Book Review: THE DRIFTERS by James A. Michener

The Drifters by James A. Michener
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"You have some busy years ahead."
"Indeed we do. For we're going to remake a people, and in so doing, we're going to remake a nation."
"The whole purpose of life is to change people into something better."

***
Reading the blurb, I thought THE DRIFTERS was going to be a "lesser" Michener novel. At first blush, it seemed to be about a group of "lost" teenagers loitering around Europe.

Three weeks later, I come away with renewed respect for one who is fast becoming a favorite author. Only Michener could have taken six very different teenagers, cleverly introduced in mini-novellas, and created a cohesive novel where they explain and test their values against those of the REAL protagonist: a senior citizen whose heart feels for the challenges of the youth, who tries to understand them on their own terms (but can't help sneaking in the occasional judgmental paragraph, tee hee)!

This isn't a travel book with free love and drugs. This is a protracted dialogue between 2 different generations: those who fought in World War II, and those avoiding the draft for the Vietnam War. Reading this particular Michener book was like having a beloved Grandpa lecture you, someone who has your best interests at heart, who isn't ashamed to point out your generation's weaknesses, and acknowledges the failings of his as well.

Michener somehow managed to tie in the Six Day War, the politics of the 60's and 70's, the African-American struggle, the drug problem, and so many other issues into this grand epic. He educates his readers without resorting to pedantry, and managed to make his moralizing go down smoothly while taking us on an armchair road trip from Torremolinos and Haifa, to Marrakesh and Mozambique.

He shows us the dreams of each generation -- the older one believing in authority and the continuation of society, the younger one rejecting the absurdity of the establishment -- and the consequences of those dreams. He writes of places he's seen, people he's known, and so much about the music he loves! This book may very well have been his love letter to the children he unfortunately never had, with the over-all tone being: "This is me. This is where I come from. This is what I love. And though I may not understand you hippies, I know that it is a privilege to watch you grow. And I will give all I have to protect you, and help you navigate the trials all lives go through."

This is why we read Michener. We come away better informed, wiser. And hopefully... kinder.

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Book Review: A DAUGHTER OF THE SAMURAI by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto

A Daughter of the Samurai: A Memoir by Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"And what is life if one can only learn, and of what one learns gives nothing?"

Here is yet another book that gently came into my life and gave me both comfort and strength, at perhaps one of my spirit's lowest points. Originally published in 1926, who can fail to be moved and inspired by the courage of this gently-reared samurai lady who went to America, reared a family there, then moved back to Japan after a tragedy? This is no fiction, for Etsu Inagaki Sugimoto did indeed grow up in the dying days of the Meiji period, and the amount of detail as she wrote about her childhood will fascinate everyone! Think THE LAST SAMURAI, but the protagonist is a woman! Add a little bit of LITTLE WOMEN and you get this unforgettable memoir.

"Standards of duty differ on opposite sides of the world, but Japanese people never flinch at its call... if duty lies behind, undone, nothing, while life lasts, can break the heart pull, the brain planning, the soul prayer to reach, even partially, the lost goal. Such is the deep-hidden soul of Japan."

As you can imagine, tales of unbelievable sacrifice and an "unswerving duty to highest belief" abound. The nonchalance with which she writes how her mother burned their mansion to the ground (to avoid it being taken over by the political enemies of her father) gave me chills! As well as other incredible details, such as the sacred blade given to their ancestors by Tokugawa Ieyasu himself, and the fact that every samurai family has a head-bucket (with which to hold the proof of obedience to a lord's final commandment to a vassal).

"Remember: where you live is a small matter. The life of a samurai is just the same: loyalty to your lord, bravery in defense of his honor. It will bring you peace."

This book should be made into a movie! And the quiet grace and strength of this incredible woman is an example I pray I can emulate.

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Book Review: MEMOIRS OF HADRIAN by Marguerite Yourcenar

Memoirs of Hadrian: And Reflections on the Composition of Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

"Human beings betray their worst failings when they marvel to find that a world ruler is neither foolishly indolent, presumptuous, nor cruel."

