Jose Dalisay (Anvil Publishing)
When Filipino multi-award-winning journalist, playwright and Philippine
Star columnist Jose Dalisay's first novel, Killing Time in a Warm Place,
came out in 1992, it soon became apparent that Southeast Asia was
blessed with a new literary player of enormous potential.
After this triumph, Dalisay focused his energies on writing screenplays,
non-fiction, reportage, and on academic endeavours, and it was not
until 2007 that his second novel emerged. But Soledad's Sister was an
even more accomplished work than his debut, and was swiftly
shortlisted for the Man Asian Literary Prize that year.
It is an extraordinary fictive depiction of ordinary Philippine lives
redefined by the arrival at Ninoy Aquino International Airport of the
cadaver of a young woman in a casket. The tragic cargo, flown in from
Saudi Arabia, is listed as one "Aurora V. Cabahug", and is certified by
the Saudi authorities as having died from "drowning".
Uniting the body with the grieving family would appear to be a simple
task. However, there is no one to claim her at the airport, and the
deceased is not in fact, Aurora V. Cabahug, but her sister, Soledad -
who went overseas to work, using her sibling's passport; Soledad had
lost her own.
A missive seeking relatives is sent to Paez, the woman's hometown, a
rural backwater about six hours drive from Manila. Here the living
Aurora can be found - "Rory" is a coltish young dreamer, and singer at
the Flame Tree, a nightclub frequented by cops, Korean businessmen,
and various other karaoke hobbyists.
The task of reuniting the two sisters falls on everyman cop Walter
Zamora, who is himself a victim of convoluted circumstances, having
found himself marooned in Paez thanks to a romantic indiscretion and
some bad luck.
Walter drives Rory from Paez to various points in Manila, with extended
stopovers - using flashbacks from Soledad's itinerant memory - in Hong
Kong and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Along this tropical road trip we learn of the family background of the
sisters, and how guilt was the driving force in the life of the fragile
Soledad. Towards the end, the pace quickens cinematically, but with
loose ends being tied up convincingly and the central mystery solved.
Perhaps the most important "character" here is Philippine society,
which Dalisay presents in a richly textured manner. It is both accessible
and inviting for outsiders and highly evocative for Dalisay's compatriots.
This superb book - one of the greatest Asian novels of this young
century, thus far - is surprisingly hard to find in Hong Kong, but can be
ordered from the Anvil Publishing website.
|
