Gates of Hell

-that is what Dan Brown described Manila in his new novel Inferno. 

I love reading books.  My personal favorites are J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series and all of Dan Brown’s books.  So when I heard that that quote from Dan Brown’s book earned violent reactions from a lot of Filipinos, I felt sad.  Honestly, it was just sensationalized since Dan Brown is famous.  But have we given the same reaction on other writers who also wrote something close to the truth about our beloved country or countrymen but were not that famous? 

Last month, I wrote about the book I recently read (but was not really recent in publication) “The Gatecrasher” by Madeliene Wickham.  At page 84 of the book, she wrote something like this:

“…‘You know,’ said Tricia, as though beginning on a new subject, ‘poor Graham Loosemore has got into an awful pickle.  You remember Graham?’  There was a murmur of assent.

‘Well, he went to the Philippines on holiday – and married a local girl!  All of eighteen.  They’re living together in Dorking!’  There was a general gasp.  ‘She’s after his money, of course.’  Tricia drew up her face as though gathering the neck of a shoe-bag.  ‘She’ll have a baby so she can claim support, and then she’ll be off.  She’ll probably get…half the house? That’s two hundred thousand pounds!  And all for a silly mistake.  The fool!’

‘Maybe he’s not a fool,’ said Fleur idly, and winked at Gillian.

‘What?’ snapped Tricia.

‘How much would you pay a strapping young Filipino to make love to you every night?’ Fleur grinned at Tricia.  ‘I’d pay quite a lot.’  Tricia goggled at Fleur….”

Close to the truth, huh?