America Is Not The Heart by Elaine Castillo

9/18/2020 America Is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo
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3.93 · Ra ng details · 2,755 ra ngs · 485 reviews READERS ALSO ENJOYED
Three generations of women from one immigrant family trying

to reconcile the home they left behind with the life they're
building in America.
How many lives can one person lead in a single lifetime? When
Hero de Vera arrives in America, disowned by her parents in the
Philippines, she's already on her third. Her uncle, Pol, who has
Want to Read offered her a fresh start and a place to st ...more See similar books…
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Hardcover, 408 pages

Published April 3rd 2018 by Viking
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Is this a Historical fiction piece?

1 Like · Like · 2 Years Ago · See All 2 Answers
Lore a Gaffney Takes place in the 1990s, with some flashbacks to the 1980s.
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3.93 · Ra ng details · 2,755 ra ngs · 485 reviews

GENRES
English (474) More filters | Sort order Search review text
Fic on 245 users
Start your review of America Is Not the Heart
Historical > Historical Fic on 98 users
Write a review LGBT 29 users
Literary Fic on 28 users

Emily May rated it Jan 10, 2018
Shelves: modern-lit, 2018, arc GLBT > Queer 25 users
Baggage means no matter how far you go, no matter how many times Contemporary 24 users
you immigrate, there are countries in you you’ll never leave.
Adult Fic on 17 users
Historical 15 users
There's only one slightly disappointing thing about this book-- that the
prologue introduces us to Paz and her compelling story, which completely Adult 14 users
drew me in, but then she fades into the background as a secondary character Cultural > Asia 13 users
for the rest of the book. Don’t get me wrong, I loved Hero’s tale, but I never
See top shelves…
quite got over losing that connection with Paz.
That being said, this is a beautiful novel. Castillo writes about the Filipino ABOUT ELAINE CASTILLO
migrant experience across three generations of women and she captures it,
not through grand events, but through small details and poignant
interactions between characters. Elaine Castillo
153 followers
Hero de Vera arrives in California, having left her old life behind but still
bearing its scars. Her uncle Pol has given her a second chance in the Bay Elaine Cas llo was born in the San Francisco Bay
Area. She is a graduate of the University of
Area, yet she must navigate this strange new world and the new
California – Berkeley. America Is Not the Heart is
relationships that come with it - most notably those with Pol's wife Paz, her first novel.
their daughter Roni, and new love Rosalyn.
BOOKS BY ELAINE CASTILLO
As for loving America or not loving America, those aren’t your
problems, either. Your word for love is survival. Everything else is a
story that isn’t about you.
It's a bit complex in parts, with jumps to two odd, but somehow fitting,
second-person narratives, lots of untranslated Tagalog, Pangasinan and More…
Ilocano, and flashbacks. But the characters are so vividly-drawn and the
family saga so compelling to me that it was easy to persevere through some
of Castillo's more dense and complicated narrative choices.
We've seen a lot of migrant fiction in the last couple of years, but America Is
Not the Heart carves out its own unique place for itself. It is a quiet,
carefully-crafted family saga, driven by its characters. It is a story of leaving
places, but never quite leaving those places. And it is a beautiful queer
romance. Personally, I knew nothing about the Philippines and its political
history before reading this so it was an educational read, too.
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226 likes · Like · see review
Truce rated it May 09, 2018
The thing about growing up Filipino in America, and especially growing up

Filipino in a heavily white area, and especially growing up Filipino in a
family that doesn’t fully see you as Filipino and allow you access to your
culture or a right to your heritage or the freedom to define yourself, is that
certain things — what should be shared cultural experiences, memories,
references — sometimes feel like they’re happening in a vacuum. You don’t
really know if they’re shared, if you’re imagining things, if you’re crazy or
sensitive, if maybe the microagressions are just happening in your head, if RELATED ARTICLES
the weird things your family does are actually Filipino things or just weird
things your family does.
Any review I could give of this would be too personal. It’s a slice-of-life
story about a woman who was part of the anti-Marcos resistance and came
to live with her uncle in Milpitas, CA after being released from a prison
camp. The pacing is pretty slow and the language weaves in and out of
Tagalog and Ilocano and some references in Pangasinan. People don’t really
understand when second generation Filipinos say that they can understand
32 New Historical Fiction Novels
the language but not speak it, and this book felt like home in that way — all Readers Are Raving About
of these other languages formed a single language that was spoken in all of
Let’s face it, 2020 is making us long for other
our homes. I don’t know that non-Filipino readers would really get this. But melines. Luckily, these 32 novels are ready to
it is beautifully and unapologetically Filipino, which I think American sweep you away to vastly different eras and...
readers (Filipino or not) need to see — immigration and diaspora outside of
the context of sacrifice, and outside of the “coming to America for a better Read more...
life” narrative. It is also beautifully and unapologetically queer and just 157 likes · 133 comments
generally sexually liberated.
Reading and listening this book was so important to me. It wasn’t even TRIVIA ABOUT AMERICA IS NOT TH...
about anything I have any remote experience with — Filipino immigrants in No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
the Bay Area in the early 90s — but I felt like this book saw me and
recognized me and told me I was part of this, a child of the diaspora, as QUOTES FROM AMERICA IS NOT TH...
much as anyone else. (less)
“This was--small talk, Hero thought to
herself. Though why people called it
Meike rated it Dec 18, 2018 small, she didn't know. The effort it
Shelves: usa, 2018-read scraped out of her felt immense,
exhausting, like she should have studied
I had such high expectations for Castillo's debut, but alas, this wasn't for
for days beforehand just to be ready for it,
me: While the story itself, a tale about an immigrant family from the
like she'd need to sleep a dreamless sleep
Philippines, could have been super interesting, the narrative sructure drove
all night just to recover from it.” — 6 likes
me crazy and I almost abandoned the book halfway through. The novel
starts with Paz, a young nurse who marries into the powerful de Vera family “Baggage means no matter how far you
and leaves the Philippines with her husband to make a life for herself in the go, no matter how many times you
immigrate, there are countries in you
U.S. Then, the narrative shifts to Hero de Vera, her husband's niece, who,
you’ll never leave” — 5 likes
years later, joins the couple in the States after being released from
internment - although her rich and powerful family profited from the More quotes…
system, Hero had joined the resistance against Marcos and, after spending
years with the rebel forces, got captured. She only survived because of her
family name, but was swiftly disowned by her parents, consequently fleeing
to her beloved uncle.
So we have two narrative strands that Castillo intertwines throughout the

