"The Mango Bride" by Marivi Soliven

Today our monthly  Museum Volunteers of the Philippines (MVP) book club meeting was a little more upmarket than usual and took place in a board room in Ortigas. We had a video conference via Skype with Marivi Soliven, the author of, “The Mango Bride”. She took this photo of us, and you can just see her holding her camera in the bottom right side of the shot. Now I am pleased that I chose to sit next to our MVP president. On her right is the woman who contacted Marivi and made all the logistical and technical arrangements. She was nervous that something would go amiss with the hardware, but it all ran very smoothly. It was extremely kind of her to organize for us all to enter her family’s place of business for our meeting.

Marivi was very generous with her time and answered all our questions fully. Her novel was a page-turner and I was compelled to read until the end to find out “what happened”. It turns out that her American editor had suggested a change in the order as originally it had been written with the “secret” being revealed within the first hundred pages, and I would have to agree this was a wise decision.

The narrator of the tale, Amparo, appears to be an autobiographical character and this is probably why her depiction rings the truest in my view. It was interesting to learn that Marivi herself works as a telephone interpreter in Berkeley and her book draws on her own experiences while interpreting for various clients. Some of the events sounded too horrific to be true but sadly it seems there is a solid basis for inclusion in her novel. The novel, via the telephone clients and Beverly, details some very harsh situations suffered by immigrants in the U.S. and while it is common to “hear” stories passed on by third parties, I have always wondered how accurate the re-telling of events has been. Now I know.

We also learned she had shared the writing process of her book with a writer’s group of whom only one person was familiar with the Philippines. Additionally, her editor suggested revisions to her novel to make it more accessible for an American audience. This helped to explain why some of the characters appeared larger-than-life and a little over the top. Having said that, several of us requested Marivi to read excerpts featuring the formidable Senora Concha who definitely has an awe-inspiring presence. And hearing Marivi read a scene, we all could visualize the Senora clearly and were swept completely away.

I must confess that the book’s coverage of mail-order brides had made me feel reluctant to comment on the novel and I had been ambivalent about attending the event. Needless to say, I am pleased to have been present and I was further impressed by how seriously Marivi feels about the issue of domestic violence encountered by immigrants when she mentioned her involvement with the non-profit organisation called Access (see here). She will be attending a fundraising dinner on October 2^nd in San Diego called “Saving Beverly”, (see here for more information).

Marivi was very lovely and gracious and I was touched by how much she appreciated us as her readers. See her blog here for her account. All of us were very uplifted by the experience and there was talk of approaching other authors for future book hook-ups. I find that reading regularly is more of an effort these days with many distractions close at hand, but today reminded me once more of the singular power of a good book. 

Viva El Libro!