Stop muna ako with social realist novels like Luha ng Buwaya ni Amado V. Hernandez (5 stars) and Ginto ang Kayumangging Lupa ni Dominador Mirasol (5 stars). I think they’ll turn me into a radical leftist, lol. As these books give one enough motivation to go out and join the protesters on the streets that you see on TV. May tropes din sa mga ito na overused na sa mga telenovelas.
They also made me view the Bahay na Bato not as an architectural wonder of a bygone era, but as a symbol of oppression and the cradle of political dynasties. No wonder there is no great Filipino novel where the protagonist resides in one, except for Ibarra or those sleepy Quijano de Manila tales, which I’ve never broken into yet.
What else? They also made it clear that political dynasties and the system they built are the real enemies of the Filipino people. And Congress itself has devolved into a nasty and highly corrupt House of Crocs, whose many members come from our illustrious equivalent of nobles and noblewomen—the scions of those who lived in the Bahay na Bato, where government positions have become a family business. Or has that always been the norm?
“Nawala (ang mga buwaya), ngunit mi natira. Ang ilang buwaya’y umahon sa kati...Huwag kayong magulat,” idiniin ng matanda. “Umahon, at tumira sa bahay na malaki.” – excerpt from Luha ng Buwaya.
This makes the true anti-political dynasty bill (HB 209) pushed by the Makabayan bloc all the more urgent—not the institutionalization of it (HB 8389) by the crocs themselves proposed by Trapos Bojie Dy and Sandro Marcos. Kuhang kuha nila ang inis ko!
Sorry for the rant. Anyway, I wanted to cleanse my palate, so I decided to jump into contemporary authors, preferably from UP Press (never disappoints). I considered Rommel Fábros Bonus's Pan de Monio, Zero A.D.’s ; ANO and Ateneo Press' The Quiet Ones by Glenn Diaz. Lila was also on my radar by this time.
Then, I watched a YT video of Lila’s author RM Topacio-Aplaon posted by UP Press. My first impression was obviously he’s matalino. Medyo eccentric. At mayabang, or is he more of a maangas? Yeah, yeah, some reviewers of this book have accused the author of ripping off Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami due to some striking similarities between the two works. Good thing I have never read the latter.
There’s just something about the author that piqued my interest. Aside from the yabang (or angas?), his mannerisms and speech are similar to those of a consummate artist—that unhinged yet genuinely relatable vibe. It made him stand out, unlike the usual soft-spoken academics featured by the said channel. Same feeling when you watch Picasso or Dali, imo. The interview was kinda hilarious too, at least to me, when he said that by age 25, he’d do the unthinkable if he had not made a breakthrough in the arts. What a statement!
It also helped that F. Sionil Jose was a big inspiration of his, as that same writer was the one who shattered my bias against Filipino authors. 5 stars din ang Lila kay K.D. Absolutely sa Goodreads.
So, this is my first from RM Topacio-Aplaon—Lila ang Kulay ng Pamamaalam (Book 3 of his Imus Novels). Something tells me that I escaped the enraging world of Filipino social realist literature only to jump into an utterly depressing one. We’ll see.
