PALH BOOK REVIEWS

DREAMEDEN by Linda Ty-Casper published by University of Washington Press & Ateneo University Press Review by World Literature Today, Wntr 1998 v72 n1 p214(1) COPYRIGHT 1998 University of Oklahoma

 

DreamEden is a fine novel, and arguably one of the best to have come out this decade. It's difficult to write a novel about recent events in the Philippines - the People Power Revolution, the ouster of President Marcos, the election of Corazon Aquino, and the coup of 1989 - as the backdrop for a novel, but miraculously, Linda Ty-Casper has pulled it off. Married to the famed literary critic Leonard Casper, the author has succeeded in keeping her voice in writing this novel. There is not a trace of Mr. Casper's style and editing on the pages of this hard-hitting book. Any tampering on his part would have been noticeable, for the Caspers are well-known writers whose styles are distinctly their own. What keeps DreamEden from being a great novel is its fired and well-worn backdrop. By now, most readers have heard and read just about enough of everything they care to know about the Marcos regime and its aftermath. Linda Ty-Casper, aware of this drawback, soldiered along and came up with a fresh approach to an old topic. In writing her novel, she has combined the precise and objective eye of a journalist and the compassionate and humane heart of a literary. artist. Her factual narrative is bolstered by her research in newspaper archives and by interviews with participants in the revolution. Instead of dwelling on the atrocities of the Marcos regime and the subsequent disappointment with the Aquino administration, Ty-Casper, to quote the introduction to her book, "focuses on the experiences of the people in and beyond Gulod, a barrio that has spread like a field seen by a blind hand on the outskirts of Manila, on the fringes of power in the tangled roots of dreams. The story is told through the conflicting lives and ambitions of disillusioned lawyer Benhur, the politician Osong for whom he works, Osong's wife Sally, the retired Col. Moscoso, and many others whose potent but fragile hopes are shaped and destroyed in a context of ceaseless revolutionary change." This is an ensemble piece, and, though essentially tragic, the book sustains interest with well-timed humor in the right places. Moreover, the action never slackens, and the local color is vivid throughout. Administrations have come and gone, but the Philippines has yet to come up with a paradigm for a true democracy that works. Filipinos celebrated the end of Marcos's dictatorial rule, but now they miss the sense of order and direction that the ironclad dictatorship had brought to the nation. This dichotomy can be felt in Ty-Casper's novel. Despite the glut of Marcos-inspired novels, DreamEden could not have come at a better time. It is an apt accompaniment to the many works that have been written about the Marcos years, during and after. The delights of superior fiction can be experienced here, although some judicious editing would have tightened the action in certain parts. The author's gift for engaging, accessible storytelling, however, more than makes up for minor deficiencies in technique. As in all her work, most notably The Peninsulars and The Secret Runner, Ty-Casper shows a gift here for making one care about her characters. As Benhur, Sally, and Col. Moscoso reveal the pleasure and pain that have shaped their lives, Ty-Casper lets us see an enigmatic country that appears to be both complex and simple, wondrously beautiful and downright repulsive all at once, not unlike the people in her story who thrive in their contradictions. Brilliantly delineating the inner lives of her characters, she tells a rich, startling narrative about people from varied socioeconomic backgrounds. Ty-Casper, like other good writers, understands the commingling of flesh and spirit in every human being. She indistinguishably blends this understanding into her writing, using humor and empathy rather than rhetoric to convey her message. In DreamEden she has caught the drama and the anguish of the Marcos regime and its aftermath as it was seen by the people who lived it. This is the Ty-Casper I've enjoyed the most, in a novel characterized by the intelligence, irony, and wit one associates with her writing. DreamEden is a story about the Filipino soul and all the tribulations it encounters; here the soul is part of the action. As we all know, the devastating truth about the Marcos years is that it was a fact, not a dream. Ty-Casper's latest is indisputably her most riveting, accomplished novel yet. Al (Esmeraldo) Palomar University of Oklahoma Review Grade: A

 

 

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