Revolutionary hero Leon Kilat stars in this novel where time is collaged with myth and moviemaking. Meanwhile, Robert Aguinaldo writes the novel-within-the-novel in this landmark piece of metafiction.
Punctuated with irreverent mirth, the story unfolds when the banana heart charm drips into Leon’s giggling mouth and he is at once present and everywhere he will ever be. In between, Robert parses historical research for his grant-awarded novel.
The Jungle Café is rest stop and watering hole to the likes of José Rizal & Rimbaud & Ishmael Bernal & Sandra Dee & Maurice Arcache & Billy Ray Bates. Leon Kilat is not a regular just yet—he first has to be the bandit, the Singer salesman, the baker’s apprentice, and the revolucionario before he can wine and dine and gossip and guffaw with the old gang and Robert Aguinaldo at the Great Philippine Jungle Energy Café, dazed though he might be.
First published in 1988, Alfred A. Yuson’s first novel, Great Philippine Jungle Energy Café is a “tour de force,” a “magnificent novel,” a playful flex of wit, music, and ingenuity.