What do you think?
Rate this book
When the Elephants Dance
In the waning days of World War II, as the Japanese and U.S. forces battle to possess the Philippine Islands, the Karangalan family hides with their neighbors in a cramped cellar, where they glean hope from the family stories and folktales they tell each other. These stories of love, survival, and family blend the supernatural with the rich, little known history of the Philippines, the centuries of Spanish colonization, the power of the Catholic church, and the colorful worlds of the Spanish, Mestizo, and Filipino cultures.
As the villagers tell their stories in the darkened cellar below, Holthe masterfully weaves in the stories of three brave Filipinos--a teenage brother and sister and a guerilla fighter--as they become caught in the battle against the vicious Japanese forces above ground.
Inspired by her father's firsthand accounts of this period, Tess Uriza Holthe brings to magical and terrifying life a story of the hope and courage needed to survive in wartime.
As the villagers tell their stories in the darkened cellar below, Holthe masterfully weaves in the stories of three brave Filipinos--a teenage brother and sister and a guerilla fighter--as they become caught in the battle against the vicious Japanese forces above ground.
Inspired by her father's firsthand accounts of this period, Tess Uriza Holthe brings to magical and terrifying life a story of the hope and courage needed to survive in wartime.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2002
281 people are currently reading
7902 people want to read
About the author
Tess Uriza Holthe
6 books133 followersTESS URIZA HOLTHE is the author of the critically acclaimed and nationally bestselling When the Elephants Dance. She grew up on a Filipino-American family in San Francisco. When the Elephants Dance is inspired, in part, by the experiences of her father, who was a young boy in the Philippines during World War II.
Tess Uriza's second book, The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes, was a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book of 2007 and an ALA Notable Book of 2007.
In a series of linked stories, The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes takes readers onto the 5:45 train to Cannes, linking northern Italy with the French Riviera while running like a thread through lives that touch one another in unexpected and often secret ways: Chazz, the heir to a great fortune; GianCarlo, a kindhearted young Italian thief; Anais, who feels the insults of age; and Sophie, a talented young photographer. At the center we find beautiful, bereaved Claudette, wife of the doomed Chazz, making the journey to Cannes, where she, like all the others, remembers her past and draws from it irresolvable feelings of strength and fragility, meaning and emptiness, permanence and loss.
In these stories, Tess Uriza Holthe peers deeply into the inner lives of these women and men. Sad and lovely, often at the same time, The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes takes us to places where we are happy to linger, in the world and in the human heart.
Author photo copyright: Ross Pelton
Tess Uriza's second book, The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes, was a San Francisco Chronicle Notable Book of 2007 and an ALA Notable Book of 2007.
In a series of linked stories, The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes takes readers onto the 5:45 train to Cannes, linking northern Italy with the French Riviera while running like a thread through lives that touch one another in unexpected and often secret ways: Chazz, the heir to a great fortune; GianCarlo, a kindhearted young Italian thief; Anais, who feels the insults of age; and Sophie, a talented young photographer. At the center we find beautiful, bereaved Claudette, wife of the doomed Chazz, making the journey to Cannes, where she, like all the others, remembers her past and draws from it irresolvable feelings of strength and fragility, meaning and emptiness, permanence and loss.
In these stories, Tess Uriza Holthe peers deeply into the inner lives of these women and men. Sad and lovely, often at the same time, The Five-Forty-Five to Cannes takes us to places where we are happy to linger, in the world and in the human heart.
Author photo copyright: Ross Pelton
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 529 reviews
July 12, 2011
If I were the mayor of Manila, I would give a symbolic key to the city to the Tess Uriza-Holte and declare her as city’s adopted daughter. If the good mayor could do that to Manny Pacquiao or to many visiting class B showbiz personalities, why not this Filipino-American author who took great interest to write this exceptional book about the Philippines particularly the City of Manila? A book that covers a sheer span of time in Philippine history from the Spanish era to the waning days of the Japanese occupation in 1945 is definitely a worthwhile read for Filipinos including the many Filipino Americans who are interested to know more about the Philippines and its people.
I bought this book in August 2009 and parked it unread t for almost 2 years because when I invited Holte to be my friend here in Goodreads, she readily accepted and even commented on some of my reviews. She was so nice that I promised to read her book soon. However, the book was thick and other more popular authors distracted my attention so I repeatedly postponed my reading of this book.
Wrong move. This book is better than maybe half of the books in my read folder. She is being compared to G. G. Marquez due to her use of magical realism in a number of stories recollected by some of her characters who are hiding in the basement during the war. Although this book of Holte is not a par with One Hundred Years of Solitude, I would say that Holte has the potential that can rival Isabel Allende who is being tagged as the female G. G. Marquez. Although not as sharp and focused yet as let’s say Allende’s The Daughters of Fortune, this book has its own merits: excellent structure, huge backdrop, plausible plot, interesting characters and commendable attention to details. Not really bad for an accountant who wrote this novel during her spare times while working a fulltime job as controller.
The novel is composed of 4 parts narrated by the character whose name appears as the part’s title. Then in each of the parts are short stories told by the other characters that are hiding in the basement of the house owned Karangalan family. With the exception of the mother and the younger son, all members of the Karangalan family are either tortured or raped by the Japanese armies.
Part 1 - Alejandro Karangalan, the older of the two Karangalan brothers. Included are 2 short stories:
Mabuhay ka Tess!
