When I finished reading the book, I decided to include it in my top 5 list of favorite novels. Since a review is required and I cannot state everything coherently, I decided to divide this review into five parts: summary, characters, motifs, Filipinoness and literary work.
SUMMARY
Smaller and Smaller Circles is about a boy named Alex Carlos who was abused and raped by his elementary P.E. teacher during his years in PAYATAS Elementary School. In his adulthood, Alex developed an attitude hating male kids who resembles his physique when he was young – petite, sickly and someone who can be bullied easily and someone who studies in Payatas. Because of this great hate he was enveloped by an irrational wrath and had been killing boys who are similar to him. Killing one boy every first Saturday of the month becomes his ritual. with this act he feels strengthened and peaceful. Now, this killing alarmed the residents of Payatas and the investigative force (NBI). A task force was then formed to investigate on the killings. Two of its members are Gus Saenz and Jerome Lucero who are not only priests but the former is forensic anthropologist and the latter a clinical psychologist. After almost three months of sleepless examinations and disturbing thoughts, after all the trouble including the false suspect who was detained by Atty. Benjamin Arcinas (another member of the investigative team}, the squad at last found out who the suspect was and he is a member of the dental service team named Alex Carlos. They knew about it by tracing Carlos’s childhood, by contacting his family and by inquiring about his strange and silent behavior. Finally, the police set out for the location of Alex Carlos. In his place they found the organs he ripped-off from his victims, in his refrigerator. Saenz was the one who found Carlos but Carlos dragged him first. Since Saenz is a man in his ripe years, Carlos viewed him as his P.E. teacher; because of this, Carlos started to stab Saenz brutally. Seeing that the priest can no longer fight and badly hurt, the police shot Carlos who was then killed. During the burial, Lucero went to Carlos’ grave only after people had left. Anticipating Lucero’s act, Saenz did the same. The priests prayed for Carlos’ soul, talked a bit and went on. While the priests were empathizing for Carlos’ wasted life and his family is grieving , from afar are Joana Bonifacio and his cameraman videoing a shot of everything that took place with thoughts: …the rating will shoot through the roof.
CHARACTERS
There were many characters introduced in the novel but I just took those which, I believe, represents a society or guild. I will start with the two protagonists Gus Saenz and Jerome Lucero. Both were priests in the story and what they were really trying to do was to find out the truth about the killings to save future victims. I say these people stood up for what priests should be. Priests should be the one guiding people to the truth about the Divine and save humanity from hoarding what is not theirs. These characters also prove essence about priests not only preaching within the church but also those who go far to serve the community.
Another note worthy character is Alex Carlos. We all know that Carlos’ behavior was just an output of his traumatic childhood experience. Carlos, for me represents the adults whose childhoods were sad. According to psychology, childhood affects adulthood; that is, whatever strange behavior a person has in his adulthood is a byproduct of his experiences as a child. Carlos’ represents these people who run away from their bleak past. And these people are quite pitiful, their wounds were not healed thus leading them into a strange adult psychology.
Another character is Joana Bonifacio who I partly hate. Bonifacio is a media personality and it is quite obvious that she represents the media. Bonifacio’s aim was to get information and cover a real catching story and this it what media people do. They simply want to get a real good rating; they are not really concerned about the people involve; this makes media people so inconsiderate and even heartless.
Moreover, although he did not really played big part in the novel I picked him because he represents every Filipino criminal – getting involved into unlawful actions because of poverty - this boy was the wrong suspect detained by Atty. Arcinas. He said that he committed the crime because of poverty. He said “Being poor. Not having a job. My mother is sick… Where will I take her? I have nowhere to go. ..There are no jobs.” This is indeed true in the Philippine scenery; the framed - up suspect is an epitome of a person, we Filipinos call as “kapit sa patalim”.
Another character that I took notice is Emong Ricafrente who was also one of the kids abused by Gorospe. But unlike Carlos, Ricafrente forgave and accepted the past which led him to live a happy and a peaceful life with the family he built. And I believe Emong is an example every person should follow.