We remember the most difficult times of our lives by the books that help us get through them.

Read during one such "night of the soul," Yourcenar's book reads like an autobiography despite being a fictional memoir of the most lyrical kind. I can almost swear that Yourcenar has, by some unknown witchcraft, channeled the very soul of one of the late great Roman emperors. She called it "sympathetic thought," this decades-long project of hers, "this portrait of a man who was almost wise." Instead of using her considerable scholarly know-how to write a tiresome history, Yourcenar sought to write an "inner reality," showing the growth of an emperor's soul rather than that of an empire. And it is both enlightening and encouraging!

I have never encountered a book like this before! It's a bit like Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, but more inward-looking. It is written in the form of a long epistle of a man who is about to die, to his successor (Marcus Aurelius himself, perhaps the closest to the ideal philosopher king!). And like Marcus Aurelius' immortal work, this one requires slow, close reading, as almost every paragraph is filled with gold either of the philosophical or literary kind.

An homage to learning and culture, a palliative for weary, cynical souls, this book contained wonderfully insightful passages that I will treasure as I re-read them.

"Not all our books will perish... some few men will think and work and feel as we have done, and I venture to count upon such continuators, placed irregularly throughout the centuries, and upon this kind of intermittent immortality."

Immortality to Hadrian and his time meant the immortality of Rome Eternal. The burning fire of civilization in a dark age. True immortals therefore were builders of walls and bridges, of things that lasted like libraries and schools, not destroyers and plunderers... "amassing reserves against a spiritual winter which by certain signs, in spite of myself, I see ahead."

"Other Romes will come, whose forms I see but dimly, but whom I shall have helped to mold."

A lot of folks today think that subscribing to a particular religion automatically makes them good people, despite making highly questionable political/moral choices. As if accepting a deity as one's personal savior is the end game, that no further work in fear and trembling is required. This book, and those of the Greeks and Roman philosophers, offered no such easy answer, and a lot of the book deals with immortal questions on morality and civic virtue, when "man existed alone."

Recognition must be given also to the excellent translation done by Grace Frick, from the original French! This must be the finest translated work I've yet read: I honestly thought it was written originally in English.

"What I could say has been said; what I could learn has been learned. Let us turn, for the time that is left to us, to other work."

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Book Review: PARACUELLOS by Carlos Gimenez

Paracuellos, Volume 1 by Carlos Giménez
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"History (is) an act of reconstruction - memory as a public process of reconstructing voices in which no voice must have the last word." ~ from Carmen Moreno-Nuno's afterword

This is an incredible graphic collection in itself, but the true story behind the book is even more important.

Author/artist Carlos Gimenez of PARACUELLOS was brought up for eight years in a Spanish state home in the early 1950's, where the children of the victims of fascist dictator Francisco Franco were brought up. This is no easy read, as the terrible events portray abuse of every kind, ranging from starvation to physical assault. In this social home, priests and nuns and government officials used the tools embraced wholeheartedly by Hitler and Mussolini, and all fascist states: violence and disinformation.

But it isn't all heartbreak. A few individuals stood apart for their refusal to conform to the daily evils all around, and Gimenez gratefully records the self-sacrifice and goodness of the gardener and the villagers whose decency and humanity helped them survive.

When Franco died, Gimenez finally decided to record the trauma of his past, for future generations to learn. This went beyond art, as the prevailing attitude of that time was 'forgive and forget.' But Gimenez knew that historic amnesia meant future reenactments, and persevered despite rejections from most publishers, and even death-threats!

Memory and History are precious precisely because they are social constructs, in the sense that there has to be a collective and ongoing effort to revive it, to help keep it alive. We live in dark times, when our country's collective amnesia is strategically organized thru Tiktok and armies of paid trolls, with political advertisements based on lies, while men with guns enter universities and confiscate books that reveal the truth of the past. (For more information, go to https://handsoffourlibraries.crd.co/ )

It happened in Spain. It has happened here in the Philippines, once before. Let us not permit it to happen again.