book: While time in the States progresses, we learn more about Hero's past
through numerous flashbacks. For me, those scenes in the Philippines
remained too superficial and I wanted to learn a lot more about life under
MyAt
Marcos. Books
the same time, we witness the FilipinoBrowse ▾
immigrants in America Community ▾ Sign up
doing the most mundane things in excruciating detail: Going to the

hairdresser, hanging out in a restaurant and at a parking lot, and - again
and again - eating. I get that food plays an important role here, but this was
just too. much. eating. The whole pacing is just all over the place, especially
the middle part of the book made me wonder where this meandering tale is
going and why I should proceed.
Another important factor in the story is language. Castillo writes in English,

obviously, but she sprinkles in three other languages spoken in the
Philippines - sometimes she does explain the content, sometimes she
doesn't. I wondered whether this would have bothered me if these were
langauges that I understood or regional variations of my native language,
and the answer is: Yes, it would have bothered me. It is just annoying to
read over the course of 400 pages, especially as you get the point after 50
pages max.
And then there's the shifting focus to Hero's sexuality: She is queer, and
Castillo talks about her sexual identity at length, first suggesting that this
might be a problem within the immigrant community, and then suddenly it
isn't. What exactly is the point of this part of the story? It's just another
aspect that makes the book feel disparate.
So this clearly isn't my kind of writing, but to be fair, I think that people
who have a higher tolerance for meandering narratives might enjoy this a
lot more. (less)
Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it Feb 27, 2019

Shelves: intl-bookclub-sugges ons, read2019, around-the-world, asia2019,
tournament-of-books, loca on-philippines, audiobook
This was a great read about several Filipino women - one who supports her
family as a nurse, returning to the Philippines at one point before marrying
and moving to the United States. The focus eventually turns to Hero, who is
a refugee after living as a political prisoner for ten years. She finds home
and family in a Filipino community in California and even finds love. The
end of the novel, in fact turns into a bit of a romance novel, and possibly the
most realistic portrayal of a bisexual woman I have seen in fiction.
I learned a lot about Filipino languages, culture, and history that I didn't
know before.
There are a lot of pop culture references inside the novel itself, much of
them for Filipino movies, tv shows, and music. If you felt left out or
uneducated, you can at least listen to the author's Spotify playlist for the
novel. (less)
Valerie Best rated it May 08, 2018

Shelves: contemporary-fic on
Okay, bear with me—which, by the way, would have been an appropriate
subtitle for this book.
So, I liked this book. Sometimes an awful lot. There were moments in this
book that took my breath away. Its writing is great, and got me excited
about a kind of writing that I haven’t been very excited about for a while.
The story deals with the Filipino experience, and feels truly immersive. One
of theMy Books use of ▾
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book's most interesting aspects is its liberal differing dialects.
The language is occasionally, though not always, translated, which creates a
space between the story and some readers.
Which I like.
What’s most interesting, though, is that the three adults who live in the
house all came to America from the Philippines as adults, but they each
speak these three dialects to a greater or lesser degree. One, Paz doesn’t
speak at all, one, Pol only speaks to Hero stiffly, and in certain contexts.
One, Hero has nearly forgotten. The language excludes the reader from their
world, but also, more intimately, the characters from each other.
There was also an enormous focus on food, which really worked for me. It
wasn’t necessarily food I recognized, but it was really richly described and
played a full, sensual role in the story, nearly a character itself.
However, this story meandered. I’m certain the slow unspooling was
intentional, but knowing that didn’t make the story move any faster. There
were moments that moved so slowly they bordered in excruciating. The
story also leaves a lot of unanswered questions, which I also assume was
deliberate, but, in such a long, slow-moving book, so many unresolved plot
points felt a tad unnecessary.
This book is beautiful in many, many was. It moves slowly and deliberately,
and simply assumes that you’ll figure out a way to contextualize what you
don’t personally understand. It is opaque and challenging and truly
beautiful.
“Your word for love is survival. Everything else is a story that isn’t about
you.” (30) (less)
David rated it Mar 03, 2019
"You already know that the first thing that makes you foreign to a place is to
be born poor in it; you don't need to emigrate to America to feel what you
felt when you were ten... You've been foreign all your life. When you finally
leave, all you're hoping for is a more bearable kind of foreignness."
This truth, and others like it, forms the backbone of what could have been a
very powerful debut novel. Sadly, there is so much adiposity loaded onto it
that true form is lost. Just because a story is long overdue doesn't mean it
needs to be overwritten. This is a 250-page novel stretched out to 406
lugubrious pages and was nearly my Tournament of Books Waterloo.
Somehow, like Jonah from the whale, I made it out. Thank you, God. (And
shame on yet another posse of "editors" and proofreaders who failed a
talented newcomer.)
If there are five ways to say the same thing, Castillo will find them and join
them with commas and semicolons. Again and again and again. When,
during a conversation, a character mentions some of the Filipino food items
they might whip up for dinner, we get a list of 13. Is someone considering
which 1980s pop tune to play in their casette deck? Watch as they choose
between 17 possibilities. It is as exhausting as it is unnecessary and asks too
much of the reader. There were many moments that were interesting, and I
learned things that were new to me, so I stuck it out (obviously) but - truth
be told - it was not a wise investment of time.
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This tale Browsein▾the Bay Area most
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definitely draws one into a world that is generally unknown to outsiders.

