Six somewhat outrageous stories compose the little tidy book Flowers for Thursday: Stories by Mia Tijam and here's why it's a must read. | via philstarlife
She’s a Comparative Literature graduate of UP Diliman, and co-edited the pioneering virtual anthologyIn this author’s debut collection are the stories “Remembering Thursday,” “Waiting for Agua de Mayo,” “The Ascension of Our Lady Boy,” “Wishes Do Come True,” “What the Children of Muerte Caxerex Say,” and “Talking to Juanito.”
It’s a bit of a tough read, for me, anyway, as Tijam’s fiction often bewilders with its wild amalgam that utilizes some familiar creatures of lower mythology that have localized variants, such as faux, along with versions of “the other” and related denizens of the invisible world. Then too there’s frequent use of local terms that are not explained or only thinly contextualized.
Both an intriguing “other” and a local colloquialism that is repeated no end in this story are the uncommon features. Thankfully, the Foreword in its English version, “The Native Agimadmad in Tijam’s Fiction” by H. Francisco V. Penones Jr., explains the mystery word:, which also means to see the consequence, and, reason, easily melded in the narrative of Talking to Juanito because it is inevitable and reasonable like the deft weavers of theschoolandcollegelistings.
The yaya Iyay turns out to be her Fairy God-Aswang. She teaches Lady Boy how to converse with the chickens.