"Carlos Gimenez teaches his audience that the history he lived through is part of our collective history, and as such is common patrimony for us all. Because the Franco regime suppressed knowledge of these events, Spaniards had to learn all over again who we were and where we came from, starting by giving life again to that which the regime wanted to remain dead." - from Antonio Martin's introduction

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Book Review: AFTERLIVES by Abdulrazak Gurnah

Afterlives by Abdulrazak Gurnah
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Had to put it down after 30 pages. I just couldn't get into it. Will give it a few years and hopefully write a better review afterwards.
******
(Edited six weeks later)

A friend inspired me to give Gurnah another chance. That's the wonderful thing about being in a book club! :) Am grateful I did, because things got interesting at page 40.

Part mystery, part romance, part family history, I was drawn (for the first time in my literary journey!) into the early part of the 20th century. Germany has colonized East Africa, and African men are recruited into the Schutztruppe (German colonial troops), called askari.

Parts of the book felt like those mandatory canon lists assigned to high school classes, but to be fair, some parts soared and felt like movies writ in words. The most absorbing parts had to be the descriptions of military action. The ending felt absolutely rushed. I was left with the thought: "That's it?!?!"

Then again, perhaps this is the author's deliberate choice, to MAKE the reader think about what they just read.

The first thing I noticed was that Gurnah didn't italicize the Swahili (?) words, nor German. This is a political choice, and an admirable one, too. Thank goodness for Google Translate!

Had I not known that this was his latest novel (published in 2020), I would have thought it was a first novel based on the language: I thought it rather sparse and dry, and not very compelling. Then again, this very efficient style allowed Gurnah to tell the story of two generations in the span of under 300 pages. (I am also aware that my personal preference tends towards those with literary embellishments, so this speaks more about me as a reader rather than Gurnah as an author.)

I also thought it was very crude, in the sense that Gurnah doesn't seek to romanticize nor sanitize anything. Dirty deeds and foul thoughts abound, which makes the protagonists all the more admirable for not sinking to the level of their surroundings.

Unsolicited advice: DO NOT read Gurnah's bibliography in the Nobel Prize website, as it reveals the entire story already! Talk about spoilers! Haha.

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Book Review: NUTSHELL by Ian McEwan

Nutshell by Ian McEwan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"My mother wished my father dead. Now I live inside a story and fret about its outcome."

It was an absolute coincidence that this reader -- fresh from a three-day webinar on Shakespeare (with speakers from Shakespeare gods both British and Filipino) -- picked up this contemporary spin on Hamlet immediately after! What an absolute surprise, and a delight!

An Ian McEwan novel is an automatic purchase for me, and this (my 8th McEwan) reminded me why he is one of those "buy-on-sight-of-cover-no-need-to-look-at-the-blurb-at-the-back" authors. Of those novels I've read, I remember detesting only one, and loving all the others (hey, no author's perfect!). This one belongs to the latter, lovely category.

"Oh God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space -- were it not that I have bad dreams." McEwan put that Hamlet quote before the first page began.

I was immediately sucked in: a baby overhears his mom (Trudy) plotting with his uncle (Claude) how to kill his father! It was impossible to miss the modern-day equivalents of Gertrude and Claudius!

And McEwan proceeds from there. Hence "to be or not to be" has an altogether new meaning, coming from the mouth of an unborn babe! It was just so imaginative, and witty, and (I think) proof of McEwan's genius, how he would make the baby spout Shakespearean verse (but in prose form!) whenever his reckless mother would drink some wine!

"I'll bind her with this slimy rope,
press-gang her on my birthday with one groggy, newborn stare,
One lonesome seagull wail to harpoon her heart.
Then, indentured by strong-armed love to become my constant nurse,
her freedom but a retreating homeland shore, Trudy will be mind, not Claude's."

