sadyah habang nakasubo ang kanyang matigas na titi"

Or this chat exchanges:

Sadyah: "What is the square root of 69?"
Iyer: (her 3rd boyfriend, an Indian) "Mahal, you should suck my dick!"
Sadyah: "Soon, mahal. I will. My pleasure."
Iyer: "Ohh, I'm getting a hard-on, mahal."

All those while the boyfriend was in Singapore wearing an office formal attire.

I am not squeamish on this since I read erotica but I was not expecting the book to dwell and be too explicit on sex. They could have sex but I think it just went too far for my comfort in this book.

Yet, I am giving this a 4-star since I was able to finish the book without getting bored.