I bought this book in August 2009 and parked it unread t for almost 2 years because when I invited Holte to be my friend here in Goodreads, she readily accepted and even commented on some of my reviews. She was so nice that I promised to read her book soon. However, the book was thick and other more popular authors distracted my attention so I repeatedly postponed my reading of this book.
Wrong move. This book is better than maybe half of the books in my read folder. She is being compared to G. G. Marquez due to her use of magical realism in a number of stories recollected by some of her characters who are hiding in the basement during the war. Although this book of Holte is not a par with One Hundred Years of Solitude, I would say that Holte has the potential that can rival Isabel Allende who is being tagged as the female G. G. Marquez. Although not as sharp and focused yet as let’s say Allende’s The Daughters of Fortune, this book has its own merits: excellent structure, huge backdrop, plausible plot, interesting characters and commendable attention to details. Not really bad for an accountant who wrote this novel during her spare times while working a fulltime job as controller.
The novel is composed of 4 parts narrated by the character whose name appears as the part’s title. Then in each of the parts are short stories told by the other characters that are hiding in the basement of the house owned Karangalan family. With the exception of the mother and the younger son, all members of the Karangalan family are either tortured or raped by the Japanese armies.
Part 1 - Alejandro Karangalan, the older of the two Karangalan brothers. Included are 2 short stories:
A Cure for Happiness (told by Alejandro’s father) – about Esmeralda, the village witch, who was engulfed by the earth during her fiancé’s wedding day to another woman. A poignant love triangle.Part 2 – Isabelle Karangalan, the only daughter of the Karangalan couple. She was raped by a Japanese commander during her captivity.
Mang Minno (Roman, the journalist) – about a man who can talk to the fish.
Ghost Children (Aling Ana, the rich woman) – about her relationship with an orphan girl her mother adopted after losing her sibling. This story is the best part in the whole novel. A good reminder that there could be people who are trying to reach to us and be our friends and we keep on ignoring them. Better pay attention as it might be too late when we finally turn our heads to their direction.Part 3 – Domingo Matapang, the Guerilla leader
The Twilight People (Mang Pedro, one of the men) – who can see the future in his dreams. Full of scary characters that relive the Philippine mythology and folklores: duwendes, tikbalang, mangkukulam, etc. I appreciate how Holte tried to incorporate all these scary characters but I am just too old for them now.Part 4 – Alejandro Karangalan properly caps the frame story with the conclusion that no matter what happens, at the end of the day, one’s family will always be where we come home to. They say that war brings out the beasts in us. The book does not refute this. However, it also says that war is also the time when you see who your real friends are - those who have the bigger hearts to share freely. As they say, when the sky is dark, you can see the stars.
Carlito’s Journey (Carlito, the father of Alejandro) – what happened to him when he went out looking for food. The attempted rape scene is just hard to imagine. Not sure if a middle-age limping polio-victim man can really catch the attention of a horny Japanese commander. However, the torture scenes and the brutal senseless killings are not for faint-hearted.
Portrait of an Aristocrat (Tay Federico, the Spanish man) – about the Spanish era. What a wonderful part as it brought back the feeling of reading Noli and Fili all over again. The inclusion of this part is just brilliant as it created a larger scope and vivid contrast between the glorious Manila during peacetime and the on-going devastation of the city due to war.
Mabuhay ka Tess!
December 23, 2015
The truth about stories, is that that's all we are – Thomas King
The reality described in these pages of the Phillipines during WWII is intolerable, and there is a stark, necessary novel forming a core here of that reality, consisting of terrible scene after terrible scene. But thankfully, the varied characters of the suffering group have not lost their stories, and they keep each other going, and impart urgent advice, by telling them, thus interleaving the horror with a dazzling plethora of tales.
Really though I mean it, the stories are wondrous in their variety, too heterogenous to issue from one imagination. To me they don't have the feel of folklore, they don't have its marks of pattern and repetition; they are unpredictable and highly personal, rich in the kind of detail that dates and specifies. It would be hard to think of a distinctive common feature in them. Several concern death and spirit worlds, illuminating complex dialogues between Christianity and a more diffuse, rooted faith suppressed by that imposed religion. In Mang Pedro's story in particular the two fuse; his ability to see and speak to ghosts seems to be given by a single highest power that communicates with him through an intermediary in the form of a horse who speaks of a nearing endtime, recalling the 'four horsemen of the apocalypse'. Yet in my favourite story, Tay Fredrico's, religion only features as a weapon of colonial violence wielded by the despicable Friar de Guzman and his colleagues.
This story, with its decolonial politic, also concerns superlative talent and art, as does Mang Pedro's, and as too does Roman's story of the fisherman who bargains with an evil spirit. This story, with its magic fish and prohibitions on eating, resonates with 'Western' fairytale tradition, and its deliciously creepy, ominous mood and dramatically subverted fatalism relate it, for me, to the slightly gloomy, symbolic style of, say, Ruskin in fairytale mode.
In all of the stories, love is a transformative force, releasing Fredrico from his racism and Roman from his obsession, but in Aling Anna's story, love's power is more problematic. Her adopted sister is almost a Patient Griselda figure, one of the few people in the stories who brim with virtue. Anna is the villain of her own tale, but her honesty and repentance are redeeming. One of the most attractive things about this book is that the tellers of tales show themselves behaving badly – being selfish, greedy, naïve or spiteful, and tracing the causes of those traits to, for example, abuse or neglect. In Aesop's fables and other 'Western' morality tales, the fool or villain is always someone else, and its refreshing to see people conscious of their own faults, and urging others to avoid the same mistakes. In the present action of the novel, similarly, most people behave selfishly or foolishly at times; the dire straits they are in bring out their worst qualities as well as the best. I was especially touched by Isabelle's behaviour, her selfishness and arrogance were much more relatable than these traits usually are! Holthe shows her courageous and compassionate in the next breath, demonstrating that we are all capable of contradictory impulses and extraordinary feats...