Through my work, and because I live where I do, I was familiar with a lot of
it already and welcomed this chance to revisit such an interesting culture.
The portion of "America Is Not The Heart" which deals with this is
outstanding. The sections which take place back in the Philipines are also
clearly well-researched and solid, if rather lacking in depth or detail. What a
shame these matters do not occupy a greater percentage of the book.
The novel as a whole is overburdened by far too much of Hero's and

Rosalyn's complicated, messy, Top Secret Lesbian Nuk Nuk. Perhaps Castillo
meant this to be bold and courageous - and I suppose it is avant-garde,
given the 1976-1992 time frame and its placement in this particular ethnic
community - but really their affair is just a bloated treatment of The Love
Which Dare Not Stop Speaking Its Name. It does not advance the story
much, and it doesn't actually lead to a greater understanding of the bigger
picture Castillo is obviously trying to paint. And so it becomes an endless,
sometimes seedy, distraction.
Combining the above two points (Castillo's logorrhea and her spotlight on
girl-girl action) into one example, I offer you this:
"...it was difficult not to want it all the time. It was difficult for Hero to
remember that she'd spent months and months filling up her days with
something that wasn't fucking around with Rosalyn, that in fact she'd gone
most of her life doing things that weren't fucking around with Rosalyn, that
she had an entire lifetime's worth of evidence showing that it was possible
to think about things that weren't fucking around with Rosalyn -- and yet."
(This seems like a good place to thank God again for His mercy. Thanks,
Omnipotent One, for getting me through it all.)
Add to all this a few of my pet peeves (misspellings in the Age of SpellCheck
which include "acetOminAphen" and "paraphernElia"; details of medical
conditions which are inaccurate) and 3 stars is my minor concession to a
promising writer who should be encouraged to find better mentors. (less)
jo rated it Jan 27, 2019

Shelves: audio, queer, im-emigra on-post-colonial, trauma, lesbian, magical-realism,
east-asian-diaspora
if you, like me, get frightened when you read a book described as a
multigenerational novel, fear not, dear reader. this novel is squarely about
our 30 something protagonist, hero, ex guerrilla fighter in the philippines,
survivor of two years of torture at the hands of the marcos regime, now
living in the california south bay with her uncle and aunt.
this book is a love story. there is love between two women one of whom is so
hurt she doesn't want to get near anyone ever again. there is love in a
community in which you can still drop by and people will always greet you
warmly and sit you down to eat. there is love between uncle and niece, and
there is tremendous love between cousins.
castillo takes us inside the filipino community of a small california town

where people negotiate closeness through language (there are many
languages in the philippines! they sound nothing like each other!) and food.
some of the non-english language is untranslated. it's all good. we are not
entitled to have everything served to us on an english silver platter. this is a
Mycountry.
big, big Books we are fine as long as we understand
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other says. as for the food, when i was a grad student someone asked me,
somewhat disdainfully: "these unique cultures you guys talk about are
like..... food?"
if you are in any doubt that food makes culture (what kind of food, how it's
cooked, what we do with it, when we serve it, how we eat it, with whom we
eat it) this book should lay all doubts to rest. and if you are a white american
you should already know how meaningful food is. fast food joints are where
kids meet, hang out, build themselves as members of a group, hook up,
create themselves as future adults. i have a white midwestern friend who
spends a lot of his time in spain. every time he comes back to the US the
first place he goes to straight out of the airport is mcdonald's. they have
mcdonald's in spain, of course, but you don't go to mcdonald's for the food.
i didn't know anything about the philippines' history before reading this
book. omg this poor, poor people. brutalized by anyone who happened to
drop by, including of course the americans. and now, as a character's young
white schoolmate says, "filipinos are not real asians; they are more like
mexicans."
in israel "filipina" has become a common word for at-home help -- of any
nationality at all, including israeli.
let's read more of this country's amazing literature. let's read more
literature from the downtrodden countries of the world -- the countries
whose citizens come to the west to clean up our shit and dig in the dirt of
our fields. let's read their precious and lovely literature and let's honor the
humans who leave behind families, education, degrees and status to make a
better life for their children. (less)
Jaclyn Crupi rated it Mar 13, 2018

I’m so conflicted about this book! After reading Mia Alver’s IN THE
COUNTRY a few years ago I’ve been wanting to read more fiction about the
Filipino diaspora so was thrilled to hear about AMERICA IS NOT THE HEART.
The prologue pulled me in immediately and I ate it up. But I overinvested in
Paz who then almost disappeared from the narrative once Hero, our true
protagonist, arrived. Hero is an amazing character and the reveals about her
life are handled masterfully but I experienced them at a remove. I spent 300
pages pining for Paz only to have a gorgeous queer romance sweep me up in
its beauty. I’m so annoyed at myself for not recognising Paz as a gateway to
Hero! (less)
Erin Glover rated it May 13, 2018

Shelves: immigra on, racial-issues, rooster-long-list
Fascinating for its depiction of Filipino immigrants’ lives in northern

