Gun Dealers' Daughter

May 7, 2012
Philippine National Book Award–winner Apostol chronicles a country in political turmoil in her vertiginous American debut. Soledad Soliman lives in a Philippines under martial law and rife with violent opposition groups, but her life exists in a “gilded womb.” When she enters university in Manila, she encounters the poverty and political unrest of her country and soon falls for the charismatic Maoist Jed, realizing that “o enter the gates of country,” she must “give up suite of custom-designed rooms and march.” As she becomes more involved with the movement, she confronts the sordid source of her family’s great wealth and begins to learn Philippine history from the perspective of her own people, deftly revealing the problematic relationship between the U.S. and the Philippines. Poetically told through the shattered prism of Sol’s memory (which reflects the revisionist history of her country and calls into question the very nature of truth and narrative), the reason for her madness comes to light as she recounts her own, and her country’s, rebellious and tragic past. Apostol (Bibliolepsy) offers an intriguing and significant view of Marcos-era Philippines in this complex and feverish novel.

June 15, 2012
The stilted reminiscences of a daughter of privilege from the Philippines whose naive acts of rebellion teach her a tough life lesson. In her third novel, award-winning, Manila-born Apostol delivers a sketchy history of her country's politics from the solipsistic perspective of a "spoiled brat," Soledad Soliman, now recovering from a mental breakdown in her family's luxurious New York mansion. The child of arms dealers, Sol spent the 1970s in the U.S., avoiding the violence at home. Returning to Manila, to a life lived among the elite, she had plans for a foreign education, but illness intervened and instead she attended a local college where she met a political crowd including another Soledad (this one a Maoist) and her wealthy boyfriend Jed. Sol's attraction to Jed leads to an affair conducted during evening graffiti raids, but her wish to join the political group is compromised by her parents' business, which props up the military government. Helping Jed steal arms from her parents' warehouse, she colludes in a plot to assassinate a U.S. counterinsurgency expert, an operation which succeeds but reveals in its aftermath that life is a much dirtier business than she knew. The central character's inexhaustible fragility and self-pity test the reader's patience in this awkwardly-phrased parable of realpolitik.

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May 1, 2012

Apostol, winner of the Philippine National Book Award, follows her previous novels, Bibliolepsy and The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata, with this cultural coming-of-age story. Soledad Soliman, having experienced the highs and lows of life, transforms herself from a bookish, affluent girl to a Communist rebel, fighting with her dedication to the movement and the man she loves. The book is her confession; rich with emotion, reflection, and fervor, the story takes on the added element of revealing the struggles of Filipinos and women. While the narrative is strong, Apostol's writing style--simple, poetic, and captivating at every point of Soledad's journey--is the real draw: "And yet it was soothing.... A lulling, desperate state, but comforting, the way the extreme inactivity forced on us by illness has a morbid, feculent pleasure...there's that sensual garb, this state of malaise." VERDICT Reminiscent of Toni Morrison's Paradise and Melissa P.'s The Scent of Your Breath, this book will appeal to readers of literary fiction.--Ashanti L. White, Fayetteville, NC

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