to define the fate of Yvonne’s whole family and, by
extension, the Philippines.
As the war arrives in Ubec, the Macaraig fam-
ily evacuates to the countryside, where Angeling,
Yvonne’s mother, gives birth to a stillborn son. CE-
CILIA MANGUERRA BRAINARD’s exquisite prose lends
an air of authenticity to the everyday events in the
lives of the protagonist, Yvonne, and her family in
the jungle as they struggle to make it safely to the
mountain to join the guerrilla movement against
the Japanese. The stillborn baby is emblematic of
the death and violence that haunt the characters
struggling to reinvent their lives in the face of un-
told hardships.
Characters such as Nida (the subservient owner
of Slapsy Maxie, a bar for American servicemen),
Laydan, Bitong, Doc Menez, and Lolo Peping
come to life in this starkly realistic yet beautifully
passionate story of the coming of age of not just
its child narrator but also a nation attempting to
scratch out an identity for itself in the face of both
Japanese aggression and American colonization.
In a twist of fate, Nida, who with her husband,
Max, longs to have a child, is raped by a Japanese
soldier as she tries to protect and save a boatload
of locals on their way to Tatayan, a safe haven for
the guerrillas. Nida, always exuberant and filled
with laughter, now weighs the consequences of
having a bastard child. Brainard’s eloquent prose
also urges the reader to look closely at the nation
of the Philippines, which in the 20th century has
been “raped” by foreign powers and continues to
be humiliated as it struggles to forge its own iden-
tity. Still, the strength and dignity of the nation
are unmistakable as Yvonne’s innocence rever-
berates with the echoes of a mythological history
and epic tales injected into the narrative by the
family’s maid, Laydan, who embodies the deepest
ideals and fortitude of her country. Her appear-
ance, as depicted by Yvonne, is less than flattering:
a leathery face and a large growth on the neck. Yet
Laydan’s quiet demeanor belies a beautiful and
compassionate soul whose suffering mirrors all of
the events surrounding her. Her quiet movements
become a reassuring monotone for the readers
as we follow her footsteps into the jungle, always
careful and mindful of the people around her. It
is no accident that the chapter on “Women War-
riors” becomes central to understanding the story
as Brainard leads the reader to the very depths of
what it means to fight. Women like Nida, Laydan,
and Angeling not only fight the Japanese but also
become the standard bearers and repositories of
family, tradition, values, and culture.
When the Rainbow Goddess Wept depicts the
epic struggle of a fledgling nation and its proud
and dignified people to recover its history. It is also
a life-affirming story of the will to live, love, and
dream on one’s own terms even in the face of in-
surmountable odds.
Ray ChandrasekaraWho’s Irish? Gish Jen (1999)
This first collection of short stories by GISH JEN
comprises eight stories. The title story, one of Jen’s
most anthologized stories, is a first-person narra-
tive written entirely in the Chinese-American dia-
lect of an aging immigrant Chinese grandmother.
In her sarcastic, humorous, and bitterly passive
tone, the unnamed narrator complains about her
Americanized daughter (Natalie), her lazy Irish-
American son-in-law (John Shea), and their un-
disciplined daughter (Sophie). Although Sophie
looks “brown” and Chinese, the grandmother
grumbles, “already I see her nice Chinese side swal-
lowed up by her wild Shea side” (6). Frequently
wild, stubborn, and unmanageable, Sophie does
not fit the model of the perfect, docile, and trac-
table Chinese girl. Readers soon realize, however,
that the story is less about a wild toddler, and more
about the grandmother’s fear of assimilation and
becoming “Americanized.” After being kicked out
of her daughter’s home for mistreating Sophie, the
grandmother moves in with her son-in-law’s Irish
mother, Bess. Slowly, the grandmother replaces her
exclamations of “Did you ever see a Chinese girl
act this way?” to a wistful remembrance of how
Sophie used to kiss her on the nose: “I never see
any other child kiss that way.” Fittingly, the grand-
mother realizes that she should simply have seen a
beautiful “child” in Sophie, rather than a “Chinese
girl” who would not act Chinese. In the ironic, andWho’s Irish? 313