How My Sons Lost Their Tagalog

by Benjamin Pimentel

Benjamin Pimentel switches from Filipino to English so delightfully, we can follow him as he tugs us towards his little adventures that make an event such as Christmas a milestone in our lives. “Boying” embraces both languages and relinquishes them to us, shifting our emotions to what we know in the refrains of the Filipino culture and history, and in doing so gives us a berthing place of where we might choose to belong. He said he dreams in Filipino, and that alone should tell us, in all the pieces in this collection, that there are things that cannot be left unsaid.

117 pages, Paperback

Published October 31, 2014

Reviews

[Jan]

I picked this book with the expectations that this was about language. However, this book tackled a lot of things—politics, immigrant experience, Obama, fatherhood, nostalgia, etc. I enjoyed most of the essays in this book.

[AJ Raymundo]

Delightful read! I will update this review later.

[Martinez]

A mixed bag, with bit too much pontificating, ego-tripping and platitudes (for my taste). Liked the Tagalog passages the most. Title is misleading.