Reviews Linda Ty-Casper's Recent Books: WILL YOU HAPPEN & LIVES REMEMBERED

 

PALH (Philippine American Literary House) is proud to share recent book reviews of books by Linda Ty-Casper published by PALH and Bughaw Ateneo Press. These books are available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble. In the Philippines, check Baybayin Book shop. 

The Ateneo has copies of the Bughaw edition of Will You Happen.

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WILL YOU HAPPEN, PAST THE SILENCE, THROUGH THE DARK?: REMEMBERING LEONARD RALPH CASPER

Perspective in the Arts and Humanities Asia, Vol 15, No 2

Review by L. M. Grow, Broward College

PALH, 2022. 346 pages; Bughaw (Ateneo Press), 2023. 326 pages.

Complete Review here:  https://archium.ateneo.edu/paha/vol15/iss2/11 - page 5

Excerpt:

As interesting and admirable as Casper’s life was, the value of Will You Happen goes well beyond biography and thus avoids the limitation of many biographies, memoirs, and autobiographies: extolling the virtues and achievements of their respective subject persons but offering readers little else. Instead, here there is a full complement of information sections about publications, interactions with literary and other luminaries, letters to and from Ty-Casper and other renowned authors, and a virtual Homeric catalogue of visitors to the Casper house at 54 Simpson Drive in Framingham, Massachusetts, and responses to Casper’s death in 2018. Although Casper’s creative writing constitutes only a tributary to literature, the brief account of his contributions to the Southwest Review (20–24) is a welcome segment of his memoir ...

This book is a very valuable contribution to both Philippine literature and American literature.

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LIVES REMEMBERED, A MEMOIR

Perspective in the Arts and Humanities Asia, Vol 15, No 2

Review by Eileen Tabios

PALH, 2025 

 Complete review here:  https://archium.ateneo.edu/paha/vol15/iss2/12

Excerpt: 

Those who are remembered are mostly memorable because Ty-Casper felt love or affection for them. In that sense, the resonant writing in the book is apt—one can sense the burnished gold sheen of treasured memories. For example, she recalls two family portraits painted over a 177 hundred years ago: “Long ago, itinerant artists peddled partly finished portraits in the provinces, and clients chose the frame on which to have their likeness painted” (5–6)! For readers not related to Ty-Casper who are less interested in her relatives and more in the times they lived, she provides numerous vibrant and interesting details like these traveling portraitists

Lives Remembered is worth reading if only for the Harvard Law School incident that “redirected her life” into becoming a historical fictionist. At the university’s Widener Library, Ty-Casper discovered books that contained “unfair and erroneous” material as regards the Philippines and decided to write an essay refuting them. But upon discovering that some of those books had never been checked out of the library to be read—a detail that reminds how the most insulting thing a writer can experience is not criticism but indifference—she decided to “write a historical novel which might have more staying power/life outside the shelf” (71). “Just one book,” Ty-Casper recalled, “then I’d go on with my life” (71). More than one book, of course, occurred.

Linda Ty-Casper is the author of over 22 books, which generally deal with Philippine historical and political themes. She is the recipient of the SEA Write Award, UNESCO/P.E.N., Rockefeller Bellagio, Radcliffe Fellowships and other awards. Her literary work is considered a significant contribution to Filipino, Philippine American, as well as Asian American literature. Her works of fiction are so powerful that two of her novels, Wings of Stone and Awaiting Trespass, were banned in the Philippines during the Marcos Dictatorship; the books were published in London. 

Her recent books include:

 Will You Happen, Past the Silence, Through the Dark: Remembering Leonard Ralph Casper (PALH 2023: Bughaw 2024); 

Lives Remembered, A Memoir (PALH 2025);

A Small Party in a Garden: Revised and Critical Edition (PALH 2026). 

Fortress in the Plaza (PALH, forthcoming). 

 

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