Came across a very well-written (and generous) review of my book, After the Body Displaces Water, by Cris Barbra Pe (Department of Literature, De La Salle University) in the Ateneo journal "Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities Asia" (5.2 (2015): 110–139). I love it that the writer highlighted my personal favourites in the collection, the more low key stories that escaped the attention of previous reviews.
I'm sharing an excerpt below. The rest of the piece can be accessed at: http://journals.ateneo.edu
"Daryll Delgado’s first collection of short stories, After the Body Displaces Water, shows a breadth of styles, techniques, and subjects. At the same time, this collection is cohesive, woven together by a distinct voice, that of a confident storyteller. It is also a voice that seems to confide in the readers, taking them on a ride that is intermittently casual, nostalgic, heartbreaking, and in rare moments, whimsical. Sometimes, this voice also has a tinge of vulnerability.
Delgado is at her best when her stories appear to linger on insignificant moments or stay at the periphery. They may come in the form of conversations or letters. The opening piece “Conversation” is just that, a conversation between a man and a woman as they take a short walk together. It hinges on images of handholding, bottles, and a lamppost, yet several stories emerge from between the lines—that the man and woman are married, that their work involves words, and that they do not yet have a child. In that short walk from one end of the street to another, in that short conversation which may not even make perfect sense, the reader sees only a glimpse of their lives, but such a rich and potent glimpse as to shape a story.
... “Unreliable Narrators” is a finely crafted story, ingenious and witty, and is involved with such themes as politics, physics, mental disability, romance, writing, and the academe. The title not only refers to a technique in fiction but also to the technique used in the story itself. The letter writer makes use of footnotes and “reputable” academic sources, but given that the letter writer is staying in a facility for the mentally challenged, the reader is forced to question the veracity of what is said.
I'm sharing an excerpt below. The rest of the piece can be accessed at: http://journals.ateneo.edu
"Daryll Delgado’s first collection of short stories, After the Body Displaces Water, shows a breadth of styles, techniques, and subjects. At the same time, this collection is cohesive, woven together by a distinct voice, that of a confident storyteller. It is also a voice that seems to confide in the readers, taking them on a ride that is intermittently casual, nostalgic, heartbreaking, and in rare moments, whimsical. Sometimes, this voice also has a tinge of vulnerability.
Delgado is at her best when her stories appear to linger on insignificant moments or stay at the periphery. They may come in the form of conversations or letters. The opening piece “Conversation” is just that, a conversation between a man and a woman as they take a short walk together. It hinges on images of handholding, bottles, and a lamppost, yet several stories emerge from between the lines—that the man and woman are married, that their work involves words, and that they do not yet have a child. In that short walk from one end of the street to another, in that short conversation which may not even make perfect sense, the reader sees only a glimpse of their lives, but such a rich and potent glimpse as to shape a story.
... “Unreliable Narrators” is a finely crafted story, ingenious and witty, and is involved with such themes as politics, physics, mental disability, romance, writing, and the academe. The title not only refers to a technique in fiction but also to the technique used in the story itself. The letter writer makes use of footnotes and “reputable” academic sources, but given that the letter writer is staying in a facility for the mentally challenged, the reader is forced to question the veracity of what is said.
Given such stories about writing and the process of writing, it is not
surprising to find in the collection a story devoted to the art of writing itself.
“The Other Daughter,” like the other stories in the book, approaches the subject obliquely. A writer’s written work literally comes alive as a flesh-and-
blood human. The “daughter,” named Anna, grows up, but apart from her
“mother,” she has no life. Delgado literalizes truisms about writing—for
example, that authors breathe life into characters or that characters become
real in the author’s imagination. This is where the magic lies: how Delgado
is able to create a believable story from that premise."