That wasn't Shakespeare, but it sure sounded like him! And there were so many other examples of Ian McEwan borrowing from the Bard! Here's another one:

"Grant me all the human agency the human frame can bear,
retrieve my young panther-self of sculpted muscle and long cold stare,
direct him to the most extreme measure --
Killing his uncle to save his father."

I am no scholar, but a mere book lover. And so I will leave the more pedantic analyses to folks with degrees in scansion. All I know is, this book was stressfully joyful to read! Despite all the intellectual counterpoint going on, McEwan never let go of the narrative thread. I was hooked from start to finish! Will the evil plot succeed? WHAT HAPPENS NEXT??!!!??

You THINK you know Hamlet, but then books like these come along, and you have a new appreciation and desire to re-read the high school text your English teacher forced everyone to digest. Thank you, Ian McEwan!

Like all great works of literature, there are so many issues and layers to this book. Above all, it is about the curse/gift of consciousness. Along the way, McEwan raises all the other problems society faces in 2016: migration, religion, the entitlement of the very young, the disparity of wealth amongst countries, etc. It makes one think: What kind of world are we leaving to the next generation? One could even make a stretch and involve this book in the reproductive health debate!

Highly recommended to anyone who enjoys fabulous writing as well as great storytelling, which don't often go together, but in McEwan's case, this is his signature! And I guarantee that, even if you think you know the story will end (because there's no other way... right?), McEwan excels in pulling the rug from under the reader, leaving you gasping and toasting his plotting.

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Book Review: THE PHILIPPINES: HISTORY, GEOGRAPHY, CUSTOMS, AGRICULTURE, INDUSTRY, AND COMMERCE OF THE SPANISH COLONIES IN OCEANIA by Jean Mallat

I raved about this amazing book over the course of 4 days on my social media accounts, so I thought I'd share it here as well!

Dear Facebook Stalkers and People of the Page (to borrow from Anne Rice), I apologize if in the course of the next several days I will be flooding this wall with tidbits from what is probably THE COOLEST Filipiniana book I now possess! After heavily skimming its juicy contents, I knew that one post wouldn't be enough to do this book justice!

Here is Jean-Baptiste Mallat de Bassilan (Jean Mallat)'s book on basically EVERYTHING there is to know about the Philippines, originally published in 1846, translated into English and a new edition made readily available to all from the National Historical Commission of the Philippines! I've put the Table of Contents below, for those interested in ordering their own copy from the NHCP (it's VEEEERY reasonably priced, practically one peso per page only! A bit more than half the cost of a brand new trade book from bookstores... For such a rarity!!!).

Ambeth Ocampo wrote that the original was 3 volumes long and that the 3rd one was the most precious and also the most rare, for it had beautiful illustrations and maps. You won't find any of those in this volume, unfortunately. But what is here is amazing already! Totally not the dry history textbook from our elementary days!

I read aloud portions during our family dinner and there were gasps and oohs and aahs all around, because of the scandalous anecdotes and fascinating trivia told in a way that would make any Marites proud!

Mallat fell in love with Manila, and wrote obsessively about EVERYTHING! From the customs and "mores," to taxes, mineral compositions of water in lakes, flora and fauna, the language and history. Mallat's got it all! I can't wait to unpack the rest!

Here's an excerpt from the smitten French doctor:

"Charming city! Enchanting place of sojourn! With you, the kindness, the cordiality, the sweetness, the frank and noble hospitality, the friendly and careless freedom, the sincere generosity, make of the house of your neighbor your own house... Oh, Manila, my last thought will be of you!"

****

I enjoyed reading the first ten chapters (out of 31) in Jean Mallat's THE PHILIPPINES! The first four dealt with the "discovery" of the Philippines by Magellan and all the interesting power struggles, earthquakes and fires until 1846 (the time of the book's publication). The succeeding chapters on the geography, climate, plants and animals are very charming as well. One comes away with the sense that the author felt himself to be in Paradise!

But my favorite thus far is Chapter 10 (The City of Manila and its Surroundings), where Mallat brings his reader on a virtual tour. His 1846 Manila is at once so familiar, yet so different from the Manila of my birth.

