“The book is a marvel. It cuts no corners. It knows its purpose. Like the best of our Filipino novels, like Noli Me Tangere,it issui generis:it comes seemingly from nowhere to speak an experience of trauma unspeakably Filipino. It marks its ambition by its existence. And line after line, page after page, for me, it was also sheer fun— rereading it, every day I took the book up with an almost giddy, comforted pleasure— the comfort of reading a book that does exactly what its imagination requires and its truth demands.”
—Gina Apostol
“Exploding Galaxies’ Philippine edition marks the triumphant, albeit posthumous, return of this prodigiously gifted native who has given his name to a vital period of literary experimentation and political ferment in the 1960s and continues to inspire generations of writers, Filipino and otherwise.”
— Caroline Hau
“Wilfrido Nolledo’s But For the Lovers… is a fearless—and fearsome—book, its author’s eyes wide open and imagination at full throttle, a genuine masterpiece…”
— Robert Coover
“...a triumph for the Filipino writer in English…”
— Krip Yuson
“[Nolledo’s] deliberately disjointed style merges personalities and events into one stunning nightmare—with a momentum all its own, and a built in, kaleidoscopic continuity.”
— Martin Levin, The New York Times
“A work of epic proportions and intention...”
— Cultural Center of the Philippines Encyclopedia of Philippine Art
“This is a strange, compelling book that has the tortuous complexity and is fraught with the labyrinthine terrors of a dream....”
—Publishers Weekly
“…feverishly circumlocutious, allusive, alliterative, punning language, jungle dense and abloom with [Tagalog].”
—Kirkus Reviews
“But For The Lovers is an outrageous book. It’s very funny and savage and grim and beautiful… The style is a sustained audacity.”
— Nick Joaquin
“Nolledo’s work is a step forward in the making of a relevant, living literature, and that merits some celebration.”
— Luis Teodoro
