People in Panic by Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon

“I found a floating head in my closet today. He was a good looking head – mestizo, a very proper kind of attractive…”

As soon as I read this line I bought the book. This is the first line from the first story from Alcazaren de Leon’s “People in Panic,” a collection of stories highlighting people, or just heads of people. There is also a story about grocery items awaiting their fates in a freezer called “Frozen Delight,” definitely one of my favorites.

”Good Girl,” is another. One of the shorter stories in the book, it starts with one Hannah Marie Liwag imagining a Dumaguete without expats. The thoughts she has are also mine from time to time whenever I find myself in more touristy areas of the Philippines. Or even in Dumaguete itself where different restaurants from around the world serve delicious food, and where the town’s main University was established by American Presbyterians. By the end of the story you get a gist of how unavoidable the touch of the foreign is in places like Malate, Panglao, Dumaguete, etc… 

So if you like short stories, and stories that can be as unpredictable as they are well-written, then this book is for you.

More books I’ve read

• Tikim by Doreen Fernandez
• A Lolong Time Ago: A Prehistory of the Philippines
• Sangkap by Food Writers Association of the Philippines
• Taste of Control by R. Alexander D. Orquiza
• People in Panic by Marguerite Alcazaren de Leon
• Pigafetta’s Philippine Picnic by Felice Prudente Sta. Maria
• Every Sunday (Tuwing Linggo). A story on learning sign language
• Why do Filipinos have flat nose? By Ofelia Concepcion

SPECIAL THANKS TO MY SPONSOR… MY PATRONS

Thanks to the few Patrons who support me, I can use the funds to my buy books like these, which eventually fuels my art. Learn more about how you can support me and my art here: patreon.com/filipeanut.