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Title: Noli Me Tangere (Shaps Library of Translations) by Jose P. Rizal, Soledad Lacson-Locsin, Raul L. Locsin ISBN: 0-8248-1917-9 Publisher: University of Hawaii Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1997 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $28.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.64 (14 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Rizal's Masterpiece
Comment: Noli Me Tangere is an articulate and a colourful account of the sufferings of the Filipino people during the Spanish era. This brilliant book is the Philippine's equivalent of America's Uncle Tom's Cabin.
Rizal wrote a powerful novel that is extremely thought- provoking and challenging to the minds of all people, Filipinos or not.
A must read for all individuals who wants to learn about the Philippines and its history. It should be noted that Rizal's Noli Me Tangere provoked the hearts of the Filipinos to fight for a Republican nation. Indeed, the book is a masterpiece from a person declared as a national heroe
Rating: 5
Summary: The Social Cancer
Comment: It's about time this book was reprinted. Written by one of the heroes of the Philippine revolution, this book is a
semi-autobiographical account of Philippine society during its days as a Spanish colony. "Noli Me Tangere," roughly translated as "Touch Me Not," reflects the hypocrisy and corruption present in that time. Former translations have aptly titled it, "The Social
Cancer."
Juan Crisostomo Ibarra, the protagonist, returns to his country after being educated in Madrid, and seeks to marry Maria Clara, a young woman who had been betrothed to him when they were children. He tries to use his education to help the townspeople, but his efforts are thwarted by the clergy. It is these priests who prevent him from learning the true cause of his father's death, and he is eventually labeled as a heretic and is excommunicated from society. He escapes being assasinated and flees, vowing to revenge himself, his father, and Maria Clara.
There is an incredible amount of detail in this novel, and the translation is superb. The characters are vivid -- who can forget Sisa's tragedy and the eerie Father Salvi? You don't have to be a historian or a student to enjoy this novel, and knowing nothing about that place or time period will not affect its intensity and pathos.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Melodrama of betrayal for a Life Betrayed
Comment: The story of "Noli Me Tangere" is one of bitter ironies. It is the first major Filipino novel and one of the first novels in Asia written outside China and Japan. Yet it is written in a European language (Spanish). It is one of the first novels of anti-colonial rebellion, written by a man who was executed by the Spanish just as the country began its fight for independence. In many ways the Philippines more resembles Latin America than its Asian neighbors. Both colonial Philippines and colonial Latin America were dominated by a corrupt, bigoted and dogmatic Catholicism. Both were colonized (more or less) by Spain and both regions had the same tensions between Spaniards, Spaniards born in the colonies, "mixed blood" and the indigenous majority. Both had to suffer the cruelties of a foreign country who looked down at the colonies with contempt. But Spanish never became the vernacular of the Philippines and after the United States' brutal conquest, only a tiny portion of Filipinos can read the founding novel of their own literature. To make things worse, the translation of the novel has been cursed with political malice. As Benedict Anderson pointed out in "The Spectre of Comparisons" the main translation by Leon Guerrero was compromised in a variety of ways. For a start Guerrero, like most of the Filipino ruling class collaborated with the brutal Japanese invaders. Afterwards he was a player in the corrupt, clientele ridden dependent pseudo democracy of the post war years. Rather hostile to the United States, Guerrero's translation subtly and not so subtly bowdlerizes the novel, blunting not only its fierce anti-clericalism and contempt, but also mangling Rizal's unique, cutting tone.
This translation is an improvement, though as Anderson points out, it is by no means perfect. As such one cannot be sure one appreciates Rizal's cunning, knowing, almost proto-modernist attitude towards the reader. As a result what we have may look a lot like a melodrama, as Juan Crisostomo Ibarra confronts grotesque injustices while he is falsely accused and cheated out of his love. Certainly we do not have an exemplar of realism like Rizal's contemporary, Benito Perez Galdos. One might think that the critique of Catholicism is very, very broad. The priests and laity are fanatical about Purgatory, and exploit the inhabitants for money for indulgences that reminds me of the endless loyalty oath campaigns in "Catch-22." They denounce modern education and hamper the building of a necessary school, they are so cruel to Ibarra's father that his corpse ends up dumped in a river, they chortle smugly over the damnation of their enemies. But there is a more cutting satire. Learning of a pogrom against the Chinese population, one character notes that they gave such good gifts for Christmas. If only they could have been killed after New Years. There are elaborate discussions of the many festivals and rituals of the Church that show a real talent for description. There are some fine scenes about being hampered and cursed by a callous bureaucracy and police. This is a novel that deserves a bigger audience and a better translation.
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Title: Brown River, White Ocean: An Anthology of Twentieth-Century Philippine Literature in English by Luis Francia ISBN: 0813519993 Publisher: Rutgers University Press Pub. Date: 01 August, 1993 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: The Philippines Reader: A History of Colonialism, Neocolonialism, Dictatorship, and Resistance by Daniel B. Schirmer, Stephen Rosskamm Shalom ISBN: 089608275X Publisher: South End Press Pub. Date: 01 January, 1987 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: Dusk: A Novel (Modern Library (Paperback)) by F. Sionil Jose ISBN: 0375751440 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 01 May, 1998 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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Title: This Earth of Mankind (Buru Quartet , Vol 1) by Pramoedya Ananta Toer, Max Lane ISBN: 0140256350 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 May, 1996 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: America Is in the Heart: A Personal History (Washington Paperbacks, Wp-68) by Carlos Bulosan ISBN: 029595289X Publisher: University of Washington Press Pub. Date: 01 June, 1974 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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