THREE
BOOKS, THREE REVIEWS, THREE PRAISES!
THE
WRITE BOOK!
(WRITE HERE WRITE NOW by AA Patawaran,
2012)
I love reading and I love reading different
books that give me fun information, like Bernie Smith’s The Joy of Trivia, intriguing discoveries like Rene Noorbergen’s Secret of the Lost Races, soulful
inspiration like Og Mandino’s The
Greatest Miracle in the World, mind-boggling, ubliquitous and “literary
beauty without sense” like Umberto Eco’s The
Name of the Rose and The Island of
the Day Before, and thought-provoking concepts like Carl Sagan’s Contact that was later made into a movie
starring Jodie Foster. Then there is Syd Field’s Screenplay: The Foundation of Screenwriting, all because it’s one
of my frustrations – to write a screenplay. Apart from these, there are novels that
intrigue my pineal gland at the center of my brain, like James Cain’s The Postman Always Rings Twice, Vladimir
Navokov’s Lolita, and Milan Kundera’s
The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Why am I citing these books? Well,
because these are the books that get my undivided attention. These are books,
at least for me as a reviewer, which get me exhilarated. Another reason is
because I’m reviewing AA Patawaran’s Write
Here Write Now. If I may borrow Patawaran’s own words: “Write in pictures.
With your words, let the reader see not letters, but images.” Very well put!
For this is how I discern the good read from those that make me yawn in ennui.
When I penned this review of Patawaran’s
book for MOD magazine’s June 2013
issue, I would’ve like to give it a long write-up, but I was constraint by
editorial mandate to limit my assessment to no longer than 1,000 words. Hey, I
can do it in five words: It is very very good! With this, I could see my
editor’s eyebrow rising and shouting “biased!” as she recognizes the similarity
in the writing style and method of the author with that of mine. So, there’s a need
to expound again.
Let me start with the title of the
book, Write Here Write Now: It’s
ingenious! Why? Because it’s a book about a writer’s experiences and
encounters, his love for writing, his job as a writer, his recounting of the
things he wrote, his views of things written, and his encouragement of others
to write and “seek their writing muses.”
The author has a “way with words,”
which according to the late Alejandro “Tito Anding” R. Roces, whom I considered
one of my most distinguished mentors in journalism, “is the ability that
excellent writers possess.” To Patawaran, there is no concubinage in the harem
of words. The more words you romance each day, the better. In another way to
look at it, like Truman Streckfus Persons, better known as Truman Capote, who
wrote the classic Breakfast at Tiffany’s,
“the greatest
pleasure of writing is not what it’s about, but the music the words make.”
Patawaran is a writer and editor that
has the ability to overdose his sentences with loads of commas and gets away
with it. In his “Defense of the Serial Comma,” I find no evidence of a wilful suicide
of his English grammar. So, unlike Büm Tenorio Jr, I don’t see Patawaran’s
writing as “comatose.” On the contrary, it’s alive and kicking!
Although I may not like Patawaran’s
comparing of seeming multiple personalities that writers have to Flora Rheta
Shreiber’s Sybil, the author indeed
has a point. Writers, the good, the very good, and the excellent ones, do have
multiple voices in their brains that need to unleash their own words,
sentences, paragraphs, and stories. Like the treatment for multiple personality
disorder – “to integrate the patient’s various selves,” the writer needs “to
bring the more compelling voices (in his mind) in harmony with his desire to
write well and tell a good story.”
I’m not also particularly fond of
Nicki Minaj’s rap or instant messaging’s jejemon
pseudolanguage as mentioned by Patawaran, but again you need to respect the
author for his sound argument that a writer need to be flexible to both have
fun and blend the Old School with the Generation X.
The only boring part of the book is
the chapter “Remembrance of Things Past,” where he wrote an 876-word sentence,
finishing it triumphantly with “the period.” This I say only because it’s hard
to read that long without breathing! It makes me recall the python-length whatchamacallit English sentences of
lawyers I encountered during my legal researcher days with the Task Force on
Land Frauds.