Lastly, the villain Mr. Gorospe, he represents all the mean people who soil innocent minds and people like him must be buried alive!
MOTIFS
Every time there are killed boys, there are rats. Rats are animals which live in the dark, which creep at night and do not want to be seen. Similarly, the novel progressed because of a darkness that enveloped the characters. Each character in the story has strange mannerisms and attitude which means most of them have an unspoken darkness within. A darkness that does not want to be seen, a darkness that hides in the corner of the psyche and a darkness that creeps at night just like the rats.
Another motif of the novel was the ripping – off of the organs of the victims. This acts mean that the darkness that is kept and fed gradually takes a persons goodness. It will take away all that makes him human making him behave like a brute. Another motif are the poor families. The killer was not able to defend himself because they were poor and even the setting is poor – it is in Payatas. Poverty is the root of all tragic scenes in the novel.
FILIPINONESS
There are certain parts in the novel which showed Filipino tradition. First is the Payatas Area, all Filipinos, I think, have known about this dumpsite where some of our fellowmen get their living from. Also another “so Filipino” was the scene where a certain politician was called to make the health center available and when Lucero said that he is sure to vote the councilor because of his assistance, I blurted out “pinoy jud!”. We tend to easily thank politicians when in fact they corrupt our money. It is their responsibility to help the people because they have chosen to be public servants. Another awful situation but really a promiscuous thing in the Philippines is the injustice that most if not all poor Filipino families experience. This was what happened to Carlos’ family, they cannot do anything because they are poor and this , seems to me has become a tradition.
THE LITERATURE
I found the novel really fresh and cunning. It has no shocks, but it was narrated very heartily and intelligently. I simply want to meet F. H. Batacan and shake her hands and ask her anything about the novel. I really pity Alex Carlos for everything that had happened to him. It was not all his fault, maybe it is fate’s fault and Mr. Gorospe’s. I just want to bury all the Gorospes in the world, alive! The novel made me realize as well how fortunate I am to have a happy childhood. This novel quite helped me understand more my friends who act strangely at present because they have sad childhood encounters. Thanks to Batacan… Salute!!!
LILO…
Love & Life: A Review on Sering’s Getting Better
Fresh, contemporary, vibrant and no boring moments – this is how I find this real new thing of novella. As a youth of this generation I would definitely agree that this is a very, very, very youthful book. The point of view is definitely unique making it sound so hippy, but in fairness, with a serious touch.
Getting better is about a woman’s journey from her falling-in-love mania, to getting – engaged nausea, being – cheated drama up to her moving – on – getter – over aura, then back slid and got cheated again until the time that she finally wanted to get over and successfully got better. (That’s the use of titles – hints)
As a literary work, Getting better is something that each girl should read especially when the reason for the broke-up of her relationships were third, fourth or even fifth parties. The persona’s name was not mentioned perhaps she represents all broken and betrayed people – mostly girls of course. The persona was betrayed by her conceited boyfriend named Mico who is not really so handsome and rich and I describe him as damn stupid who mingled with oh-I-am-a-virgin-in-daylight Cynthia, who was the persona’s officemate. Mico represents men in the society who do not know how to value women – maybe they do but only in the time that a girl is all fed-up by his selfish actions. Mico is described as someone who appears so prim and proper. One cannot think of him to fool around because of his angelic face but that’s where the principle of “all that glitters is not gold sometimes it’s just a broken piece of glass” comes in; definitely, Mico is one hell a piece of as broken glass that caused a woman’s pain. Similarly, all pieces of a broken glass are not worth a tear, all traitors should be forgotten.
