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bethnellvaccaro's review against another edition
2.0
I think I have reached a time in my life when I don’t have the energy to work this hard to understand what is happening in a book. I bet it is really good. I would need to be assigned it for a class for me to get through it, though.
nouveau's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
lauren_endnotes's review against another edition
4.0
"The story Magsalin wishes to tell is about loss. Any emblem will do: a French-Tunisian with an unfinished manuscript, an American obsessed with a Filipino war, a filmmaker’s possible murder, a wife’s sadness. An abaca weave, a warp and weft of numbers, is measured but invisible in the plot. Chapter numbers double up. Puzzle pieces scramble. Points of view will multiply."
From INSURRECTO by Gina Apostol // 2018, Soho Press
I finished this book 2 days ago, and I'm still piecing it all together in my mind. What Apostol does in this novel is nothing short of remarkable - but it's also difficult to describe. Kaleidoscopic, multilayered - these are the words that come to mind first. It's a meta-analysis of colonialism as it took place and is it continues to take place. How history is revised, written over by the victors, and/or kept hidden over decades.
Events occur in several time periods, but Apostol's lynchpin moments are in Balangiga, East Samar province in 1901, part of the Philippine-American War, AND Duterte's Philippines in the 2010s.
What was clear - even in a story that skips through time and space - is Apostol's use of language and cultural references. Her writing style is highly intellectual, but still accessible.
She references traditional Filipino weaving several times in the text, and this allusion continues in her story's structure - the warp and weft crossing and skipping over each other, colors changing, shifting, and a resulting tapestry.
If you like metafiction, historical narratives, and critical theory this one is definitely worth checking out. Elements of Calvino and Cortázar, with playful and clever language.
I have a feeling this one will be even more meaningful with a reread. Still pondering, and very interested to read more Filipino literature and history.
From INSURRECTO by Gina Apostol // 2018, Soho Press
I finished this book 2 days ago, and I'm still piecing it all together in my mind. What Apostol does in this novel is nothing short of remarkable - but it's also difficult to describe. Kaleidoscopic, multilayered - these are the words that come to mind first. It's a meta-analysis of colonialism as it took place and is it continues to take place. How history is revised, written over by the victors, and/or kept hidden over decades.
Events occur in several time periods, but Apostol's lynchpin moments are in Balangiga, East Samar province in 1901, part of the Philippine-American War, AND Duterte's Philippines in the 2010s.
What was clear - even in a story that skips through time and space - is Apostol's use of language and cultural references. Her writing style is highly intellectual, but still accessible.
She references traditional Filipino weaving several times in the text, and this allusion continues in her story's structure - the warp and weft crossing and skipping over each other, colors changing, shifting, and a resulting tapestry.
If you like metafiction, historical narratives, and critical theory this one is definitely worth checking out. Elements of Calvino and Cortázar, with playful and clever language.
I have a feeling this one will be even more meaningful with a reread. Still pondering, and very interested to read more Filipino literature and history.
stefan_'s review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
idogrocker's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
hannyreads's review against another edition
3.0
Original, ambitious, but easy to lose parts of the story.
pbinterrupted's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
pageglue's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I’ll quote Viet Thanh Nguyen’s blurb for this book: “Insurrecto is meta-fictional, meta-cinematic, even meta-meta”. The premise of the “story” is that a director, Chiara, approaches a translator, Magsalin, about doing work for her on a movie she wants to make about a massacre committed by Americans in the Philippines in 1901. Magsalin reads her script and agrees to work with her, but she’s made some edits to the script. The book comprises of nonlinear scenes between these two women, their pasts, their relationships, and scenes from the scripts they’ve both written.
This would be a great book club pick, by which I mean it’s a very themes-driven book that would yield deep discussion. There’s much to explore and discover, but you can expect themes of history, colonialism, and film. It gets reeeeeal meta. The chapter numbers aren’t in order, and when you learn why it makes you go, ‘Wait, what am I reading? What’s going on???’
The book’s structure, self-referencing, and themes were the best thing about it. There’s a Part 1 and Part 2. I really loved Part 1, but I was pretty bored throughout Part 2. We see scenes from the scripts the two women have written in Part 2, and while I appreciated certain aspects of them, I was totally uninterested. There was also an issue with voice - everyone spoke with the plateaued droll of a functioning alcoholic. The character studies were interesting, but not because of what they did or what they wanted, but because of their place in society and history.
I think there’s a lot about Insurrecto that will appeal to literary fiction readers. I didn’t ‘enjoy’ this book, but I’m glad I read it.
This would be a great book club pick, by which I mean it’s a very themes-driven book that would yield deep discussion. There’s much to explore and discover, but you can expect themes of history, colonialism, and film. It gets reeeeeal meta. The chapter numbers aren’t in order, and when you learn why it makes you go, ‘Wait, what am I reading? What’s going on???’
The book’s structure, self-referencing, and themes were the best thing about it. There’s a Part 1 and Part 2. I really loved Part 1, but I was pretty bored throughout Part 2. We see scenes from the scripts the two women have written in Part 2, and while I appreciated certain aspects of them, I was totally uninterested. There was also an issue with voice - everyone spoke with the plateaued droll of a functioning alcoholic. The character studies were interesting, but not because of what they did or what they wanted, but because of their place in society and history.
I think there’s a lot about Insurrecto that will appeal to literary fiction readers. I didn’t ‘enjoy’ this book, but I’m glad I read it.
zombiezami's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
2.75
Not for me. I can tell the author was doing something very experimental here, but it was very hard for me to follow.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Racial slurs, Sexual content, Torture, Vomit, Medical content, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Drug use and Sexual violence
ryanisreading's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0