My only criticism, perhaps, is the
myriad citations of books and authors, and the countless enumerations of items
in his paragraphs to display the use of the serial comma, but it only goes to
show that he is a bookworm of some sort, like the late Ernie Baron of
“Knowledge Power” fame, who must have devoured through the pages of thousands
of books.
This book is a “must” read for
aspiring writers who wants to make “adjectives sing” and avoid the “lavish rape
of adverbs.” There are also great tips for storytellers, novelists,
scriptwriters, interviewers, and even Accountancy students who can’t form a
simple sentence in English. Heck, even auditors, engineers (me included),
neurosurgeons, politicians (especially them), store clerks, and wrestlers, and
yes even a washed-up actress or a deranged senator, can pick up a useful item
or two in this book.
o O
o
[This is the
unedited review (updated) I originally submitted to MOD. The edited version was published on the June 2013 issue of the
magazine.]
COMPARISONS
IN POETRY
(DUNGOL by Rebecca T. Añonuevo, 2018)
When I first got hold of this book
from the author herself, award-winning writer and poet, Rebecca T. Añonuevo,
the first feeling that came to me was intrigue. Yes, intrigue. Intrigue about
the title. Intrigue about reviewing her book. And maybe goosebumps, too.
What is Dungol? I immediately asked myself, fast-browsing through the pages
of the book. “Dungol” in my initial impression means hardheadedness! It reminds
me of a Marvel superhero character, the Hulk, so much immeasurable brute force,
immovable if met with resistance, and yet when offered a gentle hand, you’ll
find gentleness in return.
In the course of reading the book, I'm
learning Hiligaynon, a couple of Cebuano and Ilokano and an Arab words. A
little dialect shock but I got the flow. I did some research and discovered Dungol can mean both “stubborn” and “naughty”
and, when prefixed, kadungol, the “hardheadedness”
becomes “Uncontrollable,” “irrepressible,” and “determined.” Very nice!
The poems are clearly descriptive and
in general written in Filipino, but to better appreciate their messages, a
reader who is not well-versed with dialects like Hiligaynon needs to know the
meaning of the words she used to title them. One, however, don’t need to be a
polyglot to understand her poetry. Just the mere meaning, so that your thoughts
can dance with the verses, and know what she wants to express.
In this regard, I thought, rather than
making the usual review, I’ll let you glimpse on the ardor and passion of Añonuevo’s
kind of poetry.
I cannot help but admire the courage
of the author to reject (Ginasikway)
the evils prevailing during the Yellow Regime (the time when the first half of
the verses in the book were written); to say it aloud seeking tranquility (Kalinungan) in a society full of
violence and terrorism; in a pond (Sa
Punong) full of social injustices and human scruples; calculating (Kuwentahon) the numerical difference
between public service and corruption, between benevolence and greed, in the
country’s educational infrastructure.
The author has an ingenuity for
writing verses about comparisons of seemingly incomparable things. Imagine a
hammock (Aboy-aboy) to describe the
simplicity and innocence of life; a cat (Kuring),
black as it is and traditionally ominous, it’s movement symbolic of life’s bridges
and crossroads; a scratch (Garas) compared
to the sound of words, the gesture of people and the history of society; the
plague (pisti), which is – truthfully
– the menace of drugs, like rats breeding everywhere and thriving, and so hard
to exterminate and; of all the nasty
things imaginable, a painful boil (Uyapos),
mistaken for embrace (as in the Tagalog word “yapos”), but literally and literarily described, with a merciless
prod to remove from existence – Requiem
aeternam dona eis (“Eternal rest grant unto them”).
Like Ginhalad, when it is a proper noun, it pertains to a deity of old,
in this case the diyos ng liwanag
(god of light). Uncapitalized, it means “to sacrifice” or “to make an
offering.” When the two meanings are intertwined, you get poetic entreaty for
immediate guidance and prayer for deliverance against the glare of temptation
and avarice.
There’s one title, Lubag, which has a couple of meanings
both in Tagalog and Bisaya. To the Tagalogs, it pertains to “calm” and also
“the lowering of the sail,” while in the Bisayan counterpart, it means
“distortion” in one hand and “twist of fate” on the other. When you read each
paragraph of this poem, the sense of the different meanings becomes tangential,
overwhelming and seeking grace like an (un)bearable lightness of being.
