Book Review by Herminia Meñez Coben, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita from California State University of
Sonoma
Title:
The Newspaper Widow
Author:
Cecilia Manguerrra Brainard
Publisher: University of Santo Tomas Publishing House, 2017, Beato Angelico Bldg., Espana, Manila, Philippines;
Available from Amazon in hard copy and in Kindle format
Number of pages: 234 pages
Softcover, $18.95 in the US
The Newspaper Widow,
a fast-paced, multi-layered novel of romance and mystery, presents an
international cast of characters: a Spanish friar; an ill-fated lawyer; an
expatriate Frenchwoman and her gay friends, a Tagalog and a Catalan; an
American doctor and researcher at the leper colony; and finally, the
enterprising publisher widow of the novel’s title, Ines Maceda.
Set in urban Ubec and rural Carcar in the Eastern
Visayas, Philippines during the first decade of the twentieth century, the
story unfolds through the alternating voices of those principal characters, who
are somehow drawn together because of the mysterious disappearance and death of
the Augustinian priest, Father Zafra. Departing from the conventional structure
of the murder mystery, however, the author deftly weaves the intersecting
narratives of each of her characters into a complex social drama of family
feuds and forbidden loves, petty jealousies and class rivalries, but also of
deep friendships and enduring bonds of kinship.
Against the backdrop of Philippine history during that
country’s critical transition from Spanish to American colonial rule, The Newspaper Widow, moreover,
highlights the changing world of Ubecans as they confront crucial political
issues such as the mandated transfer of the friars lands and land reform,
governmental control of people’s health, as in the isolation of lepers and the
campaign against rat infestation. Without interrupting the flow of the
narrative, the author references specific historical events like the Balangiga
massacre by the American military, the role of the Thomasites in the new
educational system, and the establishment of a modern transportation network,
as specified by the railway linking Ubec and Carcar.
The main critical voice throughout this period is the
local newspapers: The Ubec Daily,
founded by Professor Pablo Maceda, an intellectual and political critic, and The Light, owned by Mrs. Maceda’s
childhood friend, Santiago Echeveria. The latter resembles what might be called
a tabloid, devoted to local gossip, whereas the former, with guest columns by
her husband’s professional colleagues, aspires to reporting the “Truth.” The
existence of two local papers, with very different viewpoints, in Ubec during
the first decade of the twentieth century is indicative of an emerging
progressive society.
Modernity comes to Ubec also by way of its expatriates from
Europe and the United States. Foreigners like the French dress designer and the
Catalan choreographer introduce Ubecans to new ideas about fashion and theater.
Ubec’s social elites attempt to outdo each other especially during the town
fiesta, with its typical display, palabas,
of the women’s prized jewelry and European-style gowns, designed by the French
woman, during the carnival and the coronation of the beauty queen,
choreographed as an Egyptian spectacle by the Catalan.
Still, underneath the exposure to foreign influences and
growing modernization lies a strong adherence to traditional culture, as
evidenced by widespread beliefs in portentous dreams, ghostly apparitions,
supernatural beings, and babaylanes (shamans and local healers).
Straddling both worlds, the characters in this book,
despite personal tragedies, adapt remarkably well to their fast-changing
society. In the end what starts out as a major disruption at the beginning of
the novel, i.e. the discovery of the victim’s skeletal remains in a creek along
the Augustinian monastery, and the various personal conflicts following the
event, concludes with a restoration and reunion, a community made whole once
again. The last chapter provides a closure to the romance of the French
Melisande, although the mysterious death of Father Zafra remains a mystery.
A must-read from a master storyteller, The Newspaper Widow promises not only to
entertain but also to educate the reader about a critical period in Philippine
history.
Herminia
Meñez Coben
Los
Angeles, California
BIO: Dr. Herminia Menez Coben is Professor Emerita from California
State University of Sonoma. She is the author of "Verbal Arts in
Philippine Indigenous Communities: Poetics, Societ, and History" and
"Explorations in Philippine Folklore." She was the first Filipino
graduate of University of Pennsylvania's Folklore and Folklife
Department.
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