"The kindness and courtesy of the inhabitants of Manila would make it the most agreeable place of sojourn in the world, if jealousy and backbiting, which one finds, without exception, in all small villages, were not also rampant in it."

And a charming passage for dog lovers: "The gates of the city are closed at 11 o'clock at night and are not opened until five o'clock in the morning... During this interval, the streets are deserted and nothing is heard except a shout of Alerta (who is there?), as, in the surrounding villages, the little bell of the vigilant Bantay." Hahaha!

Highlights from the first third of the book include:

1. Referring to us "Indians," Mallat writes: "In the climates which prevail where they live, they have nothing to do but to bend down to satisfy all their needs, and as long as their activity is not stimulated by an outside constraint, they will remain incapable of any progress." Ooooof! This made me remember a college Geography class, when our professor mentioned how tropical countries were usually underdeveloped, and that the psychology of having everything you need given to you, with hardly any labor, may have played a part.

2. The British succeeded in driving out the Spaniards from Manila and kept them out for fifteen months!!! They only left when news of the treaty ending the Seven Years' War reached them.

Just think... we very nearly spelled "theater" as "theatre," and would have had tea instead of coffee breaks!

3. Those poor Chinese! 20,000 were massacred in 1603. Thus far, that was the only massacre mentioned in the book, although if memory serves, there were several other violent massacres. Huhu.

4. Man oh man, Mallat fell for the Philippines hard. He swings from disinterested academic to ardent poet, sometimes after only a paragraph! So he'd go and write:

"Everything delights and enchants in these places where nature seems to have exhausted her treasures to give to this savage soil what she is of the richest and of the most beautiful, to this air all that she has of the most cherished and the most scented, to this water the most healthful elements, and to this sky a purity that only the hurricanes come to change sometimes."

Or...

"Oh! Who could paint the sensation felt by a European, transported for the first time amidst those vast and melancholic solitudes where he hears only the warbling of the birds, the cries of monkeys, and the rustle of leaves agitated by the wind! Surrounded all over by the magnificent spectacle of those primitive virgin forest, one is reminded by everything of the grandeur of the Eternal; everything lifts his heart towards the Creator, whose marvels one can never tire of admiring."

And immediately in the next paragraph he goes: "We will end this chapter with particular details about the different species of wood..." * insert lists and numbers *

5. We used to have so many trees! Huhu. Mallat writes: "The still virgin forest of this archipelago would suffice to furnish wood for the whole of Europe; one can even boldly advance that almost all the species produced by Asia and America are found there."

"One sees that this archipelago possesses by itself all the produce which constitutes the wealth of the countries surrounding it, and that, itself an object of envy of its neighbors, there is nothing it envies anybody for."

And so many bananas! "More than fifty varieties of banana plants are counted." Of the list, I only recognized three!

6. I theoretically know how to kill an alligator. Haha! Apparently they were EVERYWHERE and would run after people bathing in the rivers and lakes! So there's a technique involving a sharp weapon and a pointed spear. When the mouth is open, spear it and then stab it! Now you know.

7. Mallat had much respect for the native nipa houses, "built as they were on their unbreakable posts," still standing when all the stone houses would break after an earthquake.

I am LIVING for those instances when Mallat the poet can't help himself and gets carried away in his raptures. Mallat the doctor also shares a bit of his background in Chapter 10, when he shares that he was a doctor treating leprosy patients in San Juan de Dios hospital, the oldest in the country.

One third down, two thirds of this most interesting book to go!

(Image not mine, as this edition has no illustrations, but it is one of the beautiful drawings from the original 3rd volume of the 1846 edition. I think this shows the "Losong" (from which the name Luzon is derived), the mortar where Tagalogs pounded "palay."

Speaking of rice, I appreciate how Mallat differentiates between "bigas" and "canin," and even describes the process!

