BOOK REVIEW: Pinoy Romance Books–A Dying Genre in Philippine Publishing
by Rose Cruz Churma
These pocketbooks were very popular in the 1990s and are known by different names: Tagalog romance novels, Philippine romance novels, Filipino romance novels, or Pinoy pocketbooks.
Among the possible inspirations for publishing Tagalog romance paperback novels were the Mills & Boon and Harlequin Romance love story pocketbooks, which were very popular among high school girls and young women.
It is a form of escapist fiction sometimes referred to as commercial literature—a money-making venture with very little artistic merit.
These Tagalog romance novels generally follow a formula where the stories have happy endings which influences the popularity of the book. The protagonists are wealthy, good-looking, smart and healthy—they could not possibly die! It is the typical damsel in distress and knight in shining armor story that ends happily.
Some authors though deviated from this, or from writing “rags-to-riches plots.” This was replaced by storylines with true-to-life settings. Some eventually came to reflect the true picture of how everyday folks deal with life, love, and everything in between.
The Tagalog novels in pocketbook or paperback format can be considered the contemporary equivalent of the serial novels that appeared on the pages of Liwayway or Bulaklak magazine novels and graphical novels of the Tagalog Komiks.
Although called Tagalog romance novels, its content can hardly be called Tagalog with the inclusion of English words liberally peppered throughout.
Some novels are written in Taglish and reflect how the language has evolved on the streets—a far cry from the way Tagalog was taught using balarila and panitikan textbooks. I suppose a lot has changed when Tagalog is now referred to as Filipino, the national language of the Philippines.
A regular Tagalog-language romance pocketbook is composed of around 120 pages, with a dimension of 3.9 inches × 6.3 inches. Its cost is reasonable, and the book is portable, lightweight, and can easily be stored in one’s handbag, and pulled to read while riding the bus or jeepney. It is also easy to pass on or to exchange books with other readers.
According to Wikipedia, most of the writers for Tagalog pocketbooks are females. However, there are also male novelists. Apparently, there were publishers who thought that female readers would prefer female authors. Male authors used pseudonyms using feminine-sounding names.
Among the first Tagalog pocketbook writers were Edgar Reyes (among his pocketbook novels is Rosas) and Lualhati Bautista (known for her classic novels such as Dekada70).
Although there is an element of romance in their novels, the only similarity that I see with this genre is the size of the actual book—content-wise—their novels can’t be classified under this genre.
The popular literature in the Philippines from the early 1900s through the 1990s was the Tagalog comics—then it moved into reading inexpensively priced Pinoy romance pocketbooks.
In the mid-1990s, these pocket romance books were winning over the Philippine comics industry. Among the readers of Tagalog-language paperbacks, apart from the local followers in the Philippines, are OFWs, such as female domestic workers.
In Hawai’i, I noticed a lot of hotel workers reading pocketbooks while riding the bus. Public libraries in the Kalihi and Waipahu areas were ordering these books by the boxful.
Observers of the publishing scene in the Philippines noted that together with the airing of Tagalog-language television shows and films, the publication of romance pocketbooks in Tagalog helped to further establish it as the use of a national language (called Filipino but is based on the grammatical structure of Tagalog).
But since the influx of social media and the popular use of smartphones and other devices, the popularity of this genre has declined. Readers can get their escapist fix via Facebook, YouTube and Instagram.
Last December 9, during the second Hawak Kamay (a resource fair in Maui to help the West Maui fire victims), I brought a few of these books to give away.
Some middle-aged Filipinas were delighted to get them and scooped up quite a few books. The younger ones were intrigued, skimmed through them and placed them back and considered these dinosaurs of a bygone era. Even the members of a Filipino ministry didn’t want the books on their tables because of the salacious poses on the covers.
Now these books belong to my antiquarian collection—hopefully desired by book collectors who will pay any price to acquire some copies.
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ROSE CRUZ CHURMA established Kalamansi Books & Things three decades ago. It has evolved from a mail-order bookstore into an online advocacy with the intent of helping global Pinoys discover their heritage by promoting books of value from the Philippines and those written by Filipinos in the Diaspora. We can be reached at kalamansibooks@gmail.com.
