"For certain things, like love, there was only so much time."
There are authors who are put in the canon for a reason, whose works are analyzed and studied by English majors for generations.
Reading Gregorio Brillantes' 500 page collection of 39 short stories is just like seeing the past 90 years of Philippine history through the eyes of a caring grandfather, eager to pass on his wisdom to the younger generation.
He was born into a comfortable life, and wrote of what he knew: exclusive private schools, witty repartee in soirees with the inevitable teenaged wild ride in a fancy car... and also, the loneliness of growing up feeling alien in one's home town, the soul-tearing quest to remain committed to ideals when the grown-up world demands compromise.
It's difficult to pinpoint a favorite when several have similar themes and characters. So it's the ones that are very different that stand out. Despite middle-class comfort, there are always the extremes of violence and passion that erupt. The stories show how one cannot escape from the river of history, despite the buffer that financial security offers.
I thought one of the most hopeful was THE DISTANCE TO ANDROMEDA. A young boy from Tarlac watches a scifi movie and feels what Catholics call "the communion of saints," that feeling of being connected to the vast universe all around us.
Some of the stories are terribly poignant, one can't help but shed a tear as a doctor to the barrio ministers to patients who have lost newborn babes, or a middle-aged man realizes his daughter's friend so closely resembles a lost love.
The story I found most moving was FAITH, LOVE, TIME, AND DR. LAZARO. A phone call in the middle of the night rouses a doctor duty-bound to try to save the children of others. He knows that he can't save them all, but he perseveres nonetheless. When desire wavers, duty and honor are there to see us through.
"The sparrow does not fall without the Father’s leave...but it falls just the same. But to what end are the sufferings of a child?"
The funniest for this reader was EXCERPTS FROM THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A MIDDLEAGED GHOSTWRITER WITH INSOMNIA, with all the tongue-in-cheek references to other Filipino authors and their works. Bookish folk might wish to award themselves points for every real name decoded, every title unlocked. Perhaps some of my book club friends would care to try? And if one gets a low score, that means you need to read more Filipinana!
No one goes through Life, the war, and Martial Law unscarred. Brillantes' vivid descriptions of the Filipino middle class existence prove this. For Death and Decay visit each man alike, and it is this universal sphere of sorrow that Brillantes explores, highlighting darkest lusts and most piercing pains, helping us come to a fuller understanding of self and country.
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