 First edition | |
| Author | Gina Apostol |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Soho Press |
Publication date | 15 November 2018 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages |
|
| ISBN | 978-1-61695-945-6 |
| Preceded by | Gun Dealer's Daughter |
| Followed by | La Tercera |
Insurrecto is a 2018 Philippine novel published by Gina Apostol. It explores an incident in Balangiga, Eastern Samar in 1901, when Filipino revolutionaries attacked an American garrison, and in retaliation American soldiers created "a howling wilderness" of the surrounding countryside. [1] [2] It was shortlisted for the 2019 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. [3]
Synopsis
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While traveling around the Philippines under Duterte's regime, two women — Magsalin, a Filipino translator, and Chiara, an American filmmaker — collaborate and argue over a screenplay they are writing about a massacre that occurred during the Philippine-American War. Chiara is producing a movie on the 1901 events in Balangiga, Samar, where Filipino revolutionaries stormed an American post and American forces turned the surrounding region into "a howling wilderness" in response. After reading Chiara's screenplay, Magsalin drafts her own adaptation. Two competing scripts — one about a white photographer and the other about a Filipino schoolteacher — that the director and translator worked on are included into the dramatic action of Insurrecto. [4]
Reviews
The New York Times described the novel as "a bravura performance in which war becomes farce, history becomes burlesque... [where] Apostol is a magician with language (think Borges, think Nabokov) who can swing from slang and mockery to the stodgy argot of critical theory. She puns with gusto, potently and unabashedly, until one begins reading double meanings, allusions and ulterior motives into everything." [5]
Malaysian writer Tash Aw shared his review in The Guardian, calling the novel a "thrillingly imagined and provocative inquiry into the nature of stories and the unfolding of history in our collective consciousness... [Insurrecto] is tackling the issue of cultural appropriation, but it never ventures close to anything like a crass attempt at resolution, instead using the complexity of its narrative and thematic structure to hint at the difficulty in understanding the confluence of history, power and the individual." [6]
Elaine Castillo, author of America Is Not the Heart, expressed that the books was "a searing and psychedelic road trip through the long, sordid history of Philippine-American relations, Insurrecto is at once a murder mystery, a war movie, and a moving exploration of all the ways grief lives on, both in a people and in a person. A masterful puzzle, in which, as Apostol writes, 'one story told may unbury another.'" [7]
Goodreads gave the following review:
"There are tales of women—artists, lovers, revolutionaries, and daughters—finding their way to their own truths and histories among the spiraling voices and narrative layers of Insurrecto. The novel's kaleidoscope structure and overlapping voices make it remarkably inventive, contemplative, and lighthearted. Similar to Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch, and Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire, Insurrecto deftly manipulates and examines narrative. Apostol defies the bounds of imagination to bring back the horror of Balangiga, and in doing so, she reveals the sinister core of a lost and unrecorded conflict that would influence the course of the following century in both American and Philippine history." [4]
References
- ^ Apostol, Gina (2018). Insurrecto. New York: Soho Press, Inc. ISBN 9781616959449.
- ^ "Insurrecto". Publisher's Weekly.
- ^ "Dayton Literary Peace Prize 2019 Shortlist". Short List. Publishers Weekly. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
- ^ a b "Insurrecto". Goodreads.
- ^ Jen McDonald (26 December 2018). "A Comic Novel Asks Who Gets to Write the History of the Colonial Philippines". The New York Times.
- ^ Taw Ash (28 August 2019). "Insurrecto by Gina Apostol review". The Guardian.
- ^ "Insurrecto by Gina Apostol". Fitzcarraldo Editions.
References
|
First edition | |
| Author | Gina Apostol |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Soho Press |
Publication date | 15 November 2018 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages |
|
| ISBN | 978-1-61695-945-6 |
| Preceded by | Gun Dealer's Daughter |
| Followed by | La Tercera |
Insurrecto is a 2018 Philippine novel published by Gina Apostol. It explores an incident in Balangiga, Eastern Samar in 1901, when Filipino revolutionaries attacked an American garrison, and in retaliation American soldiers created "a howling wilderness" of the surrounding countryside. [1] [2] It was shortlisted for the 2019 Dayton Literary Peace Prize. [3]
Synopsis
While traveling around the Philippines under Duterte's regime, two women — Magsalin, a Filipino translator, and Chiara, an American filmmaker — collaborate and argue over a screenplay they are writing about a massacre that occurred during the Philippine-American War. Chiara is producing a movie on the 1901 events in Balangiga, Samar, where Filipino revolutionaries stormed an American post and American forces turned the surrounding region into "a howling wilderness" in response. After reading Chiara's screenplay, Magsalin drafts her own adaptation. Two competing scripts — one about a white photographer and the other about a Filipino schoolteacher — that the director and translator worked on are included into the dramatic action of Insurrecto. [4]
Reviews
The New York Times described the novel as "a bravura performance in which war becomes farce, history becomes burlesque... [where] Apostol is a magician with language (think Borges, think Nabokov) who can swing from slang and mockery to the stodgy argot of critical theory. She puns with gusto, potently and unabashedly, until one begins reading double meanings, allusions and ulterior motives into everything." [5]
Malaysian writer Tash Aw shared his review in The Guardian, calling the novel a "thrillingly imagined and provocative inquiry into the nature of stories and the unfolding of history in our collective consciousness... [Insurrecto] is tackling the issue of cultural appropriation, but it never ventures close to anything like a crass attempt at resolution, instead using the complexity of its narrative and thematic structure to hint at the difficulty in understanding the confluence of history, power and the individual." [6]
Elaine Castillo, author of America Is Not the Heart, expressed that the books was "a searing and psychedelic road trip through the long, sordid history of Philippine-American relations, Insurrecto is at once a murder mystery, a war movie, and a moving exploration of all the ways grief lives on, both in a people and in a person. A masterful puzzle, in which, as Apostol writes, 'one story told may unbury another.'" [7]
Goodreads gave the following review:
"There are tales of women—artists, lovers, revolutionaries, and daughters—finding their way to their own truths and histories among the spiraling voices and narrative layers of Insurrecto. The novel's kaleidoscope structure and overlapping voices make it remarkably inventive, contemplative, and lighthearted. Similar to Italo Calvino's If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch, and Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire, Insurrecto deftly manipulates and examines narrative. Apostol defies the bounds of imagination to bring back the horror of Balangiga, and in doing so, she reveals the sinister core of a lost and unrecorded conflict that would influence the course of the following century in both American and Philippine history." [4]
References
- ^ Apostol, Gina (2018). Insurrecto. New York: Soho Press, Inc. ISBN 9781616959449.
- ^ "Insurrecto". Publisher's Weekly.
- ^ "Dayton Literary Peace Prize 2019 Shortlist". Short List. Publishers Weekly. Retrieved February 21, 2020.
- ^ a b "Insurrecto". Goodreads.
- ^ Jen McDonald (26 December 2018). "A Comic Novel Asks Who Gets to Write the History of the Colonial Philippines". The New York Times.
- ^ Taw Ash (28 August 2019). "Insurrecto by Gina Apostol review". The Guardian.
- ^ "Insurrecto by Gina Apostol". Fitzcarraldo Editions.