I greatly appreciated this as a piece of historical education. It gives only a glimpse, a taste, but I generally learn better through fiction than history; I learn through story, as Holthe's characters know is often true. I will not forget their tales.
The reality described in these pages of the Phillipines during WWII is intolerable, and there is a stark, necessary novel forming a core here of that reality, consisting of terrible scene after terrible scene. But thankfully, the varied characters of the suffering group have not lost their stories, and they keep each other going, and impart urgent advice, by telling them, thus interleaving the horror with a dazzling plethora of tales.
Really though I mean it, the stories are wondrous in their variety, too heterogenous to issue from one imagination. To me they don't have the feel of folklore, they don't have its marks of pattern and repetition; they are unpredictable and highly personal, rich in the kind of detail that dates and specifies. It would be hard to think of a distinctive common feature in them. Several concern death and spirit worlds, illuminating complex dialogues between Christianity and a more diffuse, rooted faith suppressed by that imposed religion. In Mang Pedro's story in particular the two fuse; his ability to see and speak to ghosts seems to be given by a single highest power that communicates with him through an intermediary in the form of a horse who speaks of a nearing endtime, recalling the 'four horsemen of the apocalypse'. Yet in my favourite story, Tay Fredrico's, religion only features as a weapon of colonial violence wielded by the despicable Friar de Guzman and his colleagues.
This story, with its decolonial politic, also concerns superlative talent and art, as does Mang Pedro's, and as too does Roman's story of the fisherman who bargains with an evil spirit. This story, with its magic fish and prohibitions on eating, resonates with 'Western' fairytale tradition, and its deliciously creepy, ominous mood and dramatically subverted fatalism relate it, for me, to the slightly gloomy, symbolic style of, say, Ruskin in fairytale mode.
In all of the stories, love is a transformative force, releasing Fredrico from his racism and Roman from his obsession, but in Aling Anna's story, love's power is more problematic. Her adopted sister is almost a Patient Griselda figure, one of the few people in the stories who brim with virtue. Anna is the villain of her own tale, but her honesty and repentance are redeeming. One of the most attractive things about this book is that the tellers of tales show themselves behaving badly – being selfish, greedy, naïve or spiteful, and tracing the causes of those traits to, for example, abuse or neglect. In Aesop's fables and other 'Western' morality tales, the fool or villain is always someone else, and its refreshing to see people conscious of their own faults, and urging others to avoid the same mistakes. In the present action of the novel, similarly, most people behave selfishly or foolishly at times; the dire straits they are in bring out their worst qualities as well as the best. I was especially touched by Isabelle's behaviour, her selfishness and arrogance were much more relatable than these traits usually are! Holthe shows her courageous and compassionate in the next breath, demonstrating that we are all capable of contradictory impulses and extraordinary feats...
I greatly appreciated this as a piece of historical education. It gives only a glimpse, a taste, but I generally learn better through fiction than history; I learn through story, as Holthe's characters know is often true. I will not forget their tales.
May 1, 2022
Popular folk dance in the Philippines called tinikling. Dancers skillfully jump above the bamboos that are slammed against each other to provide a steady rhythm.
God knows how difficult it is to find Filipino literature abroad, especially for foreigners, who don't read Tagalog or any of the languages spoken in the Philippines. When I joined Goodreads in 2012, I was looking for Filipino literature, but the few Filipino books I found were not available in my local library. So instead, I read a short history book on the Philippines, which was fairly interesting (especially regarding the presidents). Then last year, my book club traveled to the Philippines and this book was chosen. I took down the title and made sure I would catch up with this read.
I tried hard to like this book, but it was very difficult. I had two big problems:
First of all, prior to publishing this book, the author Tess Uriza Holthe had never even set foot on the Philippines (she was born and raised in the US). The novel is mainly derived from stories, family members told her. And you can easily tell that the author has never been to the Philippines. The geographic inaccuracy of the story was phenomenal. The characters seemed to be walking in and out of Manila, into the provinces, into the mountains and jungles, as if they were walking into the supermarket! With such ease. In such a short time. During WWII, when food was scarce, these characters seemed to have endless energy to walk around! It was very difficult for me to take the story seriously when geographically it didn't make any sense. And according to many Filipino reviewers, the Tagalog phrases in the book contained mistakes.
Secondly, the story felt incredibly disjointed. In an interview, the author admitted that she was taking writing classes and that she wanted to publish her essays. The end result was a book, which included six of these "short stories". The structure of the novel renders the novel incredibly disconnected. Divided into four chapters, the main story of the book is set during WWII in Manila. There are three narrators, however six different stories are brought up within the novel told by different characters randomly. For instance, many of the characters would be hiding in the cellar and then somebody would speak up "I have a story to tell...". Or the characters would be caught by the Japanese and during their imprisonment, somebody would come forth, "Let me tell you a story...". Jumping between WWII Manila and whatever mystical story was told, made the "main" story and struggle the characters faced during the Battle of Manila in 1945 less impressive, almost boring. Which is a pity. I think the author was too ambitious, trying to tell too many stories.
