Dream Jungle

Description

One of Jessica Hagedorn's most daring novels-"a deft and complex tale of corruption, fealty, and integrity" (The Baltimore Sun) In a Philippines of desperate beauty and rank corruption, two seemingly unrelated events occur- the discovery of an ancient lost tribe living in a remote mountainous area and the arrival of a celebrity-studded, American film crew, there to make an epic Vietnam War movie. But the lost tribe may be a clever hoax and the Hollywood movie seems doomed as the cast and crew continue to self-destruct in a cloud of drugs and ego. As the consequences of these events play out, four unforgettable characters-a wealthy, iconoclastic playboy; a woman ensnared in the sex industry; a Filipino-American writer; and a jaded actor-find themselves drawn irrevocably together in this lavish, sensual portrait of a nation in crisis.

Jessica Hagedorn is the author of the novels Dogeaters and The Gangster of Love, Dream Jungle, and a collection of poetry and short fiction, Danger and Beauty.

Praise for Dream Jungle: "Masterly . . . [Hagedorn's] best book since Dogeaters." -The New York Times Book Review "With her flair for evoking place, her ability to construct strong, believable characters and a keen sense of both the political and the cultural impact of America on the Philippines, Hagedorn has woven a deft and complex tale of corruption, fealty and integrity." -The Baltimore Sun "A richly intriguing study of flamboyant ambition and the politics of corruption . . . Hagedorn's prose has the exciting ring of the new . . . she has the gift of making the surreal intimate, yet ringed in circles of strangeness, violence and beauty. . . Dream Jungle creates a compelling symphony of voices and yet is one voice . . . delivering the emotional charge of politics, race, and class." -The Seattle Times "Hagedorn offers a rich immediacy of detail and characters . . . [she] is a trustworthy guide, her navigation from the depths of the jungle to the seediest corners of Manila to the ostentatious mansions lining the city's so-called 'Hollywood Hills' is so assured that the juxtaposition of these places, however surreal, seems as perfectly rational as a dream." -San Francisco Chronicle "As beautiful as summer, as unforgettable as heartbreak . . . [A] luminous performance." -Junot Diaz, author of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao