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Reviewed by Jamie Michele for Readers' Favorite
Dark Skies: Tales of Turbulence in Paradise by David Haldane is a series of non-fiction short stories about his experiences as an American living in the Philippines with his Filipina wife. Through these, he presents his views on cultural shifts, identity, and adaptation in his adopted home. In The Sea Gypsies Come Ashore, Haldane recounts the decline of the Sama-Badjau’s nomadic lifestyle as they become marginalized urban settlers. Trophy American Husband describes his role reversal from journalist to dependent spouse, and its economic and social adjustments. My Salad Life is about his Western dietary habits and their reception in Filipino society. In Sputtering Solar, he details the technical and bureaucratic issues of solar power installation. Traveling Dangerously is his take on a trip to Zamboanga and its evolution from a conflict zone to a tourist destination.
I picked up Dark Skies by David Haldane because my own family is Filipino, and I’m also from the San Francisco Bay Area, so I was curious to see what he had to share. The writing is simple and straightforward, which gives the short stories an easy, almost conversational tone. I liked that the book reads like a fragmented memoir rather than a travelogue, offering slices of everyday life through personal observations. My favorite story is Grounded, which elicited a chuckle with its commentary on censorship. While I did find some of his opinions to be dated and occasionally a tad bromidic, they come from his own experiences and prove the work stems from an authentic, genuine perspective. From this angle, the greatest beneficiaries of this book will undoubtedly be the author's friends and family, as well as his children, who will no doubt treasure this for years to come.
