An In-depth City View: Manila After Dark -- Manila Noir Book Review

Manila Noir Cover by Anvil Publishing

I have been living in Manila for three years already now. In a modest two-floor bungalow house near the University of Santo Tomas with my parents and older brother with a monthly rent of fifteen thousand pesos. It was not entirely a new setting for me, spending time in Manila, I mean, during my High School days back in Bulacan, wherein transportation to Manila was so easy (much easier than here in the city itself, I must say) we used to lurk in the malls around Quezon City and as far as Pasay, Greenhills and Divisoria. But when we finally settled in the city for good, that was when I realized that there were so much more to the city than the posh malls, traffic, pollution, and the informal settlers we see.

With my course being Journalism, I easily got used to commute around Manila (something I was not used to) to cover events and meet people for interviews. Soon, the number of places I am familiar with expanded. Starting from the University parameter, to Recto, Quiapo, Cubao, Santa Cruz, Vito Cruz, Mandaluyong, Pasay, the Fort, Binondo, and take it as far as Pasig and Muntinlupa.

When I learned about the Manila Noir, I was so excited and curious about it. There was also this pride I felt having a Noir book dedicated to the city. As much as I would love to have my hands on that books first hand, school had been pretty bitchy for me and money was so hard to save given that there were just so many things to pay for and places to go to. It was only during my cover for this year's Manila International Book Fair in SMX that I was finally able to grab a copy of the book.

A new perception of the city whooshed into my system as I read the stories one after the other. The short stories in this book written by our very own authors (some I've long since admired and some I've recently just heard of) proved that we, Filipinos, can write in the same manner that other internationally famous authors can and that we can stand side by side these people and be proud of our country. Their Noir stories opened an entirely new image of Manila for me. The Manila after dark, Manila away from the Malls and Universities I was used to. Each stories revealed a part of the Manila as a place and the Manilenos and how they live their lives.

It was evident in the stories that the theme, romance, will never leave us, Filipinos, that even in mystery/ crime stories there will always be the thread of romance entangled in it. I personally like R. Zamora Linmark's Carino Brutal and Jessica Hagedorn's Old Money. They may not be the most 'romantic' in the collection of stories, but talking about love, they exposed a different kind of love (by that, I don't mean homosexual). It's the love that people usually forgot in times when they are in a relationship only to remember it again in that moment when they've lost everything and felt empty that they realized that above all; they always love their selves first.

The stories also gave us a larger picture of the social strata that we always heard of but never fully felt the situation ourselves. With Lysley Tenorio's Aviary where it was set in the vicinity of a posh mall in the city that forbids poor and suspicious people from entering said mall. It also revealed the Filipinos love for superstitions, revenge, and drugs.

Reading the book was such an experience for me that I know I will never be able to look at the city with my dreamy, empty eyes that wasn't really looking at the city properly. With every corner, streets, and avenues I will pass by, I know that there is a lurking story that is just waiting to be told.