Ghosts of Manila [Hardcover]

James Hamilton-Paterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1994

A wasteland city whose factory processes the skeletons of derelicts for science harbors four people--a television journalist, an archaeologist, an embattled and poor Filipina, and a corrupt cop--who reflect on unresolved pasts and obsess upon the world around them.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"The Spanish Inquisition taking place in a Dunkin' Donuts" is how focal character John Prideaux, an Englishman and burned-out documentary director, encapsulates his impression of the Philippines in this novel-cum-travelogue about a Third World country run socially and economically amok. Assorted characters-including Prideaux, a slum seamstress, a marginally corrupt cop and two female archeologists-separately explore the ways of the dead in Manila (bodies turn up as finds in archeological digs, as dumped police victims, as casualties of construction accidents in the Marcoses' public works projects and as victims of simple random violence). These story elements converge in the novel's grotesque centerpiece, detailing a shantytown annexed to a cemetery where the dead are better cared for than the living, the locals claim to see vampires and a Chinese drug baroness operates from her family mausoleum. Throughout, Hamilton-Paterson proves himself an expert travel writer, scattering anecdotes and observations like seedy landmarks along his pages and offering an atmospherically rich portrait of the Philippines (where he lives part of the year). But his characters, though well drawn, get short shrift in this docufiction approach, popping up like periscopes to view the landscape from their assorted removes but then resubmerging into the background as the book's real protagonist-the chaos that is modern Manila-reclaims center stage.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In Hamilton-Paterson's Manila, role-playing and deception are part of the national fabric. As an ex-American protectorate, the country's entire administrative structure is simply a copy or "ghost" of the American system. Philippine shops are so permeated with counterfeit brands that the originals themselves are suspect. Through a sort of cultural Gresham's law, fakery has driven authenticity out of the marketplace. Adrift in this tawdry world, John Prideaux, a burned-out television journalist covering an outbreak of vampirism in the barrio, begins to write an anthropological dissertation on amok, a form of homicidal frenzy. For Prideaux, objectivity in either field is illusory. His work will be a Castaneda-like exercise in fictional scholarship. Hamilton-Peterson (Gerontius, LJ 4/1/91) plays a dazzling set of variations on the ghost metaphor. A virtuoso performance, recommended for all fiction collections.
Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angeles
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 279 pages
• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux (T) (November 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374161909
• ISBN-13: 978-0374161903
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #951,003 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting and Eerie, July 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ghosts of Manila (Hardcover)

I am from Manila, but I am young. I did not go through this period of Manila, which was literally on the brink of anarchy. This story is set during the latter years of Marcos, and those were rather scary years. Goverment policies weren't getting anything done. People were miserable, and the government was under heavy criticism. When my mom tells me about it now, it is so unbelievable.

Manila is such a different city now. In the book, it was terrifying. People were getting killed left and right, and it was the work of the government, so no one could do anything. Kids of prominent dissidents were kidnapped and tortured. Women were raped. It was not a good time to be living in Manila.

Much credit must be given to James Hamilton Paterson, who has managed to portray a city so haunting and scary, it scared even me, a true blue Filipino, residing in Manila. I might know the streets and places in this book, but I am sure glad I did not live through these horrible events. If Manila's walls could talk, they would probably tell this story.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Paterson didn't write this book, October 22, 2000

By 

Jerry (Makati City, Metro Manila Philippines) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghosts of Manila (Hardcover)

As a resident of Manila since birth, I applaud James Hamilton-Paterson's excellent work. I hesitate to call it fiction since the events he says are mostly ripped from the newspapers. For an outsider, Paterson's backstories and subplots may sound too fantastic. But it is all too real. He didn't need to push his imagination on the events described on this book. Just observe the city and a lot of magical-realist stories will come to you. His weaving together seemingly unrelated events is his true talent. Yes, the Manila described here is unflattering but it is the only city with a character all its own.