On the bright side, the author did manage to bring forth many important elements of Filipino culture; the food, the macho behavior of Filipino men, the obsession with beauty, love of parties, the power of the Catholic Church in everyday life of Filipinos, jealousy, vanity, violence... It seemed that the main message of the "short stories" was the importance of family. The ending of the book was quite disappointing.
I realized that I'm often disappointed by the "immigrant's child's representation/writing of their parent's home country," especially if they have never lived in or even visited that country (Island of a Thousand Mirrors, Ghana Must Go and now this book). I understand that these authors want to probably share their culture or that there is a void in literature for books set in these locations, etc. However, I very much prefer a book written by an author, who has lived and breathed in the place that they are writing about. That type of authenticity is essential for a good book.
January 7, 2019
****I finally got a chance to re-read one of my old favorites before passing it on to my daughter. I loved this book.
The story unfolds during the bloody last days of WWII in the Philippines as the Americans fight for control after 3 years of Japanese occupation. The Filipinos in an area close to Manila come together to hide in the basement of the Karangalan family. The group sends 2 or 3 at a time to try to gather food with dire consequences including: capture, torture and rape. The atrocities of the Japanese towards the Filipinos is incredible! To fuel courage and hope, some of the adults tell stories, or myths about ghosts, family curses and the spirit world, while teaching lessons of greed, love and family. The descriptive historical scenes are difficult to read but the dramatic climax is a tribute to the survival of the human spirit everywhere.
I would highly recommend this book finding it not only great historical fiction but also a timely novel of what war means to the civilians involved in any conflict. These characters have and will continue to stay with me for a long while.
The story unfolds during the bloody last days of WWII in the Philippines as the Americans fight for control after 3 years of Japanese occupation. The Filipinos in an area close to Manila come together to hide in the basement of the Karangalan family. The group sends 2 or 3 at a time to try to gather food with dire consequences including: capture, torture and rape. The atrocities of the Japanese towards the Filipinos is incredible! To fuel courage and hope, some of the adults tell stories, or myths about ghosts, family curses and the spirit world, while teaching lessons of greed, love and family. The descriptive historical scenes are difficult to read but the dramatic climax is a tribute to the survival of the human spirit everywhere.
I would highly recommend this book finding it not only great historical fiction but also a timely novel of what war means to the civilians involved in any conflict. These characters have and will continue to stay with me for a long while.
January 26, 2008
My sister-in-law gave this book for my unexpected trip to the Philippines. I didn't open the book til I got to my grandparents home and ... I was completely absorbed & had a hard time putting this book down (it was as if I was reading a long lost relative's diary). I caught myself pausing amongst certain chapters, looking at where I was at the current time, and just imagining what took place over 50 years ago here in the Philippines.
This book provided pieces of Philippine history that I used to hear family members talk about (in fact, my grandfather randomly reminsced about hearing the Japanese aircrafts overhead). I enjoyed how each chapter depicts: the sufferings, the danger, excitement, and the vivid description of the countryside, people, and custom celebrations.
I don't want to spoil anything, but to say in short: The fact that I was in the provincial Philippines reading this allowed me to vividly picture what took place; evoke feelings of excitment, sorrow, melancholy; and realize that members of my family experience this makes it unforgettable.
This book provided pieces of Philippine history that I used to hear family members talk about (in fact, my grandfather randomly reminsced about hearing the Japanese aircrafts overhead). I enjoyed how each chapter depicts: the sufferings, the danger, excitement, and the vivid description of the countryside, people, and custom celebrations.
I don't want to spoil anything, but to say in short: The fact that I was in the provincial Philippines reading this allowed me to vividly picture what took place; evoke feelings of excitment, sorrow, melancholy; and realize that members of my family experience this makes it unforgettable.
April 19, 2025
When the Elephants Dance weaves together Filipino folklore, family narratives, and the Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II. The novel follows three primary narrators — siblings Alejandro and Isabelle, along with resistance leader Domingo. In 1945, a group of neighbors hide in an abandoned cellar. They share traditional folktales and personal stories to pass the time. Holthe includes a note indicating that she heard many of these stories from her older relatives.
It is not your typical WWII story, since it takes place in the Philippines and is focused on the local people. It explores resistance, collaboration, and the moral compromises required for survival. The tales contain magical elements of Filipino culture. They occasionally feel a bit like they were “inserted” rather than flowing naturally. Parts of this novel are riveting, especially Domingo’s narrative, but I think the personal stories could have been shortened.
3.5
It is not your typical WWII story, since it takes place in the Philippines and is focused on the local people. It explores resistance, collaboration, and the moral compromises required for survival. The tales contain magical elements of Filipino culture. They occasionally feel a bit like they were “inserted” rather than flowing naturally. Parts of this novel are riveting, especially Domingo’s narrative, but I think the personal stories could have been shortened.
3.5
June 25, 2012
(Final view, on completion of the book, found at the end.)
*****************
Oh, I am struggling...... Every chapter is the voice of another character. In this way you see what is going on in the head of the prime characters. That I have no complaint with. What I hate is that in each chapter there is also a story. And that story has always a moral. These stories chop up the book, and they are so simplistic. I just swore, OMG, here comes this chapter's story. Here comes the lesson. This is like a schoolbook on proper behavior. "Love your sister". "Appreciate your mother". "Support your family".The moralistic stories are so so darn blatant. And boring and disruptive to the plot line. And too long. Way to long. Now I have another stupid story ahead of me......
Please read the comments under this review. There are many inaccuracies in this book.
