Rating: 
Summary: Magical Debut
Review: When Elephants Dance delivers a multi-hued vision of the war-torn Phillipines. This reader was bounced from the darkest atrocities of torture and hiding in a cramped cellar to the luminous histories of the characters. Each tale reveals wonders and warts
of each member of this group in hiding. In a magical realist style of Amy Tan or Gloria Naylor, it becomes difficult to understand where the real ends and fantasy begins. Ms. Holthe draws the essences of the dreams, the landscape, the depth of relationships and the sheer horror of war with masterful narrative which provokes a deeper understanding.
Rating:
Summary: A glorious first novel!
Review: When the Elephants Dance is a stunning novel made all the more stunning by the fact that it is Tess Holthe's first. The fast-paced story of guerilla warfare in the Phillipines during WW II is made all the more human and epic by the stories the characters tell each other as they try to outlast the Japanese invaders. The stories are alternately touching, tragic and mysterious, but they have a sense of magical realism, lyrical detail and beautiful language that's reminiscent of Laura Esquivel's Like Water for Chocolate.I couldn't put this book down--it's been a long time since a first novel has moved me this way.
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