Miguel Syjuco's Ilustrado
Young people in Syjuco's Manila freely mix the local word "pare", the American "dude" and "fligga" (Filipino nigga). There can be low jokes (self-pleasuring described as "talking to Palmela Handerson") and sharp turns of phrase (someone feels like "a spoon sparking in a microwave") but when a woman enters the club where the DJ is sampling electro classics, "Miguel" is reminded of one of the nymphs in a pre-Raphaelite painting giving Hylas the eye: "I swear, Waterhouse must have secretly loved a Filipina mestiza." Miguel Syjuco makes it all his.
