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'"America is Not the Heart" by Elaine Castillo

Imagine coming to America for the first time as a Filipina immigrant with severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a tangled and complicated family situation, no money or real work experience and a disabling body disfigurement. This is the set of circumstances that brings Hero to the United States in Elaine Castillo’s “America Is Not the Heart” (2018).

Castillo’s breakout novel is something of a domestic epic as it catalogs Hero’s journey of belonging and becoming in America. 

Hero is a character I found to be very different from standard heroic female archetypes.

This juxtaposition is easily seen in her nickname, Hero. She is given the nickname by her niece, Roni, who is her namesake. It may be tempting to see the nickname as a symbol of Hero’s past experiences, including her time as a guerrilla with the New People’s Army. 

However, I encourage readers to think of the name Hero in the context of her experiences to come once she arrives in America. Hero arrives in a place where she is unfamiliar with everything, even her existing family is composed of people she has not seen in years.

Hero’s greatest act is her resilience in building a life in America despite the obstacles she faces. Despite this being a work of fiction, Hero as a character gave me a whole new perspective on the challenges that immigrants face. 

One of the biggest issues Hero deals with is her malformed thumbs, a consequence of torture by the Marcos regime. The deformity of her hands is a hindrance in Hero’s daily life, as she has difficulty doing tasks like brushing her hair, eating and folding her clothes.

Possibly worse than the discomfort and difficulty of her hands are the social implications.

The dynamics Hero becomes part of socially reflect how disability interplays with other components of personality, especially with such a multi-faceted character. 

One challenge readers may find as they get into this story is the distinctions in narrative structure. Select areas of the work are written in the second person, which is a format wherein the text is being directly spoken to readers using the word “you.” The rest of the story is from the perspective of Hero, but there is something important missing from the traditional written word you may be expecting: quotation marks. 

Throughout the story, there are no quotation marks around the text. This can be difficult when you first start reading, as there is no way to tell if someone is speaking unless there is a dialogue tag. It is easy to question why Castillo would make this decision with her writing, but I offer an explanation after my reading. 

I feel the deep psychological nature of this novel is further enhanced by Castillo’s choice to omit quotations. Because of the lack of punctuation, it can be difficult to tell what is thought versus what is said. The lines between the shared and the personal become blurred between the characters, making their interactions all the more complex. 

This novel is full of twists and turns so that readers never know what will come next. The subtle foreshadowing is impressive, as the story is full of red herrings. For myself, I was anticipating certain events the whole time that never happened while something I did not see coming led to a dramatic shift in the tone of the story. Readers should be aware that some sensitive topics are covered, like mental health and violence. Its roots in historical events and cultural perspective lead this book to seem like its own world within a world. 

For its plot, characters, themes and more, I would give “America Is Not the Heart” a complete 10 out of 10.