California, a refreshing immigrant perspective, sadly, the story falls
gracelessly flat. Initially sucked in by Paz’s depiction of life in the
Philippines as a poor young girl ignored by her family during martial law,
Paz’s life gets even more interesting when she immigrates to northern
California. She marries into a well-known upper crust Filipino family
offering her husband-to-be, Pol De Vera, US citizenship and getting status
in return. But 8% of the way into the novel, the story abruptly turns and a
different De Vera, Hero, becomes the protagonist. This is too bad because
Hero is not as likeable as Paz.
Like her uncle Pol, Hero was a surgeon in the Philippines. That is, until she
joined The New People’s Army around 1990 and hid in the mountains with
fellow soldiers. Caught and held in a camp for two years, her captors broke
both of her thumbs, ending her doctor’s career. When they discovered she
was a De Vera, who were friends with the Marcos family, she was released.
At the same time, Marcos’ regime was being overthrown, so Pol invites Hero
to California.
Castillo rambles on about every-day life for the Filipinos living in Malpitas,
California. The writing is often confusing since she doesn’t use quotation
marks. Some interesting things happen related to Hero’s sexuality, but for
the most part, Castillo fails to make Hero’s life anything but ordinary.
Perhaps it’s the overuse of details that pulls the story into the boring
category. You have to read about a lot of food before the peak emotional
moment of the scene is revealed. I wanted to like this book. It felt like it was
going somewhere, but it never did.
(less)
Janet rated it · review of another edi on Jan 06, 2019

I found this TOB contender to be a bit of a slog. Initially I was trying to look
up all the foreign words (in 3 different languages) and going back and forth
between the hardcover and the audio but about a third of the way in I
abandoned that and just went with the audio. I didn't understand everything
but I got the gist of it.
The last quarter of the novel was more interesting than the first 3/4 which I
can sum up for you here....food, food, food, footwear, faith healing, sex, sex,
sex, superstitions surrounding death. I found the sections about Hero's stint
in the NPA the most fascinating since I know zip about the Philippines
during the time when Marcos declared martial law but regrettably Castillo
wrote very little about this and focuses more on present day.
This is a lot of book that says very little....I wish I had watched the Golden
Globes tonight instead. (less)
Jus ne (Milkz) rated it Jun 18, 2018

Shelves: literature, romance, historical-fic on, adult, standalone, filipino-pride,
asianauthor
“As for loving America or not loving America, those aren’t your
problems, either. Your word for love is survival. Everything else is a
story that isn’t about you.”
I can only describe this as a beautiful ode to Filipinos everywhere. This book
is outside my genre (fantasy), but it felt like a fantasy while reading because
I was in such disbelief over seeing “Filipino” and “tsinelas” and other
Filipino dishes besides adobo in a book that I purchased at an actual
bookstore.
Paz’ prologue is a perfect introduction into the Filipino lifestyle and

mindset. From the opening lines we see how light skin is more valued than
dark skin and how blood is important despite not fully knowing each
member of your family. We are introduced to a culture of many different
dialects that are often times mixed together with English when spoken. We
My becoming
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see how some Filipinos become overqualified for their work positions in
America because their Philippine credentials don’t carry over. From the
introduction we see the pride in their identity that Filipinos are known for,
and we see how love isn’t always about emotions and grand gestures.
Sometimes it’s about giving your loved ones opportunities to survive in the
society they are a part of.
Despite the lengthy introduction that left me wanting to know how Paz
fares in America , the rest of the story is actually told through the eyes of
her husband’s niece, Geronimo de Vera or “Hero” for short. In the
Philippines, Hero was a doctor who joined the New People’s Army in
rebellion against the Marcos regime. At one point her unit was captured, but
she was let go once it was revealed that her family was related to Marcos.
Because of conflicting political views, Hero was exiled from her family and
was sent to live with her uncle in the States.
I very much appreciate how the author doesn’t showcase the “ideal”
Filipino and instead illustrates characters who do not fit the usual Filipino
mold. Paz and her husband, Pol, were not exactly in love when they decided
to get married. They are also poor because only one of them brings in any
income due to Pol’s doctor credentials not crossing over to the States. The
other main woman are also not the “ideal” exotic, demure, and light-
skinned woman that society seems to find attractive. Hero has a strong
accent, casually talks about sex, is bisexual, and has disabled hands. Rosalyn
is an outspoken hair stylist discovering and exploring her sexuality. Hero’s
niece Roni, is a rebellious child with eczema. They don’t fit Filipino ideals,
but they are also immigrants who don’t fit the American ideal. Throughout
the story, we sense that everyone is trying to figure out where they belong.
These characters also don’t go on an epic adventure. They showcase the
lives of many people who lived in Milpitas during the 90’s, that is, the lives
of people who live in a suburban area where the minority is the majority
and English isn’t the prevalent language.
It’s also interesting to note the history between the U.S. and the Philippines
interwoven in America is Not the Heart because rather than mentioning how
the U.S. helped the Philippines, it highlights the racism Americans had
towards Filipinos. Many times the U.S. is known as the Philippines’ “big
brother”, but this book points out how Filipinos were once, and sometimes
still, thought of as dirty and prone to sickness. I wonder if Castillo chose to
write these parts of our history to point out that though Asians are known as
the “model minority,” we are not always respected.
Reading this was such an experience. I am Filipino, but all my life I’ve been
surrounded by people of the majority. In grade school, I was 1 of 2 Filipinos
in my class, and I learned that being Filipino wasn’t going to help me
succeed in America. I feel like I sometimes use a public persona that is
“okay” in public and keep my Filipino heritage for when I’m with my
family. This “switch” used to make me feel like I wasn’t truly Filipino, and
like the opening quote of this review mentions, my parents showed they
loved me by giving me opportunities to survive in America so they didn’t
teach me their dialects, and they didn’t force me to interact with people of
my ethnicity.
Like the characters in America is Not the Heart, I’ve felt like I wasn’t really
Filipino but I also wasn’t really American. I didn’t fully embrace being
Filipino or even feel comfortable surrounded by other Filipinos until after
high school. It’s taken me awhile to love my culture, but I can now definitely
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say I have the Filipino pride that we are known for, and I now fully embrace
being Filipino-American.
This was my first experience with Filipinos in literature, and it’s left me
feeling wonderfully empowered! I am now eager to get my hands on more
books like this one! (less)
Thor Balanon rated it May 03, 2018