Another inherent scenes in the novella are episodes with friends trying to make her (the persona) happy. I notice Janice; Janice is both fun to be with but every reader knew that her personality is partly a byproduct of a lost love named Justin who, unlike her, is already very stable with his present relationship. I salute Janice’s way of sashaying, she knows that she cannot really commit wholeheartedly so she simply played - with playmates. Janice represents those people who changed their lifestyle to get over but more often they are still haunted by their lost loves. With Janice’s way of displacing loneliness with an empty pleasure, I learned that getting into many wild, wild acts to show an Ex that one can move on without him, simply does not work. I learned that to mend a broken heart means to face and to handle fallbacks one day at a time. One has to clear ends, accept reality and think positively just like what the protagonist did. I also learned that we should not be judgmental, just like the impression of some characters to Bert Reyno, some people simply act the feminine way but they are not really gay. In short this book tells us that “what we see is not always what it seems to be”.
I also think that it is better for differences to come out during the BF-GF years so that there will be less trouble during marriage just like what happened to Jake and Tonette. They almost, all the time, throw dirty words to each other. It is kind of exhausting to always quarrel over nonsense. I wonder what will happen to them in the future, I don’t think they will always enjoy that sex-after-quarrel sessions. These frequent troubles between the couple might affect their future kids. And speaking with kids, I really pity Cynthia for having not used contraceptives when she and Mico made it; now she has to conceive a child made out of foolishness. But more than Cynthia, I pity the innocent child in her womb. It is quite expected that her moving-in to Mico’s house is not agreeable by Mico and how much more by his conservative mom. Now, I conclude betrayal begets betrayal. Cynthia has to face all the consequences that she involved herself into. I also remember how Cynthia played so innocently when the photocopier was ruined because somebody made sex on top of it. I believe Cynthia does not only represent the certified-bitches society but she also belongs to the group of hypocrites who condemn “deflowered” women but eventually signed-in in the certified-bitches society.
Aside from the noticeable characters, Getting Better also implied the influence of mothers in every person’s life. I will start with Mico’s. His mother is conservative and I would say, has a control of his life. Mico’s mother still pampers him. She treats Mico like a high school boy who still needs to be reminded to go home early. One is advantageous and blessed to have a caring mom but I believe mothers the same with kids have limitations on when and when not to intrude about each others businesses. Another motherly influence was inherent when Malu was so cautious not to be caught by her grandmother to have gone home in the dawn. I would really agree that grandmother’s can sometimes really play like antagonists in one’s life. Sometimes they can be so irrational, they could not understand that the generation of today is quite different from theirs but nevertheless, I admit, most of their sermons are helpful.
Moving on, another motherly aspect I found are instincts and dreams. Mothers really have sixth sense, they know when some things are not going well, just like when the persona’s mother dreamt of Mico having an affair.
With these implications of “motherly influence” present in the novella, I can safely say that this novella is feminist.
After the motherly influence in the book, I also classify certain motifs that I named “So-Pinoy”. These So-Pinoy episodes in the novella really amused me. Truly, a novel reflects its author’s culture. One So-Pinoy experience is the living of a grandchild in his or her grandmother’s vicinity. This situation is very inherent in the Philippines which just proves the close-family-ties in the Filipino tradition. From the living-with-grandma site I will go to friends-as-shoulders team. Absolutely true in any Filipino set-up, when someone is in the drifting times of his or her life, it is expected that friends would be around – giving shoulders to cry on, wiping tears, making silly stuff to make someone happy etc. Good friends are really a treasure to any Filipino especially to girls (No wonder psychologists are poor in this country). This proof of being a Filipino is one thing that makes us one of the happiest people in the world. Another So-Pinoy characteristic, which is both positive and negative, is gossiping. Gossiping is positive because it sometimes becomes bonding sessions of friends and even a relief from stressful paperworks however this So-Pinoy habit creates enmity between groups which even leads to lousy job discussions and half-baked interactions.
Finally, I like the novel because it teaches every person, broken-hearted or not, the value of letting go, of being just, of being faithful, of opening doors, of building friendships and of love and of life. I realized that happiness does not depend on one person so why ruin a bright life when that someone has left you. One should break free from the bondages of failed and lost relationships; there are a million happier aspects of life than the gray ones. So move on people…….
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