The title Dungol, as I mentioned earlier, can also mean “naughty,” so does
one poem titled Nalibogan. No, it
most certainly does not contained lustful thoughts, but rather the cries of the “confused.”
For while the Tagalog word libog
means “lust,” in the Bisayan dialect it translates to “confusion.” Written
barely two years into President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration, here again is
another comparison, this time the two sides of an argument, which has already
polluted the world of social media: President Duterte’s war on drugs and the
alleged “collateral damages” that it brought. While some noisily accused the
president of the so-called extra-judicial killing, there’s still another
question less noisy but real, two actually: “What about the many who have died,
families ruined, because of drugs?” and “What about the deaths incurred on the
side of law enforcement to fight this menace?” The author laid that out, too –
in poetry!
Incidentally, libog can also mean “desire” whether it be of the flesh, or of the
intellectual or adventurous kind. As such, another comparison: The “desire” of
the yellow opposition and the pedophile-filled church to ruin the president
using the propaganda of e-j-k which initially “confused” the people, and yet
the “desire” to rid society of the menace removed the confusion, and the people
overwhelmingly approve of it as established by the surveys (Reviewer’s opinion).
Of course, one will always have a
favorite, and mine is Dumduma, which
in Hiligaynon means “memory” and in Ilokano, “diversity.” Here the author
injects her own memories of love with the on-going peace talk at the time she
wrote the poem. She equates “memories” of real, passionate, experiences with
that of many attempts to seek peace between two “diverse” ideology, both tired
and heart-broken, and yet unwilling to yield.
It wouldn’t be complete without a poem
having the book title itself – Dungol.
Oh I love this! Inspiring amidst the tandem of stubborness and fear, with a
tinge of naughtiness – “Sa kalaliman ng gabi, nakabalot ako ng kumot, ang kamay
mo sa aking balakang. Walang dahilan, hindi dahilan ang ulan, ang lamig, ang
pagod.” (In the depth of night, I’m heavily sheathed, your hand in my waist.
There’s no reservation, not the rain, or cold, or fatigue.) Wow! Apart from
this, the poem inhales and exhales the determination to reach the quest, the
peak, the ecstacy of it (dungol can
also be equated to the Tagalog lunggati).
I mentioned but a sample of the 76
poems inside the book. It has a lot more of the unusual poetic titles with
unique free verses that only Rebecca T. Añonuevo could put across to the
would-be perusers. How about a poem on the cracking of an egg, or related to
the 2009 Indie film Yanggaw
(literally “affliction”), or titled X
and Zombi? To those, who are reading
this review, it’s your time to be intrigued.
THE
NEED TO EXPOSE
(THE DARK SIDE OF CATHOLICISM by Armando
Ang, 2005)
First
of all, I was baptized a Catholic, the only one in my immediate family. My dad
is a Baptist, my mom as many in our family belong to the Pentecostal Faith.
Further into our family, there are also Seven Day Adventist and Inglesia Ni
Cristo followers, but I’m among the very few who was baptized a Catholic. I
kept asking this question to my mom and my aunt when they were still alive, my
dad having passed away when I was very young. They couldn’t answer me
satifactorily.
One more thing, I graduated from the
University of Santo Tomas, the first and premier Catholic University in the
Philippines and Asia. It was, however, during my stay and schooling inside this
Catholic university that I was awakened spiritually. Yes, during our Theology
class, for three years under a very charismatic teacher, Ms. Belen Pereras.
I first got to read the Bible when I
was in high school, but it was during college that I got deep into scriptural
teachings. After reading the entire Bible a couple of times, I found myself in
a quandary. I found myself in a religion that is very much in conflict with
GOD’s laws and our Lord Jesus Christ’s teachings. So, I went to ask Ms. Pereras
about it. “Why do the priests, in particular, and the Catholic Church, in
general, espouse a doctrine that is in conflict with Bibical wisdom?” She,
hesitantly, perhaps not wanting to offend the religion and the clergy for which
she belongs, did not answer me directly. Her indirect answer, however, was
clear enough: “Who would you rather believe, the words of GOD or the doctrines
of men?” Since then, I imbued myself to seek the truth. I read the Bible over
and over again and, together with reliable sources of relevant information, I
am enlightened. I unequivocally renounced my Catholic faith.
