The Samsons

July 31, 2000
Jos is perhaps the Philippines' most admired living novelist, best known for his Rosales series. The two novels published together here are chronologically the final installments in the saga, following Don Vicente (also comprising two novels, Tree and My Brother, My Executioner) and Dusk. Like certain of Bertolt Brecht's plays, the works elaborate and test a central, popular maxim: every man has his price. In The Pretenders, set in the years after WWII, the man in question is Antonio Samson. Tony travels to the U.S., leaving behind his cousin Emy, who, unbeknownst to him, is pregnant with his son. There, he meets Carmen Villa, the daughter of a rich mestizo industrialist, Don Manuel. When Tony returns to the Philippines, engaged to Carmen, Don Manuel proceeds to show Tony how easy it is to buy people. Tony barely protests: he accepts a position with the Villas and goes along with shady business plans. Don Manuel proves his point when he shows Tony a canceled check made out to a magazine journalist whom Tony regards as a man of integrity. Almost simultaneously, Tony realizes that Carmen has lost respect for him and is having an affair. Pushed too far at last, Tony rebels in the only way left to him. The second novel, Mass, is narrated by Tony's bastard son, Jos , or "Pepe." Raised by Emy in her native village of Cabugawan, Pepe comes to Manila to attend college, living with his aunt on a lower-middle-class street in Manila, in his father's old room. The next-door neighbor is the mistress of Kuya Nick, a gangster who, like Don Manuel, believes wholeheartedly in human corruptibility. Pepe does some drug dealing for Kuya Nick, but the underworld isn't for him. Instead, through his friend Toto he becomes involved with the Brotherhood, a revolutionary group. After he is shaken by two violent events, Pepe finally commits a truly revolutionary act. Jos 's effects may be achieved in broad strokes, but this dark panoramic vision of the Philippines powerfully drives its message home: a society intent only on calculating a man's price is one that ultimately devalues all men.

August 9, 2000
The Pretenders and Mass, first published in the Philippines in 1962 and 1979, respectively, are the last two installments of the five-volume "Rosales Saga," which chronicles the peasant uprisings in the Philippines, focusing on the Samson family. The Pretenders tells the story of Antonio Samson, a Harvard Ph.D., who returns to the Philippines and marries into a wealthy industrial family. His growing sense that he has not only been betrayed by his new family but has also betrayed his own people and beliefs lead to suicide. His life and death leave an indelible mark on his wife's family, and she publishes his thesis, which influences the next generation of revolutionaries. Mass is narrated in the first person by Samson's illegitimate son, Jos . Unlike his ambitious father, Jos aspires to nothing but a full stomach. Others who notice his intelligence and charisma have different ideas, however, and he is eventually persuaded to take a leading role in the organization of student protests against the Marcos regime. Unlike his father, he survives to tell the story of his own life, but his father speaks from the grave through his writings. The author offers both an engrossing story of a father and son and a rich portrait of the Filipino people and their struggles to survive the degradation of colonialism and national and corporate greed. All libraries should add these works to their collections.--Rebecca Stuhr, Grinnell Coll. Libs., IA

Copyright 2000 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.