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skele_queen's review
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Slow paced and serious satire that constantly made me gasp with the audacity of the call-outs. I understand why the author was executed for this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Religious bigotry, Colonisation, Torture, Death, Physical abuse, Classism, Death of parent, Police brutality, and Racism
serendipitysbooks's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I read this classic from the Phillippines in a slow but steady fashion over the course of three weeks as part of a group readalong organised by @ktlee.writes and @booknerdkat. They did a great job and I’m grateful for their efforts. It’s not a book I’d have picked up - or even known existed - had it not been for the readalong.
Noli Me Tangere is set during the Spanish colonial period and looks at issues such as race, class, gender, religion and governmental power, all within the context of nineteenth century colonialism. There was a large cast of characters to become familiar with and the novel was a bit of a slow burn at first, but the ending was action-packed. The power historically utilised - and abused - by the Catholic Church never ceases to surprise me and it’s depiction in this book was no exception. So much arrogance and malevolence by the priests. The book did an excellent job highlighting the economic, social and political issues in the Phillippines during the colonial period and showed how difficult it was to institute change due to opposition from entrenched interests. I love learning about different parts of the world through fiction and this classic certainly delivered.
Noli Me Tangere is set during the Spanish colonial period and looks at issues such as race, class, gender, religion and governmental power, all within the context of nineteenth century colonialism. There was a large cast of characters to become familiar with and the novel was a bit of a slow burn at first, but the ending was action-packed. The power historically utilised - and abused - by the Catholic Church never ceases to surprise me and it’s depiction in this book was no exception. So much arrogance and malevolence by the priests. The book did an excellent job highlighting the economic, social and political issues in the Phillippines during the colonial period and showed how difficult it was to institute change due to opposition from entrenched interests. I love learning about different parts of the world through fiction and this classic certainly delivered.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, and Torture
dean_issov's review
challenging
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I feel that it's important to note that this book is a highly respected and revolutionary book from where I come from, the Philippines; Dr. José Rizal is our national hero and my subjective criticisms toward this book shouldn't be taken as a fact, definitely still read this book if you're interested in reading the book that sparked a revolution in my country, there is an English translation of it called "The Social Cancer" if you're not fluent in Tagalog/Spanish.
Noli Me Tangere is and will always be the book that all Filipinos will study in schools/colleges, but I had the luxury to read it not by my school's demand but just for my pleasure alone. This book definitely inspired many of the teleseryes (television soap operas) that I grew up watching. I can't confidently say that I had the best reading experience with this book, I was crawling my way through the first half and felt ashamed that I had to resort to the audiobook version throughout the latter half of the book, but I know that I had to finish this no matter what it took because of just how monumental this book was. I just didnt connect with the characters that much, I felt like the main character was a nice man but never really fully developed as a character, and the same goes to all the others in the book. I still can't help but feel sorry for the poor mother, Sisa, who had, in my opinion, the most tragic story.
I'm not going to spoil anything so you should definitely read it for yourself. My take on this book is that it just wasn't for me, it felt slow and there were many "fillers" inbetween the main events of the book, perhaps I'll read this again when I'm older and have a new perspective on it.
Noli Me Tangere is and will always be the book that all Filipinos will study in schools/colleges, but I had the luxury to read it not by my school's demand but just for my pleasure alone. This book definitely inspired many of the teleseryes (television soap operas) that I grew up watching. I can't confidently say that I had the best reading experience with this book, I was crawling my way through the first half and felt ashamed that I had to resort to the audiobook version throughout the latter half of the book, but I know that I had to finish this no matter what it took because of just how monumental this book was. I just didnt connect with the characters that much, I felt like the main character was a nice man but never really fully developed as a character, and the same goes to all the others in the book. I still can't help but feel sorry for the poor mother, Sisa, who had, in my opinion, the most tragic story.
I'm not going to spoil anything so you should definitely read it for yourself. My take on this book is that it just wasn't for me, it felt slow and there were many "fillers" inbetween the main events of the book, perhaps I'll read this again when I'm older and have a new perspective on it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, War, and Racism
sherbertwells's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
slow-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
“‘You are master of your own will, señor, and your future,’ he said to Crisóstomo, who was silent. ‘But if you allow me an observation, I will give it to you. Look well to what you are going to do. You are going to set off a war” (402).
