Tropical Gothic

by Nick Joaquín

Tropical Gothic is an intense collection of stories that includes the "Summer Solstice", which inspired the local film Tatarin ; Candido's Apocalypse, "a twisted coming-of-age story on finding identity in the grossly obvious; "Doña Jeronima", the legend of the nymph and her lover in a cave by the river Pasig, and many more haunting tales in the writer's distinguished style. This book is highly recommended to fourth year high school or first year college students.

Genres: Classics, Fiction, Short Stories

271 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 1972

About the author

Nicomedes Márquez Joaquín (1917–2004) was a Filipino writer and journalist best known for his short stories and novels in the English language. He also wrote using the pen name Quijano de Manila. In 1976, Joaquin was conferred the rank and title of National Artist of the Philippines for Literature. He has been considered one of the most important Filipino writers, along with José Rizal and Claro M. Recto. Unlike Rizal and Recto, whose works were written in Spanish, Joaquin's major works were written in English despite being a native Spanish speaker.

Before becoming one of the leading practitioners of Philippine literature in English, he was a seminarian in Hong Kong – who later realized that he could better serve God and humanity by being a writer. This is reflected in the content and style of his works, as he emphasizes the need to restore national consciousness through important elements of Catholic Spanish Heritage.

In his self-confessed mission as a writer, he is a sort of "cultural apostle" whose purpose is to revive interest in Philippine national life through literature – and provide the necessary drive and inspiration for a fuller comprehension of their cultural background. His awareness of the significance of the past to the present is part of a concerted effort to preserve the spiritual tradition and the orthodox faith of the Catholic past – which he perceives as the only solution to our modern ills.

Reviews

[Maydayeve · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a collection of 9 short stories about religious beliefs, magical realism, love, mystery, festivities, love of country and coming of age. I have read already one of the stories in the book but it was so long ago, I have forgotten the detail and but never forgot the feelings May Day Eve has evoked in me. Hence, I took the name MayDayEve for account. I had a difficult start of getting into the language and the ambience of the book. I think my mind is accustomed to the foreign writer’s tone or Nick Joaquin was entirely creating a whole different tone. But in the second story, i am able to catch up with the way he writes.

Nick Joaquin’s writing style reminds me of Jose Saramago. Leaving the convention of period and ordinary sentences, without one noticing it, Joaquin writes in one sentence paragraph in some of the stories, but he gets away with it, as a reader I do not feel out of breath finishing the whole paragraph, wonderful! Also, I admire how he was able to explore many major ideas in the story without blowing the whole into incoherence. I do not assume to understand all the underlying meanings in his stories. I’m sure I missed a lot of it. But I love the smooth language, the beautiful prose and the exposure it gave me to a lot practices and beliefs that are lost in this generation.

[Michael David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was under the tutelage of Sir Danton Remoto when he first introduced Nick Joaquin to me. The story was “May Day Eve,” which was a love story buried under Philippine paganism and fear. It was one of his shorter stories, and was definitely the most appropriate introduction to Joaquin. After all, while “Summer Solstice” is equally excellent, it’s rather sensual and carnal to a 16-year-old. That was, however, the next short story I read. I loved it just as much as I loved Carter’s “Company of Wolves.” In both stories, despite being trapped in societies where women were marginalized, both female protagonists tamed the wolves.

I knew that Joaquin was a great writer, but I did not come back to reading him until a few years ago, when I started with his Reportage series. I wasn't really tempted to return to his fiction until I saw the cover of this first edition paperback: amid a black background and the book's title, a skeleton holding a rosary was the cover photo. I would eventually discover that it alluded to "The Legend of the Dying Wanton," which is also an excellent short story reminiscent of Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find." Both stories delve into the nature of God's Grace, and how it is radically different from what man expects. Currito is the eponymous wanton, and he had been involved with the saintly Dona Ana. In his moment of death, his mother and Dona Ana had prayed for his contrition and catharsis, which he receives. The irony, however, is that when God manifests his sign of Currito's salvation through the appearance of mud in the statue of Mary and Jesus, Dona Ana rationally deduces that the caretaker of the church might have been irresponsible to use muddy sheets. The same discord is evinced in the climax of "A Good Man is Hard to Find:" God's grace was not that the grandmother was to survive: God's grace was to gift her with a painless death.

