Philippine Folk Literature: The Folk Tales
Damiana L. Eugenio
This is a meticulously researched and compiled set of folktales, but like history, it’s just “one damn thing after another”! The only commentary the editor provides is a brief introduction; after that, it’s just a series of tales loosely organized by topic. I appreciated that the collection included tales from all over the Philippine archipelago, but without further commentary, that dimension was mostly lost on me. I would have loved some commentary between each story, talking about regional traditions, which stories can clearly be traced to other cultures that influenced the Philippines (India, China, Islam, Spain), and things like that.