"You've been foreign all your life. When you finally leave, all you're hoping
for is a more bearable kind of foreignness." America is Not the Heart is our
collective longing: a mixtape of our youth, a recipe of our cravings, a scar, a
reminder. An ache. (Thanks, Bennard @bcfajardo ) With a Prologue that
reads like a precise, stylish short story—which I have personally read three
times—the novel unfolds deliberately. Domestic details, road trips, tropical
maladies, and a budding romance weave in and out of a surfacing, volatile
memory. Castillo's prose is beautiful and powerful, with surprising
metaphors that show her sheer joy of writing. It also feels wonderful to read
Filipino and Ilocano (my native tongue) in a novel that is published
internationally. Without italics. Comfortable and rhythmic between English
words. Nakakaiyak. America is not the heart but you know what is? This
book. With all its aches and longing and uncertainties and pride. And pancit.
(less)
ns510 rated it Jan 03, 2019

Shelves: sea
”The gift of the small world was that it was small. The curse of the small world was
that it was small.”
A multigenerational family saga // So much to admire about this sprawling,

multigenerational story encompassing life in Phillipines around a period of
communist uprising in the country and onwards to Filipino American
immigrant life in American suburbia. It all comes out via a handful of
central characters; two separate Filipino immigrant families living in
America, and a young female relative of one of the families who later joins
them in America. The author is meticulous in documenting the everyday
lives of these characters, depicting the nuances of life as Filipino
immigrants in America, and to a lesser extent, that of life in the Phillipines
amidst the communist uprising against the government. I appreciated the
various dialects of the Filipino language introduced into the text, and the
sharing of unique cultural practices and expectations not just within Filipino
culture, but also specifically within the cultural identity of Filipino
Americans.
Unfortunately, this narrative style also made for dense, slow reading, at
least for me. With these stories, I need to be fully immersed and
unfortunately wasn’t as invested in the characters as I would have liked. I
would have liked to know more about certain characters as well. I
contemplated abandoning this midway through but persevered, and enjoyed
it more towards the last quarter. I enjoyed the interactions between Paz and
Hero, the dynamics between members of the De Vera family, and wished
there had been more of that. Liked it, but didn’t love it and felt the story
could have been more evenly balanced. (less)
Megan added it Jan 15, 2019
Myhistorical-fic
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I liked this so very much.
This is a slow-moving, character-driven story. At its core are three prickly,

difficult women (and a prickly, difficult, wonderful little girl), but the story
belongs to Hero. After a decade as a field doctor with the New People's Army
and then two years being tortured in a prison camp, Hero is adrift in
America in the early 1990s, living with her uncle, his wife, and their seven-
year-old daughter, Roni. Their family is complicated, and Hero's own
history is complicated enough that she doesn't see it as a continuous life, or
herself as a continuous person. Until she does, eventually, once she falls into
friendships. Her relationship with Roni, with the other adults in the family,
all shift. She falls in love.
Castillo makes some interesting choices in how to tell this story. The first
thing is that she starts the book with a second-person prologue from the
POV of Paz, Hero's aunt, before shifting the focus to almost exclusively
Hero's point of view. While I can understand a reader imprinting and feeling
disappointed that the rest of the story doesn't belong to Paz, I thought this
made for an interesting reading experience. Hero sees Paz as closed-off and
untouchable, but the reader gets to carry with them all the secrets and
vulnerabilities learned about Paz in that prologue. I liked that. (There is
another section of the book, much later, told from the second-person by
Rosalyn, and I also really enjoyed that. I dearly love a dramatic voice,
though, which might account for why I especially loved the writing in these
second-person sections.)
Another interesting facet of Castillo's storytelling is that passages about

Hero's life with the NPA are not comprehensive. They're not told linearly.
They are mostly about the relationships and emotional reality of those years.
And, really, the story of Hero in California is also really just about the
relationships and the emotional reality of what Hero's self-recovery, self-
discovery looks like. A thousand high-fives to Castillo for not just not-
ignoring sexuality as part of the fabric of Hero's character (or Paz's, for that
matter) but for featuring it. Her sexuality, her relationship to it, her
relationship to her orgasms ffs, are part of her emotional reality, and that's
so amazing to see in litfic: sex that actually does heavy-lifting for
character-development and relationship-building.
What else? I liked the hesitant, stilted style the writing sometimes broke
down into: not quite fragmentary, but sentences broken into two when they
shouldn't have been. I loved Roni so much. (view spoiler) I loved how the
idea of home was constantly in motion, being challenged and being remade
anew. I liked that the title is the clue to how to frame the narrative from a
readerly perspective. I descend from a different branch of the Filipino
diaspora than the one featured here, but I enjoyed and could relate hard to
the food stuff in this book--it was a crime just how hungry this book made
me. I also liked that the book often used Tagalog, Ilocano, and Pangasinan
without constantly explaining itself to the reader. I know, like, three phrases
in Tagalog tops (thanks to Spanish loanwords), but I found that anything
essential was explained or clued in through context. I understand that other
readers find this frustrating, though, and I definitely don't recommend this
book to readers who need to know every word or phrase before moving on.
And because there's no suggestion of this in the book's blurb, here's a

content warning for childhood sexual abuse: (view spoiler) (less)
Trish (readtmc) rated it May 03, 2018
Shelves: 2018, pilipinx
Personally, this book has qualities that make this an intimidating read:
- It’s been described as an “epic family saga” (too many characters)
- It’s 400+ pages (too many words)
- There are shifts in time periods and POVs (too confusing)
None of this mattered to me when I found this title floating around on