I figured I would just read this as a book of complete fiction. I told myself to assume nothing is historically correct. Just appreciate the story - but it is terrible! No, that is not fair, the stories in the story are terrible. Sometimes I do care about the people, but then comes the dam story that is stuck in to teach a lesson. Give me patience. I have to finish this dam book. Back to reading after my mini-explosion. I have read 215 of 367 pages. More than half - :0)
*********************
On completion: the message is too blatant, too simplistic and hammered repetitively into the reader. Value your friends and family while you have them. It is no unimportant, insignificant, misconstrued detail that the story takes place in a cellar, hiding from the Japanese, if few houses have cellars! And the ending? When a war ends,suffering does not stop over night.That is the impression you get here. Atrocities in fact continue. What happened after the war, the difficulties that had to be resolved are not even hinted at. The brutality of the Japanese in warfare is a dominant theme of this book. With this depiction I have no complaint.
*****************
Oh, I am struggling...... Every chapter is the voice of another character. In this way you see what is going on in the head of the prime characters. That I have no complaint with. What I hate is that in each chapter there is also a story. And that story has always a moral. These stories chop up the book, and they are so simplistic. I just swore, OMG, here comes this chapter's story. Here comes the lesson. This is like a schoolbook on proper behavior. "Love your sister". "Appreciate your mother". "Support your family".The moralistic stories are so so darn blatant. And boring and disruptive to the plot line. And too long. Way to long. Now I have another stupid story ahead of me......
Please read the comments under this review. There are many inaccuracies in this book.
I figured I would just read this as a book of complete fiction. I told myself to assume nothing is historically correct. Just appreciate the story - but it is terrible! No, that is not fair, the stories in the story are terrible. Sometimes I do care about the people, but then comes the dam story that is stuck in to teach a lesson. Give me patience. I have to finish this dam book. Back to reading after my mini-explosion. I have read 215 of 367 pages. More than half - :0)
*********************
On completion: the message is too blatant, too simplistic and hammered repetitively into the reader. Value your friends and family while you have them. It is no unimportant, insignificant, misconstrued detail that the story takes place in a cellar, hiding from the Japanese, if few houses have cellars! And the ending? When a war ends,suffering does not stop over night.That is the impression you get here. Atrocities in fact continue. What happened after the war, the difficulties that had to be resolved are not even hinted at. The brutality of the Japanese in warfare is a dominant theme of this book. With this depiction I have no complaint.
November 6, 2007
I think my three stars are for how easy a book this is to teach for students being so receptive to it; I've seen students of Filipino American literature find this book accessible and interesting. For some reason students for classes I have TA'ed identify with these stories, or rather, students identify with the author's disconnect with Philippine history and the country itself. This disconnect is apparent in the author's writing, in which descriptions of the land, the people, etc. appear second hand and/or distantly imagined.
That said, is it possible that this literary work's importance is (apart from its relative commercial visibility and success) its function as a gateway to more Filipino American literature?
That said, is it possible that this literary work's importance is (apart from its relative commercial visibility and success) its function as a gateway to more Filipino American literature?
July 26, 2007
When the Elephants Dance is the story of the Philippine's during WWII after the Japanese had taken control of the islands. Due to exorbitant costs and danger of death most families at that time hid with local neighbors and friends, only going out to trade or search for food to survive. This book is the story of one family - hiding in their basement with 11 neighbors and friends.
The book is broken down into 3 main parts - the first being told by the 2nd child Alenjandro, the second being told by the older sister Isabelle and the third being told by the guerilla leader (and friend of this family) Domingo. Interwoven into each of these three parts are stories from the elders that are hiding with them - stories from their childhood that teach lessons or morals pertaining to what that narrator is going through in that moment.
These lyrical stories interwoven with the desperation of the times make for a breathtaking story and subtly teaches you a lot about the Philippines. The character description in this book is phenomenal - it's one of those stories that you won't want to put down because it's riveting but that you won't want to end because you know you're going to miss the characters when it's over.
The book is broken down into 3 main parts - the first being told by the 2nd child Alenjandro, the second being told by the older sister Isabelle and the third being told by the guerilla leader (and friend of this family) Domingo. Interwoven into each of these three parts are stories from the elders that are hiding with them - stories from their childhood that teach lessons or morals pertaining to what that narrator is going through in that moment.
These lyrical stories interwoven with the desperation of the times make for a breathtaking story and subtly teaches you a lot about the Philippines. The character description in this book is phenomenal - it's one of those stories that you won't want to put down because it's riveting but that you won't want to end because you know you're going to miss the characters when it's over.
August 11, 2011
The Power of Stories
(A Book Review of Tess Uriza Holthe’s When the Elephants Dance)
A group of neighbors seek shelter in the cellar of an abandoned house. They are cramped, huddled on the dirt, starving and terrified. Outside fierce gun battle rages on, bomb patters like rain drop on the pockmarked beauty of Manila and its countryside. Fires ablaze, consuming everything on its path in a deathly embrace.
This is the image that first bored it way in my mind while reading When The Elephants Dance, Tess Uriza Holthe’s 2002 debut novel set during World War II on the final turbulent week before Manila’s liberation inspired in part by the experiences of his father during the war.
And then another vision — this one tinge with memory — came before me: a child hunched in between her parents who, along with their relatives and neighbors, hid in an underground shelter screened by a bamboo grove nearby their house in Pampanga.
Her name is Juanita.
She’s my lola.
