Book Review: LOOKING FOR JOSE RIZAL IN MADRID - Journeys, Latitudes, Perspectives, Destinations by Gregorio C. Brillantes

Looking for Jose Rizal in Madrid: Journeys, Latitudes, Perspectives, Destinations by Gregorio C. Brillantes
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

"There are distances... between a man and his country, which are bridged only by love. One of the names that such love bears is nationalism. Another is courage."

I came across this book in the family library (defined as the books in the common living area, as opposed to our personal libraries in our separate bedrooms) and thought it belonged to my dad. Apparently, it was my twin's! It was required reading for her in college: "This is HOW to write Creative Nonfiction."

(I think contemporary CNF authors can learn a thing or two, but stylistically, I think Brillantes' technique was for a different time, for a more learned general reader familiar with Thomas Merton and Graham Greene, what with all the run-on sentences that lasted PAGES).

The Table of Contents showed that it was a book of travel essays published in different magazines and newspapers, ranging in dates from the 1960's to the 1990's. The first part was about local spots, the second in Europe, and the third in South America.

And as you do when it's Holy Week, and both work and circumstance do not allow you to travel, I thought I'd travel vicariously through the words of "Escolastico," as Brillantes called himself.

Without a doubt, the best works were the ones about Tarlac, Ermita, and Quiapo! The author's love for country seeped through every line, although he was unafraid to point out the squalor and noise of the urban areas. True Love is, after all, not blindness, but willingness to accept the entirety of the beloved. As Brillantes put it, "To go away from your country is to fall in love with it: the perspective, and the tension, of distance enables you to view it, as if for the first time, in the wholeness of its being."

Of lesser brilliance, but still worthy of interest, were the essays about Lourdes, Madrid, and Paris.

The South American essays in this book may actually turn off future potential visitors, haha! So unfortunate and unpleasant were the author's experiences there!

I am told that I need to read his sci-fi works, and so I shall! Am grateful for this Black Saturday trip around the world, from the safety of our home. I particularly liked this reminder by the author, for fellow patriots:

"As the noble and the brave, the truly great, from Rizal to Aquino, have shown us by their example, we must all go home again."

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