Ninotchka Rosca

An endless festival amidst an endless war is the central image of this novel of the Philippines of the time of Marcos. Three young people seek relief from the suffocating repression and brutality of the Dictatorship by joining an ancient festival in the island of K----. They find instead that the war has followed them and that the festival is but a metaphor for an entire society and culture in conflict. The three find distinct destinies of death, liberation, affirmation and ultimately, salvation. This book is now considered a classic of Philippine literature.

A Novel of Life in the Philippines

State of War

Rina

State of War started off really strong, I was captivated by the writing. The descriptions were vivid and the characters were well-constructed; the storytelling reminded me of Isabel Allende's A Long Petal of the Sea. The beginning of the book introduces three characters: Adrian Banyaga, Eliza Hansen, and Anna Villaverde. They are prominent characters, though their page-time wasn't the longest. Divided into three chapters/sections: the second chapter, the Book of Numbers, takes up the biggest portion of the book, spanning the Spanish, American, and Japanese occupation in the Philippines until the Marcos era. It is also the richest in history and culture. My enjoyment levels of this portion went up and down a lot due to the characters and their actions, I guess I was just more interested in Adrian, Eliza, and Anna and this was a break in the momentum. There's magical realism incorporated into the story as well but in my case this made things a bit confusing and took me quite a while to wrap my head around. Despite these, I still thought this book was well-written, emotional, and thought-provoking; extremely symbolic. A must-read for Filipinos.

State of War A Novel of Life in the Philippines

Reviews