The novel is told through the three distinctive voices of thirteen-year-old Alejandro Karangalan, his sister Isabelle and Domingo Matapang, a guerilla leader; each seeking normalcy amidst the chaos, dreaming of a better life for themselves and their family. Together with their friends and neighbors they try to endure the war hidden underneath the cellar of the Karangalan’s house. Yet what started out as a divided, bickering people struggling to stay alive in a confined room turns into a close-knit band of survivors as they tell each other mythical stories in order to “stay alive when you have died inside” while outdoor the war and its atrocities wreak the country in havoc.
Each story illuminates a ray of hope and became a food of inspiration not only to the characters but as well to the readers encompassing themes such as honor and courage, loyalty and betrayal, love and temptation, individuality and patriotism. At turns filled with bizarre and odd twists, at times mythic and supernatural bristling with folkloric wisdom, the tales presents the rich, colorful culture of the Philippine Islands and its people, revealing a country torn within, struggling on its path to unity and freedom, a country in search for its soul.
When Elephants Dance remains true to the Filipino grand tradition of oral history by way of the regions’ alamat (legends) and epic poems. Tess Uriza Holthe in her novel depicts, time and again, the power of stories and their capacity to change people. Reading the book reminded me greatly of my lola that lazy afternoon when she told me parts of her experiences growing up as a young girl during the Second World War. How the bombings had traumatized her for years, how she and her family have to put up with nothing but kamote and its tuber for sustenance, and how they stomached drinking water scooped from gutter, fearing to venture out of their safe haven to the nearest poso artesiano, which is miles away from their house, lest they be captured by the Kempetais, wrongfully accused as a guerilla, and brought to be imprisoned in their camp to suffer things too grisly to mention. The only thing I regret was that I treated hearing these stories with a child’s distanced nonchalance. I miss her terribly. If only she were alive today how I would love to hear her stories of the distant past once again; this time I would lap it with such a delight, heartily swigging in this wellspring of family history.
Near the end of the novel Domingo Matapang proclaims: “Run, find your voices again. Do whatever it takes and don’t give up.” It has become the clarion call that generations later people such as Holthe will rally, their voices reaching far and wide. It is in this way do we pay our ancestors and our country honor.
_________________________
Book Details: Book #27 for 2011
Published by Crown Publishers Group
(Hardcover, 2002 First Edition)
368 pages
Started: July 06, 2011
Finished: July 13, 2011
My Rating: ★★★★
[See this review and some related pictures on my book blog Dark Chest of Wonders and for many others.]
August 24, 2013
The opening of the novel references and explains the title:
Papa explains the war like this: ‘When the elephants dance, the chickens must be careful.’ The great beasts, as they circle one another, shaking the trees and trumpeting loudly, are the Amerikanos and the Japanese as they fight. And our Philippine Islands? We are the small chickens."
So yes, this is a story of the Philippines during World War II. And at first, I didn't think I'd like this novel much. Just before I'd read What is the What about genocide in the Sudan and then First They Killed My Father about genocide in Cambodia. I admit I found it a bit off-putting when I saw that like both of them, this was being told in first person present. God, I thought, not another story of misery wrapped in literary gauze! I've grown a bit wary (and weary) of the present tense in fiction. At first that was a technique that seemed fresh and often read lyrically--but I've seen it used so many times it now tends to strike me more as gimmicky and pretentious. But I was thoroughly won over by the end. Holthe said about the only thing she could find in the library about the Philippines were travel guides. She wanted to fill that gap and tell not only the stories she got first hand from her family about the Japanese Occupation, but interweave stories like those she was told as a child, tales of "ghosts and witches, always told with delicious darkness and magic." And though the mainline of the narrative is far from a mere frame a la Arabian Nights, interspersed throughout are several tales told by characters of ghosts and witches and dark spells and curses. Yes, there are also stories of atrocities here--graphic depictions of rape and torture and the brutal necessities of war.
But the novel always kept sight of love and family and hope. Holthe weaves in a beautiful portrait of the Philippines and its people: Filipinos, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Americans, both rich and poor, old and young, especially in those short story interludes. She gives you a sense of the landscape, the cuisine, even a flavor of the different languages. And I felt surprisingly at home--my mother's family is Puerto Rican and the Philippines Holthe described reminded me a lot of Puerto Rico. Both are tropical islands and have had centuries of Spanish and decades of American colonization influencing their culture. Holthe also enriches her tale with a lot of Filipino history. I never knew the very name of the country came from King Philip of Spain. Or that there was a war of independence fought against Americans in the early 20th century. So I felt I learned a lot and I was entertained. All good.
Papa explains the war like this: ‘When the elephants dance, the chickens must be careful.’ The great beasts, as they circle one another, shaking the trees and trumpeting loudly, are the Amerikanos and the Japanese as they fight. And our Philippine Islands? We are the small chickens."
So yes, this is a story of the Philippines during World War II. And at first, I didn't think I'd like this novel much. Just before I'd read What is the What about genocide in the Sudan and then First They Killed My Father about genocide in Cambodia. I admit I found it a bit off-putting when I saw that like both of them, this was being told in first person present. God, I thought, not another story of misery wrapped in literary gauze! I've grown a bit wary (and weary) of the present tense in fiction. At first that was a technique that seemed fresh and often read lyrically--but I've seen it used so many times it now tends to strike me more as gimmicky and pretentious. But I was thoroughly won over by the end. Holthe said about the only thing she could find in the library about the Philippines were travel guides. She wanted to fill that gap and tell not only the stories she got first hand from her family about the Japanese Occupation, but interweave stories like those she was told as a child, tales of "ghosts and witches, always told with delicious darkness and magic." And though the mainline of the narrative is far from a mere frame a la Arabian Nights, interspersed throughout are several tales told by characters of ghosts and witches and dark spells and curses. Yes, there are also stories of atrocities here--graphic depictions of rape and torture and the brutal necessities of war.