What does it take for a novel to spark a revolution?
Must it adopt the digressions and diatribes of its nonfiction brethren, the Communist Manifestos and Common Senses of the world? Should it contain a revolution, successful or unsuccessful, within its pages? How broad must its scope be?
Does it even have to be good?
Maybe not. Uncle Tom’s Cabin, the most famous novel of 19th-century American author Harriet Beecher Stowe, is credited with sparking the Civil War, but modern writers from James Baldwin to John Green regard it merely as “terrible but very important.” I don’t have to read it for English or APUSH, and I suspect that’s a blessing. But in the Philippines, it’s another story.
José Rizal’s novel Noli me Tangere, partially inspired by Uncle Tom’s Cabin, is a staple in Phillipine classrooms. In fact, the 1956 “Rizal Law” made it required reading for its role in “shap[ing] the national character,” and the back of my Penguin Classics edition calls it “the novel that sparked the Philippine revolution.” This impressive pedigree, a result of posthumous idolization by Filipino and American politicians, initially made the novel a little intimidating. What was so revolutionary about it? Would it be better than Uncle Tom’s Cabin? Would it even be good?
“Combat begins in the sphere of ideas, to descend into the arena, which will be covered with blood. I hear the voice of God, woe to those who resist it! For them, history has not been written” (333)
Noli me Tangere’s most stirring, revolutionary content is espoused by two characters: Juan Crisóstomo Ibarra y Magsalin (henceforth “Ibarra”) and Elías. Ibarra is the protagonist, a European-educated aristocrat of mixed ancestry who sets the novel in motion by returning to his hometown of San Diego and seeking to improve the lives of his fellow Filipinos. After failing to open a school and being excommunicated by the corrupt clergymen Father Dámaso, he grows closer to Elías. The mysterious laborer introduces Ibarra, and by extension the novel-reading Phillipine pubic, to a growing peasant movement.
The interactions between the two men are the best parts of Noli me Tangere: even after more than a century, obscured by the film of academic translation, the passion they feel for their homeland and their countrymen is palpable. I loved watching Ibarra and Elías, who from different walks of life and espouse different philosophies, reach an understanding surrounded by the gorgeous wildlife that “had not yet been given their Latin names” (50). I shuddered when the Civil Guard burned Ibarra’s ambitions, and cheered when Elías helped him escape. By the end of the novel, I understood why Spanish authorities had banned this book: even with 21st-century hindsight, I was rooting for the Philippine Revolution.
But what about the non-revolutionary parts of Noli me Tangere—the social satire, the love story, the criticism of clerical bigotry which an English-speaking audience might associate with Dickens or Austen?
Well, it’s not great. The translation by Harold Augenbraum is perfectly competent and mimics the style of Noli me Tangere’s English contemporaries. Maria Clara, Ibarra’s love interest, is noble and pretty but hardly as deep as her male counterparts (this was a problem in Les Miserables too). Sisa, the mother of two Dickensian waifs, suffers from typical Victorian hysteria. Women don’t seem to have a place in Ibarra’s revolution at all. Other female characters embody the cultural ills of the colonial period, but while it might have been funny to watch a catfight in 1887 it’s uncomfortable today. The bureaucrats are indistinguishable, the priests are ridiculously evil, and the children exist mostly to suffer.
Admittedly, I haven’t read enough 19th-century fiction to determine whether these features are competently-executed or not; I merely observed them and don’t enjoy them. I suffered through similar situations in Les Miserables and A Tale of Two Cities, which had stronger characters, but I suspect Rizal’s era just isn’t for me. Comedy doesn’t age well anyway, and the genteel parts of the book aren’t what made it famous.
Noli me Tangere’s political discussions made it famous. Its tangents about cockfighting and indulgences (hello again, Hugo) made it famous. Its thrilling and poignant final chapters made it famous and infamous too.
I guess a book doesn’t have to be a great novel to be an important one. But Noli me Tangere wasn’t even bad. If I were a student in the Philippines assigned to read this, I wouldn’t mind it.
Then again, I wouldn’t have a choice.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Torture, Racial slurs, Racism, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Infidelity, Death, Child death, and Mental illness
Minor: Rape, Body shaming, Suicide, and Sexual assault
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