Aretha Sarah F. Mamaradlo

Aretha Sarah F. Mamaradlo

IV-Albert Einstein

Book Review in English

Book: Womenagerie and Other Tales from the Front

Author: Jessica Zafra

I. INTRODUCTION

Womenagerie and Other Tales from the Front is a collection of Jessica Zafra’s earlier columns in Women Today magazine. Jessica Zafra was born and raised in Manila. She attended St. Theresa’s College, Quezon City, Philippine Science High School, and the University of the Philippines, where she majored Comparative Literature. She is a three-time Palanca Award winner. Her column “Twisted” appears thrice weekly in Today. She has two books, Manananggal Terorizes Manila (1992), her first collection of short stories, and Twisted (1995), a selection of her column pieces. She has a weekly radio program at NU 107-FM and regular weekend talks at the Ayala Museum.

II. SUMMARY OF CONTENT

The different tales from the said book mainly talks about women and all things related to them. It narrates stories concerned with what women experience in their everyday life. The main theme of it is to inform readers everything about women and how they respond to these things. Every tale of the said book has its own plot.

III. ANALYSIS OF TEXT

What is the writer’s style?

a. intellectual qualities of writing (clarity, simplicity, persuasive, logical, realistic)

The writer used simple words to narrate the tales of the book. It made the analysis of the story easier. I was even affected by some of the stories of the book because those were some of my real-life experiences. Because of that, I had greater interest in reading the book.

b. emotional qualities of writing (humor, interesting, satire)

Like I said, the tales in the book got really interesting since they can be experienced in real-life. Some of them also are humorous since I was informed of the fact that some of my doings are really funny, yet I was not aware of it. The book really tells everything related to women’s actions in life.

What stylistic devices are employed?

The writer often used comparison between two things or ideas since women and men are the main topic in the tales of the story. She even used descriptions to describe things in the tales.

IV. Evaluation of the Text

There are different possibilities that are suggested by the book. First, women are of different attitudes and traits. Second, they are really amazing yet confusing to the fact that they have multiple thinking and multiple personalities. Certain experiences of mine are held through the tales of the book. These are about the opposite sex, studies, etc.