But the novel always kept sight of love and family and hope. Holthe weaves in a beautiful portrait of the Philippines and its people: Filipinos, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Americans, both rich and poor, old and young, especially in those short story interludes. She gives you a sense of the landscape, the cuisine, even a flavor of the different languages. And I felt surprisingly at home--my mother's family is Puerto Rican and the Philippines Holthe described reminded me a lot of Puerto Rico. Both are tropical islands and have had centuries of Spanish and decades of American colonization influencing their culture. Holthe also enriches her tale with a lot of Filipino history. I never knew the very name of the country came from King Philip of Spain. Or that there was a war of independence fought against Americans in the early 20th century. So I felt I learned a lot and I was entertained. All good.
June 5, 2007
I was sucked into this book and found myself reading it late into the night. It takes place in the Philippines at the end of WWII when the Japanese are beginning to lose hold of the island. The is a part of fairly recent history that I shamefully didn't know much about. We always hear about Corregidor and MacArthur, because those were American sufferings and American heroes, but we never hear about how horribly the Philippine people suffered not only under the Japanese during WWII but previously under the 300 years of colonial rule by the Spanish (and then the Americans).
The story centers around a group of people hiding out in a cellar while hell ravages above. The people take turns telling stories from their pasts, and it is these stories that really make the book beautiful. They are sumptuous and exciting and sorrowful and wise and unforgettable.
Outside the stories, the world of WWII Philippines is completely horrific and difficult to read at times. My recommendation: Start this book in the morning or afternoon, not at night. The first scene is pretty gory with torture and abuse. However, if you made it through Murakami's _The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle_ with your lunch intact, then you'll probably be okay.
The story centers around a group of people hiding out in a cellar while hell ravages above. The people take turns telling stories from their pasts, and it is these stories that really make the book beautiful. They are sumptuous and exciting and sorrowful and wise and unforgettable.
Outside the stories, the world of WWII Philippines is completely horrific and difficult to read at times. My recommendation: Start this book in the morning or afternoon, not at night. The first scene is pretty gory with torture and abuse. However, if you made it through Murakami's _The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle_ with your lunch intact, then you'll probably be okay.
May 28, 2017
I didn't know very much about the history of the Philippines so I found that aspect of this book interesting. To me, though, it felt like the author tried to do too much in one book. I would have enjoyed this one more, I think, if it had stuck to the straight story line without all of the stories-within-a-story, which I found distracting. They were so long that by the time one was over I would forget the original plot line. It was also difficult for me to keep all of the characters straight because of all the jumping around.
Ratings (1 to 5)
Writing: 3
Plot: 2
Characters: 2
Emotional impact: 3
Overall rating: 2.5
Ratings (1 to 5)
Writing: 3
Plot: 2
Characters: 2
Emotional impact: 3
Overall rating: 2.5
February 17, 2023
PAPA EXPLAINS THE WAR LIKE THIS: “When the elephants dance, the chickens must be careful.” The great beasts, as they circle one another, shaking the trees and trumpeting loudly, are the Amerikanos and the Japanese as they fight. And our Philippine Islands? We are the small chickens.There is no mistaking where this novel is going. Or is there? Yes, this is WWII in the Philippines. It is told by three characters: Alejandro Karangalan, his sister Isabelle Karangalan, and guerilla fighter Domingo Matapang. Each of these tells part of the story of the war, but also how they each are part of a family and community. Within each of the narratives one of the elders of the community relates how it was when they were young. These "elder narratives" all conclude with a moral: it is as important to look out for family/community as it is to look out for self, that when we decide to look out only for oneself, we may come to regret that decision.
I thought these narratives-within-a-narrative the best of this. All of them are good. One of the stories, that of Tay Fredrico, could be expanded upon and make a very good novel. In it is the conflict of class, a romance, and the decision to fight against oppression. The straight narratives during the war were hard to read. Isabelle's narrative was especially hard reading.
My town has a not insignificant Filipino population. I also appreciated that this novel has a sprinking of Tagalog expressions. I look forward to being able to say maraming salámat instead of thank you the next time I've been helped at the grocery store. There were also several references to José Rizal as being the hero of the Philippines. I have his Noli Me Tángere (Touch Me Not) on my shelf which I didn't get to with our Asia/Africa sub-challenge. I am encouraged to get after it.
In the end, I found this mixed reading. There was enough of it I liked that I'm allowing my rating to climb over the 3-/4-star line, but just barely.
October 2, 2012
This is one of those books that engaged me, but for which I can come up with little praise in retrospect. At first I wanted to round up to 3 stars, reflecting my level of enjoyment, but quality-wise it’s more of a 1.5. So we'll call it a 2.
When the Elephants Dance purports to be a tale of civilians living through the Japanese occupation (and American recapture) of the Philippines during World War II, narrated alternatively by a nationalist guerrilla leader, a teenage girl, and her preteen brother. Fortunately--since that storyline is weak--more than half the book is spent in folk tales, as five other characters narrate stories from their pasts, replete with magical realism.
