What do you think?
Rate this book
White Elephants: Stories
“Once again, in this new collection, Angelo Lacuesta shows his mastery not only of language but also of the life it examines and conveys. As one writer to another, I appreciate how he takes his time to shape a story, and the varied cadences of his prose are a pleasure to follow. But best of all he writes with a maturity of feeling, a sureness of sensibility that eschews the easy sentiment and disembodied lyricism of those less committed to art and country.” — Jose Y. Dalisay Jr.
“Angelo Lacuesta’s stories are a state-of-the-art reckoning of modern-day realities. Refined and cosmopolitan in tone and diction, they manifest a global, nay, universal awareness of the delicate nuances of relations, from the quirky to the erotic. Subtle in their underpinnings, these savvy narratives locate characters in myriad depths of provenance. From the upbeat to the downbeat, the cadence of imaginative contretemps bespeaks an old soul with a fresh voice. Marvelously, this collection can only augur well for contemporary Philippine fiction in English.” – Alfred A. Yuson
“Angelo Lacuesta’s stories are a state-of-the-art reckoning of modern-day realities. Refined and cosmopolitan in tone and diction, they manifest a global, nay, universal awareness of the delicate nuances of relations, from the quirky to the erotic. Subtle in their underpinnings, these savvy narratives locate characters in myriad depths of provenance. From the upbeat to the downbeat, the cadence of imaginative contretemps bespeaks an old soul with a fresh voice. Marvelously, this collection can only augur well for contemporary Philippine fiction in English.” – Alfred A. Yuson
- GenresFictionShort Stories
138 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2005
4 people are currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Angelo R. Lacuesta
19 books17 followersAmado Angelo Rodriguez Lacuesta (a.k.a. Sarge Lacuesta) is a Filipino writer, and winner of several awards for his short stories, including the Philippine Graphic Award, the Palanca Memorial Award and the NVM Gonzalez Awards.
Lacuesta was born in 1970 in Cebu City. He was educated at the Ateneo de Manila University and the University of the Philippines, and graduated from the latter with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.
He attended the Writers' Workshops at the University of the Philippines and Siliman University as a fellow for English Poetry. For his short fiction, he has received honors from the Philippine Graphic Awards for Fiction and the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.
After giving up his medical studies at the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital, he joined Basic Advertising in 1993 and moved to . Walter Thompson in 1995. In 1997, he formed Logika, Inc. of which he is president and creative director.
His first collection of short stories, Life Before X and Other Stories, published in 2000 by the [University of the Philippines Press], won the Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award and the Manila Critics' Circle National Book Award. His second collection, White Elephants: Stories, published in 2005 by Anvil Manila, also won the National Book Award. His third collection, Flames and Other Stories was published by Anvil in 2009.
As an editor, Lacuesta has edited the books Latitude: Writing from the Philippines and Scotland (Anvil Manila 2005) and Fourteen Love Stories (University of the Philippines Press 2006). He is also the current literary editor of The Philippines Free Press.
Lacuesta is also the recipient of several local and international grants and writing fellowships, among them the UP National Writer's Workshop in Quezon City, Philippines (1992), the Siliman National Writer's Workshop in Dumaguete, Philippines (1992), Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers in Lasswade, Scotland (2003) and The International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA (2007).
Lacuesta was born in 1970 in Cebu City. He was educated at the Ateneo de Manila University and the University of the Philippines, and graduated from the latter with a Bachelor of Science in Biology.
He attended the Writers' Workshops at the University of the Philippines and Siliman University as a fellow for English Poetry. For his short fiction, he has received honors from the Philippine Graphic Awards for Fiction and the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature.
After giving up his medical studies at the University of the Philippines-Philippine General Hospital, he joined Basic Advertising in 1993 and moved to . Walter Thompson in 1995. In 1997, he formed Logika, Inc. of which he is president and creative director.
His first collection of short stories, Life Before X and Other Stories, published in 2000 by the [University of the Philippines Press], won the Madrigal-Gonzalez Best First Book Award and the Manila Critics' Circle National Book Award. His second collection, White Elephants: Stories, published in 2005 by Anvil Manila, also won the National Book Award. His third collection, Flames and Other Stories was published by Anvil in 2009.
As an editor, Lacuesta has edited the books Latitude: Writing from the Philippines and Scotland (Anvil Manila 2005) and Fourteen Love Stories (University of the Philippines Press 2006). He is also the current literary editor of The Philippines Free Press.
Lacuesta is also the recipient of several local and international grants and writing fellowships, among them the UP National Writer's Workshop in Quezon City, Philippines (1992), the Siliman National Writer's Workshop in Dumaguete, Philippines (1992), Hawthornden Castle International Retreat for Writers in Lasswade, Scotland (2003) and The International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA (2007).
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 15, 2015
I deeply appreciate the author's slow-burning writing style, realistic description of things and mastery of the language but these short stories didn't have an impact in me at all. The stories, if not all, were flat. I didn't find myself captivated by this collection of stories. I wanted a climax for every story or even a connection between stories yet I think I got none. But, maybe, it was me who viewed or treated this book in a wrong way.
April 23, 2016
It's too boring. There are no dialogues almost. The dialogues are contrived and the characters speak in the same manner thus readers can't differentiate one character from the other. The writer uses too many be-verbs and it felt like he had no idea about the conventions of good writing.
November 9, 2012
Interesting collection, first book on Philippine Lit. that I found in English
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews