Review: Mia Corazon Aureus - Labour For Love (Cha, July 2018)


Mia Corazon Aureus’s piece of creative non-fiction predominantly uses dialogue to capture the life story of Titang, a Pilipino foreign domestic worker living in Singapore while she paints her nails. Family, resilience and stigma are central to the story. The more we get into the story, the deeper we get into the Titang’s suffering and the more we can understand her endurance and resilience. It ends on a hopeful note, circling back to the beginning. We begin with her cleaning her nails, and end with the finished product: “We high five. Her aquamarine-painted nails shimmer in the orange sunlight” – a bright, warm, hopeful image.


Titang’s portrayal is commendable, not only is she defined as a live-in maid with a myriad amount of tasks to do, working for her family back home in the Philippines; but there is more beneath this layer. Through the dialogue and the narrator’s reflections we see that Titang is an adopted child, has her own story, has made a life for herself away from home and shares a close sisterly connection to the narrator. The narrator’s character felt a little lacking; however the reader can still get a strong sense of their relationship as it is. This is an insightful and worthwhile read. 











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