Duran Duran, Imelda Marcos, and Me

In her debut graphic novel, Mapa returns to Manila, her childhood home, for her father’s funeral. Her past rushes back to her, not at the taste of a madeleine but with the rhythms of the ’80s pop songs she grew up with. Her memoir of life in the Philippines is both touching and joyous, with vivid recollections of food, matriarchy, family, and politics told in an Hergé-inspired style that’s deceptively simple but apt for its subject. As she assembles the jigsaw puzzle of her Filipino life, Mapa recollects both pop culture touchstones and her upbringing against the turbulent background of the 1986 Fernando Marcos/Corazon Aquino “Snap Election” and its resultant People Power Revolution. As with Sonny Liew’s more complex The Art of Charlie Chan Hock Chye, Mapa uses the directness of comics to introduce a history and culture most Americans are unfamiliar with. The book was originally funded by Kickstarter but this edition will give it the wider distribution and attention it deserves. (Sept.)