bookstagram.
It didn’t take long to become absorbed into the lives of these fully-realized
characters in Castillo’s impressive debut novel. They live in a world I’m
familiar with (the languages, the food, the mannerisms, social dynamics,
etc.) and yet, they are strangers with layered backstories that I’ve come to
know personally with the turn of each page.
As a Filipina American, I am always searching for Fil-Am literature. Besides

relating culturally, there’s a desire to learn more about Philippine history
and question what has been told, especially the popular narrative of “We
came to America for a better life.” Is it “better” to work 16 hour days to send
money back home? Reading different perspectives shows the diversity of the
“Filipinx-American experience” as well as enriches my own.
I should note that the character driven story may be considered “slow.”
Hero’s everyday life in Milipitas is mundane. Or, some readers might feel
slowed down by the intermittent use of languages, especially the different
dialects. I don’t speak Tagalog, Pangasinan, or Ilocano, but the mix of
languages, along with English, is an inherent part of the Filipino-American
experience, which made these people and their world feel so real. These
characters have lives beyond the book’s 400 pages and am left wondering
how they’re doing today.
(less)
Adam rated it Apr 04, 2018

This book! What a triumph. It was a bit too long but I never wanted it to end.
The prologue, Ga-li-la, is exceptionally powerful...it makes you want to stay
with Paz, but we spend most of the novel with Hero, who is a little
inscrutable....Roni, however, is the most lively, realistic child in fiction I've
read in a while. Rosalyn is sparkling and endearing...other characters, like
Jaime, or Pol, or Adela, leap off the page. This is a huge, big-hearted epic
novel with a scope and size to parallel Marquez or the big, bolshy male
Americans- I mean the Franzens and Eugenides and Updikes. But this is a
love letter to Filipino identity, Filipino language, this is a paean to outsiders
and the traumatised, to the cut-off and the disenfranchised, to families that
have fallen out and to communities formed through economic hardship or
floes of migration. Elaine Castillo is a novelist of tremendous empathy and
talent. And this is such a special novel. How often do you read a book with
an all-Filipino cast of characters, focused on a lesbian love story that is
tender, lovely, evolves so slowly and delicately and without condescension?
This book is one of a kind and will make all the waves this year, and it fully
deserves it. (less)
Chaitra rated it Aug 10, 2018
Myimmigrant-experience,
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consider
This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.
H.A. Leuschel rated it · review of another edi on May 17, 2019

This was a fascinating book where I learned so much ... about the
Philippines, its many languages, its complicated history, the people who are
portrayed in such an endearing and complex way, their difficult or traumatic
past, their amazing cuisine (which I'd love to get a taste of now!!), the
strong family and community bonds, living with bisexuality and how
difficult it is to emigrate, miss home as much as learn to find a new one.
The author's writing style was rich and multilayered because sometimes you
get a translation for a foreign expression or sentence, sometimes you do not
and it felt authentic. Through that linguistic puzzle, I got a sense of how
important the bond with a mother tongue is or in the case of Filipinos often
they have many different tongues depending on which area in the
Philippines they are from. Her characters are beautifully drawn and I was
often gripped by the narrative!
(less)
Eric Anderson rated it · review of another edi on Mar 06, 2019

There have been many excellent novels about the immigrant experience in
America. But I feel like the richly detailed and engrossing story of “America
Is Not the Heart” by Elaine Castillo shows a really unique point of view I've
not read about before. The story primarily revolves around Geronima De
Vera who is nicknamed Hero when she arrives in America from the
Philippines. She goes to live with her aunt, uncle and feisty young cousin
Roni in Milpitas (a suburb outside San Jose, California) where she primarily
helps looks after the 7 year old girl. As an illegal immigrant she’s not able to
seek out work despite being a trained doctor back in the Philippines. Even if
she had papers to find employment she’d have to retrain in medicine as her
uncle has painfully discovered. Though he was a highly respected surgeon in
the Philippines he can only find low-paid manual work in America. Hero has
gone through many difficult experiences to arrive here and the novel slowly
discloses the complexity of her life over the course of the novel, but it
integrates this so gracefully into accounts of Hero’s day-to-day life in this
Filipino-American community and her relationship with a woman she meets
there named Rosalyn. Of course Hero’s life has been shaped by her heritage,
but the story doesn’t hang on the question of national identity as much as
how she’s constantly evolving as an individual.
Read my full review of America Is Not the Heart by Elaine Castillo on

LonesomeReader (less)
Andy Lillich rated it Apr 27, 2018

I want to admit, right up-front, that it took me awhile to really connect with
this story. After all, what did I know about the Philipines? Absolutely
nothing. Which meant that much of what I read in the beautifully told
prologue and even the first several sections of Hero's story, felt like it went
right by me. I had no knowledge of the places, customs - and especially the
many passages in Filipino dialects (of which there many) and had trouble
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connecting with the story.
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Once the story shifted to California, however, I began to realize that

CONNECTION, indeed, was what this book is all about - once I began
connecting with Hero as person as she began the slow and painful process of
CONNECTING to the people (family AND community) and places she had
been forced to immigrate to.
And it is that emotional connection to main character Hero and to the people
and places that she connects to that caused me to fall in love with this story
and - most especially with - the beauty of Elaine Castillo's writing.
I feel I learned SO MUCH from this book, about another America that exists
in the country I love and also live in, but most of all, I enjoyed falling in love
with these characters.
I cannot praise this novel highly enough. Please, PLEASE - do not miss this
one, dear Reader Friends! (less)
Lisa rated it Dec 10, 2018

Shelves: 2019-tob, 2019-tob-longlist
This is a beautifully written novel with compelling characters. I found

myself pausing as I neared the end because I didn't want to finish with these
people. I'm ashamed by how little I knew about the Philippines before
reading this novel.
Imi rated it · review of another edi on Mar 06, 2019