(Original picture from https://gop.com.ph/the-original-prints-of-the.../)

***

Grateful to have finished my self-imposed 10 chapter assignment despite attending the three hour TV lecture of "Professor" Jessica Soho who interviewed 4 presidential candidates!! Hence, Jean Mallat's comments made about the Philippines in 1846 resonate:

"Nothing is more fatal to the country than the permission granted to the mayors to trade for their own account; the result is that they think only of making a fortune at the expense of the local inhabitants whose interests, on the contrary, are their first duty to defend; they vex and oppress them, making themselves enemies of the men to whom they are sent as protectors."

Chapters 11-15 were, admittedly, the most "textbook-y" thus far, as Mallat listed all the provinces and included charts with the names of towns and the number of residents (one column for tributes, paid per family, and another column for individual inhabitants), as well as the produce to be found.

Chapter 16-18 were about the civil, religious, and military agencies.

On the justice system: "More than one misdemeanor has been committed because they know in advance that it will remain unpunished and that it will be easy to escape prosecution by justice."

On the influence of priests: "In reality it is the parish priest alone who governs and maintains order... In each priest, the King had in the Philippines a captain-general and a whole army... The priests are men who have dedicated themselves... it has been noted that madness is very common among the religious, and this has been attributed to the conflicts between nature and the privations imposed by celibacy."

Chapter 19 was about the economy, exports and income earned, and we end again with a gloriously chatty Chapter 20: Physical Characteristics and Customs of the Indios!

On the very old sport of sabong: "One must not forget the right of keeping arenas for cockfights... these fights are the passion of the Indios, who always have their cock beside them, and would rather to do without their wives than without this companion." Haha!

Mallat describes moonlight processions and promenades by courting couples, the indio's love for drink and gambling, and the elaborate (and frequent) bathing done in rivers, featuring gugo shampoo and lots of snacks eaten by hand! Hmmm maybe I ought to try eating tapa, mangoes, and ham during my next riverside bath.

He also mentions our local monsters: the "nono," the "patiana" (I think he meant our "tiyanak"), and the "tigbalang," and while I'm grateful that Netflix's TRESE has made the international community familiar with our country's folklore, Mallat mentions other monsters that I am unfamiliar with. I need to do more research on the succubus "matruculan," and "aman" and "tiguanat."

Speaking of monsters, I need to know more about Don Juan Surriano Mallares! This parish priest apparently assassinated 57 people in order to free his mom from a curse!?! WHAAAAAAAAT??? Mallat, of course, assures us: "He was strangled in the year 1840."

The picture below is from Christie's website, which says it is one of the illustrations from the original 1846 edition (3rd volume), and that it sold for about half a million pesos in 1998! Based on the text, I think this illustration show how the "Bisaya" were dressed.

"The men more generally cover their heads with a handkerchief folded into a turban; sometimes they let their hair grow and gather it in the back like the Malays, which is hardly done by inhabitants of Luzon."

Last eleven chapters to go!

***

Sundays are the best reading days! Finally got to finish the final third of this incredible book over a cup of tsokolate eh (the thick kind)!

I have no pictures of my chocolate, but just look at this incredible photo (not mine, as my 2021 English edition has no illustrations) courtesy of Christie's, from the original 1846 edition (3rd volume) of Jean Mallat's THE PHILIPPINES. To the left we have the "Yfugao," and to the right we have the "high class" indios and mestizos.

On the "Yfugaos," supposedly descended from Japanese who made incursions around 1591: "They like to wait in ambush to assassinate passers-by, cutting off their heads without robbing them, sucking the brains and afterwards bring the still bloody heads to turn them into the finest ornament of their huts."

A blend of Savagery and Civilization. That's how Mallat saw the Philippines he fell passionately in love with (it shows!).

Chapters 21-23 would appeal to anthropologists, as Mallat describes the traits and customs of the "wild races" (un-Christianized indios), the mestizos, and the Chinese.

On the mores of "the whites," Mallat wrote: "It must also be added that husbands in the Philippines do not have pretensions to the most scrupulous fidelity." Sigh.

