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A review by lizmart88
Insurrecto by Gina Apostol
3.0
This is a fascinating book. To be honest, I to get into it (took two tries) and I didn't necessarily enjoy much of it. It felt extremely experimental. The story is all twisted up, has parallels you understand later, is layered stories within stories within novels within photographs.
If you like books about ideas, this might be for you. If you are okay with a spiral, non linear plot and colliding stories, you may enjoy this book. If you're interested in exploring ideas about history, facts, and how we form our own identities, this is for you!
Centrally, the story is of two women on a road trip in the Philippines. One, Chiara, is the daughter of a famous director who committed suicide when she was 6 and whose last film was filmed in Samara Island in the Philippines. The film's plot seems to be very similar, intentionally or not us unclear, to an actual massacre in 1902. The other woman is a mystery writer from the Phillipines who now lives in America, who has returned after her mother's death. There is also chapters from Chiara's mother, a widow, about remembering her husband. Chiara and the mystery writer Magsalin are both writing competing scripts about a massacre that occurred in 1902. So there's excerpts of scripts as well.
Together, the two women spiral through their own memories, their dreams, and reality as they travel to Samara.
The big picture is about - what makes us us? There is an essay at the end by the author that I loved. I almost wish I had read it first. It's autobiographical about the author and how she came to write this.
In some ways, this book probably needs to be read twice. The first to take in the facts, and the second time to begin to dig into the meaning.
If you like books about ideas, this might be for you. If you are okay with a spiral, non linear plot and colliding stories, you may enjoy this book. If you're interested in exploring ideas about history, facts, and how we form our own identities, this is for you!
Centrally, the story is of two women on a road trip in the Philippines. One, Chiara, is the daughter of a famous director who committed suicide when she was 6 and whose last film was filmed in Samara Island in the Philippines. The film's plot seems to be very similar, intentionally or not us unclear, to an actual massacre in 1902. The other woman is a mystery writer from the Phillipines who now lives in America, who has returned after her mother's death. There is also chapters from Chiara's mother, a widow, about remembering her husband. Chiara and the mystery writer Magsalin are both writing competing scripts about a massacre that occurred in 1902. So there's excerpts of scripts as well.
Together, the two women spiral through their own memories, their dreams, and reality as they travel to Samara.
The big picture is about - what makes us us? There is an essay at the end by the author that I loved. I almost wish I had read it first. It's autobiographical about the author and how she came to write this.
In some ways, this book probably needs to be read twice. The first to take in the facts, and the second time to begin to dig into the meaning.