Monsoon Mansion
A Memoir
New York : Little A, [2018]
Format: Book
Edition: First edition.
Description: xii, 235 pages ; 22 cm
Told with a lyrical, almost-dreamlike voice as intoxicating as the moonflowers and orchids that inhabit this world, Monsoon Mansion is a harrowing yet triumphant coming-of-age memoir exploring the dark, troubled waters of a family's rise and fall from grace in the Philippines. It would take a young warrior to survive it. Cinelle Barnes was barely three years old when her family moved into Mansion Royale, a stately ten-bedroom home in the Philippines. Filled with her mother's opulent social aspirations and the gloriously excessive evidence of her father's self-made success, it was a girl's storybook playland. But when a monsoon hits, her father leaves, and her mother's terrible lover takes the reins, Cinelle's fantastical childhood turns toward tyranny she could never have imagined. Formerly a home worthy of magazines and lavish parties, Mansion Royale becomes a dangerous shell of the splendid palace it had once been. In this remarkable ode to survival, Cinelle creates something magical out of her truth--underscored by her complicated relationship with her mother. Through a tangle of tragedy and betrayal emerges a revelatory journey of perseverance and strength, of grit and beauty, and of coming to terms with the price of family--and what it takes to grow up.
Contents:
Garden party -- Orchids in the morning -- Falling -- Common enemy -- Elma -- Gilded -- Forty days -- Mama, come back -- Desert of his mind -- Elvis face -- Jeepney joyride -- Creatures, great and small -- Library -- Aqua vitae -- Woman at the well -- Sleep now -- Election day -- Monsoon manifesto -- Not water, but whiskey -- No fisher of men -- Millennium -- the season of the Sun.
Subjects:
Barnes, Cinelle.
Barnes, Cinelle -- Childhood and youth.
Barnes, Cinelle -- Family.
Mothers and daughters -- Philippines.
Women -- Philippines -- Biography.
Families -- Philippines -- Biography.
Coming of age -- Philippines -- Biography.
Dysfunctional families -- Philippines -- Biography.
Philippines -- History -- 20th century.
Philippines -- Biography.
Barnes, Cinelle.
Barnes, Cinelle -- Childhood and youth.
Barnes, Cinelle -- Family.
Mothers and daughters -- Philippines.
Women -- Philippines -- Biography.
Families -- Philippines -- Biography.
Coming of age -- Philippines -- Biography.
Dysfunctional families -- Philippines -- Biography.
Philippines -- History -- 20th century.
Philippines -- Biography.
ISBN:
9781542046138
Availability | |||
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Call Number | Location | Shelf Location | Status |
BIOGRAPHY Barnes, Cinelle | Main (Downtown) | Third Level, Biography | In |