The three stories that are most representative of Joaquin's dense, serpentine prose essaying an Asian rendition of Faulkner and O'Connor are "The Order of Melchizedek", "Candido's Apocalypse," and "Guardia de Honor." These stories reflect upon the Filipinos' fragmented, postcolonial identities borne of hundreds of years of colonization. Candido, in Candido's Apocalypse is the more primal alter-ego of Bobby, who sees the nakedness and flaws of people. It impresses and pressurizes Bobby, however, because he is unable to see people as they are. Years of Spanish colonization have also imposed a fragmented identity upon the Filipino, which has not been rectified by American colonization or independence. Whether Candido was Bobby's psychotic break from reality or daimon, the reader never knows.

Second, in "Guardia de Honor," the inevitability of fate is tackled. Most impressive is that it prefigured 2012's Looper even before that movie was conceived. Past and present cross over with a miraculous connection through a mirror, and yet even with the revelation, the loop remains closed: the present, Josie, remains cynical and pragmatic, while the past, Natalia, remains impulsive and irrational. Joaquin suggests that there is a fine balance between our Spanish fervor and our American cynicism, but we have yet to achieve that as a people. The story also boasts one of the best quotes from the collection: "What makes the life of a Christian so hard is that he must choose at every step, he must choose, choose, choose, at every moment; for good and evil have such confusing faces - evil may look good, good may look evil - until even the most sincere Christian may be deceived - unless he chooses. But that is one of his greatest glories too - that he chooses, and knows he can choose."

Finally, the lengthiest and most esoteric of his stories, "The Order of Melchizedek," reflects on the recurring nature of history and of Filipino unwillingness to learn it. It is as classic as Joaquin could get, intermixing pagan and Christian beliefs unto a people that failed (and have still failed) to respect history: Sid Estiva has returned to the Philippines after a long time in order to find the whereabouts of his sister who has become involved with a cult. Through a series of accidents, he is dragged into the cult after being kidnapped and having his clothing and important documents stolen from him. Eventually, however, he uncovers The Order of Melchizedek, the religious cult that his sister has become involved with. Rather than just stay within the realm of religion, however, the cult also essays political revolt. Joaquin was most insightful when he noted that in the Philippines, “nationalism was not a political problem but a spiritual problem. Our people had to be renewed in spirit. They were not really political, they had no political ideas ... The nationalist movement could reach them only if it came in the guise of religion.”

Essaying the leader of the Pule Revolt in 1840-1841 was Father Melchor, the hierophant of the cult that had infected Guia, Sid's sister. There is an undercurrent of inevitability in the story, even with the story's resolution: Guia had become the new hierophant, and must be stopped: "History is a nightmare from which I wish to awake."

"Order" is a heavily symbolic novella that exhorts the reader to reflect, not only on what he believes in, but on who he really is, particularly if he's Filipino. Won't we be rushing toward tragedy again if our own political beliefs are subsumed in personality cults, as with Father Melchor's? It rewards multiple readings and symbolic analysis, but it's definitely a challenging read.

The one weakness in this short story collection is "The Women Who Had Two Navels." While it also deals with fragmented identities and postcolonialism, "The Order of Melchizedek" and "Candido's Apocalypse" are much better reads.

As far as Filipino short story collections go, this probably is the best I've read. It's also one of the more challenging ones, as it takes a particular tenacity to savor and enjoy: like Faulkner, Joaquin is fond of intense, even lurid imagery. He writes colons upon colons in order to describe the milieu or a person's thought process, which may be a bit heady for readers. Make no mistake, however: Joaquin securely belongs as one of Philippines' greatest writers.

[Ana Katrina]

the story was nice

[Freya Jadormio · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best Filipino writers. This book is a collection of some of his short stories. Each story leaves something to remember.