Shelves: fic on, american, contemporary, kindle, she-writes, family-dynamics, lgbtqia,
realis c-fic on, friendship, authors-of-colour
You already know that the first thing that makes you foreign to a place
is to be born poor in it; you don't need to emigrate to America to feel
what you already felt when you were ten, looking up at the rickety
concrete roof above your head [...] You've been foreign all your life.
When you finally leave, all you're hoping for is a more bearable kind of
foreignness.
3.5 stars rounded up? Stunning beginning and end, but the middle dragged a
little for me; there was just a little too much sex and partying for my
personal tastes, and I found that fairly repetitive. That's my one complaint
though, and really the rest of the book blew me away.
The story centres on a Filipino community in California. Castillo uses a

fantastic mix of English with untranslated words from the many Filipino
languages (Tagalog, Pangasinan, Ilocano...). I loved this aspect of the novel,
as it's the provides a wonderful sense of authenticity and the reader is
instantly involved in the culture. It was fascinating how even members of
the same community cannot communicate with each other in their own
native languages, as they're all so different. This was emphasised with
character of Roni, who is a 7 year old girl born to a Pangasinan mother and a
Ilocano father in California:
It felt like Roni didn't really know the difference between Tagalog and
Pangasinan, and moved between the two interchangeably as if they
were one language. Nobody had told her otherwise, Hero supposed. But
for Hero, listening to the mixture was like listening to a radio whose
transmission would occasionally short out; she'd get half a sentence,
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In a similar way, I loved the beautiful descriptions of food throughout and

that also helps immerse you in the culture; pretty much everything was
completely unrecognisable to me, but Castillo wonderfully manages to
present not just the food itself, but its importance to the characters. Above
all, I loved that Castillo managed to show that the experience of a Filipino-
American is not a single, standard experience; there are variations in the
community from the regional and ethnic, to the linguistic and cultural.
I don't want to say too much about the protagonist Hero's own experience,
because that would lead to unnecessary spoilers, but it is definitely one that
is particularly unique. Castillo covers a lot of material here, from the
frightening and brutal Filipino history, to the experience of undocumented
immigrants in America, and so much more that I don't want to give away.
Recommended, even with the lull in the middle, because this feels unlike
anything else I've ever read and I definitely feel it taught me a lot. (less)
Jessica rated it Mar 14, 2019

Shelves: usa-california, 2019, usa, i-own-these-books, women-friendship, favorites,
immigrant-stories, debut, family-stories, 90s
There are many descriptors one could use for this expansive novel; not all of
them would entice a reader, but Castillo's debut was so blindingly beautiful
and dauntless, that I would encourage you to read it even though it may at
times be slow to read, use sporadic second person, or be structurally uneven.
I loved all these qualities about it, especially in tandem with the elements of
its character depth, subtly interwoven historical commentary, discerning
cultural perspective, and all-encompassing humanity.
Castillo is an immersive storyteller. She's not going to lay everything out for
you about Filipinx culture in both the Philippines or Milpitas, California (her
two settings); she's going to drop you right in there, have her characters
talking to each other in Ilocano or Tagalog (which makes you realize, oh,
there are MANY regional languages in the Philippines, and also me realizing,
due to the Spanish colonization of the country, that I recognized some of the
latin-rooted words #learningthrufiction). She's not going to translate for
you, but you'll get it. Or you won't—that's okay!
She's going to mention former Philippine president slash dictator Ferdinand

Marcos, but only with the word Marcos. She's not going to give you a history
lesson, she's going to show you how dictatorship and martial law affected
her characters and their decisions. You'll come to understand how the
opposing party operated, the underground rebellion in the mountains, called
the New People's Army.
She's not going to have her bisexual protagonist grapple in first-person

with her bisexuality; she's just going to show you what it is to be Hero: a
woman who's lived three lives by age 35 and feels attracted to people
regardless of how they identify. She's not grappling with who she's attracted
to, she's grappling with her very identity formed and affected by how she
grew up, what she decided to do in retaliation to that, and where her
rebelliousness landed her: living, post-trauma, with extended family in the
Bay Area.
And the majority of the novel takes place in 1991, so you'll also read a little
about Terminator 2.
The storytelling is bold and brash, but I would be remiss not to mention the
compassion. I came to love these characters—the complicated thoughts of
Hero, the stoic, hardworking Paz, and Hero's namesake and eight-year-old
cousin Rino. Hero and Rino (both named Geronima) form the most tender
relationship over the course of this book, and Rino may be one of the best
depictions of a kid I've encountered in literature.
I read all 408 pages of this book, learned so much, and I know there is still
much to be gleaned that I probably missed. And I still want to know more.
Castillo is doing what Junot Diaz's writing did with Yunior for the
Dominican diaspora. I'd argue she does it better than the Pulitzer winner,
though (lo siento, pero), Castillo manages to soak you in the lives of more
than one protagonist—render fully a community of Filipinx characters, and
takes particular care with the women. She tackles so much in one book, and
I applaud her for it, though others may feel it's too much. Castillo: take up
your space, say your piece, I am HERE for it.
America is Not the Heart charts a complex journey for the reader, one that is
particularly rewarding. I encourage the curious reader, the one who
remembers to laugh amid tragedy, the reader who is open to the grand and
minutiae, a reader who doesn't prize sentimentality, the reader who would
like perspectives of those we rarely see in fiction. The immense talent and
unique voice of Elaine Castillo's debut novel awaits you. (less)
Jan rated it Jan 25, 2019

Castillo immerses readers in her story of a Filipino family living in Milpitas,
California in the 1990s, with reachback to the Philippines. She makes some
risky choices, including leaving lots of phrases untranslated, but on the
whole, it works, partly because of the confidence and energy of her prose. I
love these characters, their relationships and backstories, and enjoyed the
time I spent with them.
Candace rated it Mar 03, 2018

