In The Typhoon's Eye: A Story of Childhood and Leaving Home by Bles Chavez-Bernstein is a memoir of a young woman from the Philippines, who at five was already conscious of how she looked. It is a story that explores family dynamics, an unalloyed love of a mother, and pursuing dreams. The author writes about a family that nurtured her and shares episodes that are both entertaining and revealing of Filipino cultural values. Her father, Salvador, is obsessed with making money and building a house and her mother strives to please her husband and nurture her family. Follow this author as the family moved from one place to another, growing in numbers, and as she falls in love and has to leave everything behind, including her fiancé and children for an adventure in the US.

This is a heartwarming memoir that explores themes of love, family, growing up, and dreams. Bles Chavez-Bernstein captures the social realities of provincial life in the Philippines and allows readers to feel the pulse of community life, punctuated by religious celebrations and connecting with the extended family. Social realities like the really poor people not being able to afford meat except during fiestas, which happens once a year on the birthday of the town’s patron saint, are brilliantly captured. I loved the way the author writes about perception, her unique way of looking at the tensions between her parents. Her young life is blissfully presented in the narrative as well as her relationship with her siblings. Readers will also appreciate the way the author writes about the hardships and struggles of growing up in a poor family, her inability to make choices for herself and the pain of leaving everything before to pursue goals of making life better for herself and her family.

The narrative is never lacking in humor and I enjoyed the terrific descriptions, especially when the author describes her father’s adoptive mother as old-fashioned in physical appearance and in her sense of values. This is a mesmerizing tale told in an atmospheric style, a story that captures the author’s nostalgia for a place. In The Typhoon's Eye: A Story of Childhood and Leaving Home is a wonderful story with fascinating characters. A powerful portrait of what it is like to grow up in a province in the Philippines. A must-read for anyone who wants to know about the social realities of the country and its traditional values.

In The Typhoon's Eye: A Story of Childhood and Leaving Home by Bles Chavez-Bernstein is a poignant memoir that chronicles the journey of an immigrant who shares her childhood memories unapologetically. Her struggles while growing up, leaving home, moving to a foreign land in search of a better life, sacrifices, and how she kept her spirit intact through all the chaos will encourage readers to tackle their problems and advance in their lives. The memoir is heartbreaking, yet captures the spirit of a woman and her positivity while making her life happen. Her rising above obstacles will encourage readers to deal with their challenges and adversities in life in a positive way without giving up on life, even though the odds were against her most of the time.

In The Typhoon's Eye is honest, simple, straightforward, and raw, and that brings forth the pain, joy, sorrow, love, and humanness in Bles Chavez-Bernstein's life and her character. Her story is powerful and is not only that of survival, but also of determination, strength, courage, perseverance, self-belief, and devotion. Reading Bles Chavez-Bernstein's story is a good way for readers to get motivated when it comes to dealing with difficult situations because of the manner in which the author has risen above her ups and downs. She shares a lot of pictures in the book, which makes her, family, and life palpable to readers. The author is very vocal when it comes to sharing her story and speaks about all aspects of her life in detail, pulling readers into her journey and what it took for her to reach the position she is in now.