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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
carolshere's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Torture, and Child abuse
Minor: Rape
elly29's review
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
What a convoluted trip into the makings of a failed revolutionary in 19th-century Philippines. It reminds me simultaneously of 100 Years of Solitude (without the playful magic) and Of Human Bondage (though not as grim). I learned a lot about the Philippines -- in the intro, especially, the translator talked about the "friarocracy" and the stranglehold Catholic friars held over the country, insomuch that there was a group of friars that ordered the assassination of Fernando Bustamante, the Spanish governor of the Philippines, in 1719. (Though, this takes place in the 1880s/1890s.)
At times terribly boring, at times exciting (like the courting young folks' boat ride that ended with the death of the crocodile), at times viscerally awful as they torture and kill revolutionaries without any semblance of justice, it waxes satirical and philosophical and polemical. (Old Tasio was among the best parts of this book.) There was no end to how much it harped on the injustices church and government heaped upon common folks. What an odd novel. Apparently, Rizal is some sort of phantom invoked as a national hero/bogeyman/Santa Claus in the Philippines.
Yikes, child physical abuse that ends in the child's disappearance. It gives me sadness to think that this is a story that has happened over and over and over throughout the world. Those mass graves of children next to old schools in Canada...
What an appropriate novel for 2021, as the world is still dealing with the effects of colonialism.
Oddly enough, I'd be interested in a tv miniseries about Noli Me T'angere.
Special thanks to TheStoryGraph's Literature-in-Translation challenge. I would've passed over this book otherwise.
A few good quotes:
"The furniture is elegant, if uncomfortable and not suited to the climate; the owner of the house would never put his guests' health before luxury. 'Dysentery is terrible, but you are sitting in European chairs, which you don't get to so every day!' he would tell them." (p 7)
"The rich and affluent have fulfilled the duties that come with having a fortune. The following day they will hear the three masses every priest will celebrate, give two pesos for another, and purchase a bull for the dead, full of indulgences. In faith, divine justice is nowhere near as demanding as human justice."
At times terribly boring, at times exciting (like the courting young folks' boat ride that ended with the death of the crocodile), at times viscerally awful as they torture and kill revolutionaries without any semblance of justice, it waxes satirical and philosophical and polemical. (Old Tasio was among the best parts of this book.) There was no end to how much it harped on the injustices church and government heaped upon common folks. What an odd novel. Apparently, Rizal is some sort of phantom invoked as a national hero/bogeyman/Santa Claus in the Philippines.
Yikes, child physical abuse that ends in the child's disappearance. It gives me sadness to think that this is a story that has happened over and over and over throughout the world. Those mass graves of children next to old schools in Canada...
What an appropriate novel for 2021, as the world is still dealing with the effects of colonialism.
Oddly enough, I'd be interested in a tv miniseries about Noli Me T'angere.
Special thanks to TheStoryGraph's Literature-in-Translation challenge. I would've passed over this book otherwise.
A few good quotes:
"The furniture is elegant, if uncomfortable and not suited to the climate; the owner of the house would never put his guests' health before luxury. 'Dysentery is terrible, but you are sitting in European chairs, which you don't get to so every day!' he would tell them." (p 7)
"The rich and affluent have fulfilled the duties that come with having a fortune. The following day they will hear the three masses every priest will celebrate, give two pesos for another, and purchase a bull for the dead, full of indulgences. In faith, divine justice is nowhere near as demanding as human justice."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse and Colonisation
Moderate: Torture, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Physical abuse, and Death of parent
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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