Set in the unglamorous cities of San Francisco's East Bay, "America Is Not
The Heart" follows Filipino immigrants as they dig in and take their place in
their new country. It's the 1980s, and Paz uses her training as a nurse to
leverage an escape from the poor rural Philippines. Her surgeon husband
comes from a rich, corrupt family, but when he joins her in Milpitas, he
becomes a security guard. They offer sanctuary to his niece, Hero, who has
been rejected by her family after joining a revolutionary group as a doctor.
She has been captured and tortured, and released suddenly with her thumbs
broken and mind battered.
Hero's job is to help with Paz and Pol's daughter Roni, because the two of
them work all hours of the day and night. With Roni, Hero begins to build
relationships in her new world among East Bay Filipinos and Mexicans. Hero
makes friends and ventures out. She loves to have sex with both men and
women, but women are her favorites. How will that play in this conservative
community?
"America Is Not The Heart" is fresh and compelling--why aren't there more
novels about the Filipino experience?--and I would give it five stars except
for the irritating amount of Tagalog and regional Philippine dialects that are
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poured into the text with no explanation. Since I read an e-review copy
(thanks, Viking!) there may be a glossary in the hard copy, but most readers
would be flipping back and forth so much that their reading pleasure would
be badly compromised. (less)
Judy rated it Mar 23, 2019

Shelves: 21st-century-fic on, tournament-of-books, immigrant-story, set-in-california,
set-in-the-philippines
I read this debut novel because it was a contender in the 2019 Tournament
of Books. It did not win though another debut novel I read did: My Sister the
Serial Killer.
While I ended up liking the novel, I felt it suffered a bit as far as structure
went. It jumps back and forth in time quite frequently. I could tell that the
author was relating the main character's present life to incidents from her
past but it was somewhat awkwardly done. I often felt like I needed more
information sooner than I ...more
Michelle rated it · review of another edi on Feb 10, 2019

Shelves: 2019-tob, tob, 2019, february-2019
3.5 stars
Review to come.
Tournament of Books Play-in Round
Kevin Hu rated it Mar 12, 2018

Shelves: netgalley, american-fic on, asian-american, fic on, race-in-america, historical-
fic on, women
AINTH takes you down a narrative course that is subversive at every corner.
In Geronimo's young life, she has already seen life in the Philippines from
the countryside of Pangasinan, from the mountains of Baguio where she was
slowly radicalized and inducted in the New People's Army during her years
in college before dropping out, as a political recalcitrant serving as a medic,
as a political prisoner for 2 years narrowly escaping death after a series of
tortures, and having been estranged from h ...more
Subashini rated it · review of another edi on Jul 30, 2018

Shelves: gender-and-sexuality, american-fic on, history, filipino-fic on
"Castillo spends a lot of time showing how Filipinos, like many Asians, show
their love and care for each other through food. The book is rich with
descriptions of dishes like pancit, pinakbet, longanisa, and lechon, and
multiple references to delicious-sounding barbecued pork and rice served up
at Rosalyn’s grandparents’ restaurant.
The dialogue is left unemphasised without quotation marks, and words in

Tagalog, Ilocano or Pangasinan are not italicised or explained. Sometimes
Castillo weaves in ...more
Ma hew rated it Mar 06, 2019

Shelves: tob-2019, tob-longlist-2019, published-2018
Fantastic novel about a family of Filipino Americans living in Milpitas, CA. I
didn'tMy Books
want my time with these characters to end.Browse ▾ second person
Loved the Community ▾ Sign up
pov spotlight chapters of supporting (but very compelling) characters; loved

the use of various Philippine language slang words sprinkled throughout the
dialogue. I knew very little about the culture and history of the Philippines
before reading this and so I enjoyed learning more about it. Grateful to the
Tournament of Books for putting this bo ...more
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3.93 · Ra ng details · 2,755 ra ngs · 485 reviews

Literary Fic on 28 users

226 likes · Like · see review

Truce rated it May 09, 2018

The thing about growing up Filipino in America, and especially growing up

So we have two narrative strands that Castillo intertwines throughout the

doing the most mundane things in excruciating detail: Going to the

Another important factor in the story is language. Castillo writes in English,

44 likes · Like · see review

Jenny (Reading Envy) rated it Feb 27, 2019

36 likes · Like · see review

Valerie Best rated it May 08, 2018

20 likes · Like · see review

David rated it Mar 03, 2019

definitely draws one into a world that is generally unknown to outsiders.

The novel as a whole is overburdened by far too much of Hero's and

18 likes · Like · see review

jo rated it Jan 27, 2019

castillo takes us inside the filipino community of a small california town

17 likes · Like · see review

Jaclyn Crupi rated it Mar 13, 2018

15 likes · Like · see review

Erin Glover rated it May 13, 2018

Fascinating for its depiction of Filipino immigrants’ lives in northern

13 likes · Like · see review

Janet rated it · review of another edi on Jan 06, 2019

13 likes · Like · see review

Jus ne (Milkz) rated it Jun 18, 2018

Paz’ prologue is a perfect introduction into the Filipino lifestyle and

12 likes · Like · see review

Thor Balanon rated it May 03, 2018

12 likes · Like · see review

ns510 rated it Jan 03, 2019

A multigenerational family saga // So much to admire about this sprawling,

9 likes · Like · see review

I liked this so very much.

This is a slow-moving, character-driven story. At its core are three prickly,

Another interesting facet of Castillo's storytelling is that passages about

And because there's no suggestion of this in the book's blurb, here's a

None of this mattered to me when I found this title floating around on

As a Filipina American, I am always searching for Fil-Am literature. Besides

9 likes · Like · see review

Adam rated it Apr 04, 2018

9 likes · Like · see review

8 likes · Like · see review

H.A. Leuschel rated it · review of another edi on May 17, 2019