Review | 1980s Philippines, the Gulf war and a disappearing family fortune – writer’s story of fantastic childhood
Cinelle Barnes’ powerful debut Monsoon Magic tells her riches-to-rags tale of growing up in Manila, an incredible story with its roots firmly planted in reality
Monsoon Mansion
by Cinelle Barnes
Little A
4/5 stars
Monsoon Mansion begins in 1980s Manila when the author, her aristocratic mestiza mother, stepbrother and self-made father are living a lavish life in a 10-room “pearl-and-marble palace” with a ballroom. But the glory days don’t last in this stately home. The Gulf war heralds the end for her father, who has made his fortune in oil and recruitment.
Cinelle Barnes remembers it, however, as “the end of our family”. With their money running out, her parents convert the home into an events venue, but then a storm washes away all hope. “Looters took whatever of our belongings had floated through the […] gates.” When her defeated father leaves and her flighty mother replaces him with a gold-digging, abusive reprobate who allows gangsters and cockfighting into the mansion, things go from bad to worse – and dangerous. The man takes up with a guerilla group in a bid to gain a political platform, all the while leaning on Barnes’ mother.
This is a riches-to-rags memoir that holds your attention with its poetry, and will hopefully not be the last we hear from this accomplished writer.
by Ronan Farrow
WW Norton & Company