On the Busaos: "There are some who wear large rings in their ears; others wear rather heavy pieces of wood which prolong prodigiously the cartilage of the ear. This custom is also found among the inhabitants of Vanikoro, Tahiti and several other archipelagos of the Pacific Ocean; it is very difficult to explain how this similarity could have arisen, since as far as it is known the Busaos have never had close relations with these islands; it is therefore natural to conclude that the former descended from those islanders some of whose ships must have been brought to the coasts of the island of Luzon."

In short, when Moana asked "How far I'll go," the answer is: "Luzon!!!"

Chapter 24 is a personal favorite! It contains a chart of baybayin, the translation of the Lord's Prayer in Tagalog and Bisaya, and 60+ pages of a phrase book (2 pictures are attached below).

Mallat didn't just write useful phrases. He wrote mini-dramas! Most have conflict and resolution! I thought boredom would make me skip the phrase book, but I found myself captivated! The scenarios range from how to inquire if stockings are from Parañaque or Pandacan, to fact-checking the gossip that someone brings, as well as how to rent a house or gamble.

He said, "The Tagalog language... is clear, rich, elegant, metaphorical, poetic... It is rich, sonorous, expressive, and would not take long in having its own literature, worthy of taking its place among those of the peoples in Europe."

With gorgeous phrases for "My soul," "light of my eyes," "daughter of my heart," some mini-dramas were quite funny as well! Look at this exchange:

A: You sing delightfully.

B: Now, the Spanish guitar.

A: The first string is worthless. (hahahaha!)

A: I seem to be in a terrestrial paradise.

B: Are you learning Tagal?

A: I am trying my best to learn it.

B: It's a beautiful and useful language.

A: It is also pleasing and full of wit.

B: In eight lessons one can read it fluently and in twenty, understand perfectly any book with the help of a good dictionary. (Oh really, Jean-Baptiste? Because this speaker, born in Manila, still needs a good dictionary understanding it after 35 years of existence!?)

A: I'm afraid to speak, for fear of speaking nonsense.

B: It's by speaking that we learn to speak. (Ooooh thanks for the reminder to keep practicing, Mallat!)

I was also struck by how every phrase had "po" in it, for the Tagalog translation. Mallat, too, spoke of our extreme courtesy.

In Chapter 25 (Education), Mallat tells us that UST isn't the oldest university, but that the Jesuits founded the College of San Jose first.

He also said, "In the churches we have heard waltzes of Mozart and the gayest tunes of French comic operas." I would have LOVED to hear this!!!

Chapters 26-27 were about Agriculture and Industry. I was struck with this anecdote on piña cloth, which Mallat loved so much! He described the process of making it, in 2 separate chapters!

"A work ... presented to us during our stay in Manila ... astonished us beyond expression. It was a piña kerchief in the center of which was embroidered the portrait of Rossini; on the sides, the titles of all his works, and at the four corners, trophies of musical instruments. The Indio artist...told us that he intended it for one of his friends he called the Rossini of Oceanian Italy, for the Indios of the Philippines say their archipelago is the Italy of Oceania with respect to music." AAAAAAAMEEEEEEN.

Chapters 28-30 were about Commerce, and had numerous tables for export duties as well as the protocol for receiving ships at the port, exact amounts of imports from various countries, cost of producing different plants and expected profits, etc.

The last chapter (the 31st) contained his summary of a country that thoroughly enthralled him. He foresaw greatness for us!

"We would like to hope that our work will offer some use, especially at a time when through the opening of the ports of China, the Philippines will be called to play such a great role in the political scene in this part of the world."

The description "must-read" is too liberally applied about books, but I feel that this very affordable edition is necessary in every Filipino's home library! It's cheaper than that Colleen Hoover thriller you've been eyeing, and it gives one a precious look into an imperfect yet fascinating past.

It must be said that there were noticeably more typos in the last third of the book, perhaps this could be remedied in future editions. Hopefully the illustrations could be included in the next edition as well! It would surely drive up the price of the book, but I'm sure it will be worth the extra expense.

For those interested in getting a copy, just email property@nhcp.gov.ph !