Why am I mentioning these? Well,
because I’m reviewing Armando Ang’s book The
Dark Side of Catholicism and my change of faith is very much relevant.
The focus of this review will not be
about whether the author is telling the truth or that he is right or wrong, but
more on how the contents were written, and if the contents have merits. It is,
however, my personal decision, and opinion, to say if I agree or disagree on
certain aspects of the contents and to give comments on them.
It took me more than a year to read
and review this “updated edition” (423 pages including preface, but excluding
the indices). I browsed it once and I already read it twice. To be thorough and
to maintain my reputation as a researcher myself, I also looked into some of
his references. Most of his references, I have already encountered before.
From the predominance of biblical
quotes and citations, it is clearly understood that the author is well-verse in
the Scriptures – a biblical Christian, quite rare now-a-days.
The author’s Prepace and Preface to this
Edition, are well-meant. He even wrote a letter on the first page addressed
to “My Friends in Christ,” which most presumably include Catholics. He wrote
“Nothing in the book is written against the Catholics. On the contrary it is
meant to enlighten them.” Well, in my reading, nothing perhaps against the
Catholic believers as a whole, but with the revelations of scandals,
conspiracies and corruptions, this book lambasts the Catholic church hierarchy
with the full force of detailed proofs and well-research documents.
Armando Ang dissected the many flawed
dogma of the Catholics church such as the veneration of the Virgin Mary, the
made-up dogmas about Mary and the Marian cult miracles, the scruples and
schisms inside the Catholic church, the extra unbiblical sacraments and the pagan
traditions it adopted, with precision using as his knives the written
Scriptures and factual, historical and extant referential documents. Added
features of this book are the chapters on “Clergy Sexual Abuse,” “The Murder of
Pope John Paul I,” and “The Antichrist.”
I would probably rate the three added
chapters as the most intriguing. Yet, as I’ve said, defended by thorough research and factual
references, one cannot help but agree on its merit.
As I went through chapter after
chapter of this book, I begin to admire the patience, resourcefulness and
dedication of the author. It’s full of lengthy discourse, complete with
citations, footnotes and sidebars where they are needed. I’m an author myself
and I know the difficulty of compiling information and laying them down in
accordance to a desired concept. This book, in my opinion, is a real hard job
to accomplish.
The author made sure that it would be
easy to read with the dissertation following a very fluid pattern. The chapters
are well separated. Each chapter has a main subject and the sub-topics are
clearly defined. While the author, being true to his word, didn’t say anything
against the Catholic church, his research – the compilation of the treatises he
puts forward in the book – did all the talking.
The book succesfully debunks the
glorification of the Virgin Mary and exposes the many conspiracies to propagate
it. It details the many scandals committed by the leaders of the Catholic
church trashing the claim of infallibility of the popes. The book even reveals
aspects of the church defending “child sexual abuse” with “technical
theological terms” and protecting convicted pedophile priests. On the same
manner, it also reveals that aside from “allowing child abusing priests to
remain in the position of spiritual leadership, they have been covering up the
fact that they have allowed homosexuals to remain in the priesthood.”
Subsequently, seminaries became the breeding ground of homosexual practices.
Clearly, the book points out, the many
dark. evil and unbiblical arguments and deeds behind Catholicism.
This is a terrific read for former
Catholics, for Catholics who are in doubt of their faith, for Catholics who are
searching for the truth, and for the new breed that call themselves “Christian
Catholics.”
The only drawback, perhaps, that I can
think of, as per experience reviewing books, is the ennui that goes with
perusing such a long compilation. However, for one who is truly seeking to find
and know the truth, no reading, no matter how long can be boring. My suggestion
is to read them by the chapter, and read them only when you are up to it.