The war story starts out engaging, but quickly becomes melodramatic, full of one-dimensional characters and clichéd emotion. It’s relatively fast-paced, with endless captures, escapes and rescues, but clunky and awkwardly written, a problem only aggravated by poor use of the first-person present tense. Ultimately, I just didn’t buy the author’s handling of war or trauma, which is full of cheap drama and devoid of genuine, thoughtful character-defining moments. The more extreme the characters’ situations, the less interesting and less believable they become. And they're almost always extreme.
But Holthe’s writing about life in the embedded tales--with themes like sibling relations, political awakening and falling in love--is better. The tales are genuinely intriguing, their prose is passable, and they include some of the character development missing from the frame story. Anna’s realization that her first priority in marriage is a mother-in-law who will prefer her to her sister, for instance, is one of those moments that stands out because it’s unusual and tells us a lot about her character.
But then, the folk tales are awkwardly dropped into the frame story, with little introduction and no follow-up. (Much the way that whole dialogues in Tagalog are dumped into the text, only for every word to be immediately translated into English.) Nor are there meaningful parallels in theme or escalation of tension; the frame story and the characters’ understanding of each other within it are so unaffected by the tales that they might as well be a separate book entirely. For that matter, the same storytellers who are reasonably interesting in the tales are as flat as everyone else in the main story, and even afterwards I had a hard time remembering which cardboard character went with which folk tale (particularly with the three interchangeable middle-aged men; the elderly man and the one woman are a bit more distinct). Unsurprisingly, all eight voices sound identical.
Throughout, the sense of place is superficial--the Philippines is a vaguely tropical but ill-defined locale. Thus, while disappointed, I was not surprised to discover from other reviews that Holthe (a Filipino-American) made a number of mistakes in the culture and geography.
What’s evident even to a reader with no knowledge of the country is the lack of thought put into detail. The preteen boy narrator tells us, for instance, that he used to walk 20 km each way to work: that’s a 25-mile round trip, or roughly 6 hours’ daily commute if he walks briskly and doesn’t take breaks. He’s hardly the only potential triathlete in the story: people regularly traverse impressive distances in scant time, over uneven terrain, while injured, without food and often carrying heavy loads. That’s when they’re not busy explaining to each other the meanings of words in their own language. In my favorite moment, one Filipina says to another, "Karangalan [your last name] means 'honor' in Tagalog, but you know that, right?" Presumably they're speaking Tagalog, so she's actually saying "Karangalan means 'karangalan.'" Um, right.
Overall, then, while Holthe shows some potential in the folk tales, this clunky, awkward book left a poor impression. It did entertain, but it’s not one I'd recommend.
When the Elephants Dance purports to be a tale of civilians living through the Japanese occupation (and American recapture) of the Philippines during World War II, narrated alternatively by a nationalist guerrilla leader, a teenage girl, and her preteen brother. Fortunately--since that storyline is weak--more than half the book is spent in folk tales, as five other characters narrate stories from their pasts, replete with magical realism.
The war story starts out engaging, but quickly becomes melodramatic, full of one-dimensional characters and clichéd emotion. It’s relatively fast-paced, with endless captures, escapes and rescues, but clunky and awkwardly written, a problem only aggravated by poor use of the first-person present tense. Ultimately, I just didn’t buy the author’s handling of war or trauma, which is full of cheap drama and devoid of genuine, thoughtful character-defining moments. The more extreme the characters’ situations, the less interesting and less believable they become. And they're almost always extreme.
But Holthe’s writing about life in the embedded tales--with themes like sibling relations, political awakening and falling in love--is better. The tales are genuinely intriguing, their prose is passable, and they include some of the character development missing from the frame story. Anna’s realization that her first priority in marriage is a mother-in-law who will prefer her to her sister, for instance, is one of those moments that stands out because it’s unusual and tells us a lot about her character.
But then, the folk tales are awkwardly dropped into the frame story, with little introduction and no follow-up. (Much the way that whole dialogues in Tagalog are dumped into the text, only for every word to be immediately translated into English.) Nor are there meaningful parallels in theme or escalation of tension; the frame story and the characters’ understanding of each other within it are so unaffected by the tales that they might as well be a separate book entirely. For that matter, the same storytellers who are reasonably interesting in the tales are as flat as everyone else in the main story, and even afterwards I had a hard time remembering which cardboard character went with which folk tale (particularly with the three interchangeable middle-aged men; the elderly man and the one woman are a bit more distinct). Unsurprisingly, all eight voices sound identical.
Throughout, the sense of place is superficial--the Philippines is a vaguely tropical but ill-defined locale. Thus, while disappointed, I was not surprised to discover from other reviews that Holthe (a Filipino-American) made a number of mistakes in the culture and geography.
What’s evident even to a reader with no knowledge of the country is the lack of thought put into detail. The preteen boy narrator tells us, for instance, that he used to walk 20 km each way to work: that’s a 25-mile round trip, or roughly 6 hours’ daily commute if he walks briskly and doesn’t take breaks. He’s hardly the only potential triathlete in the story: people regularly traverse impressive distances in scant time, over uneven terrain, while injured, without food and often carrying heavy loads. That’s when they’re not busy explaining to each other the meanings of words in their own language. In my favorite moment, one Filipina says to another, "Karangalan [your last name] means 'honor' in Tagalog, but you know that, right?" Presumably they're speaking Tagalog, so she's actually saying "Karangalan means 'karangalan.'" Um, right.
Overall, then, while Holthe shows some potential in the folk tales, this clunky, awkward book left a poor impression. It did entertain, but it’s not one I'd recommend.
August 1, 2022
4.5 ⭐️ WHAT A RIDE. This book is not something that I would typically read, but I’m glad that I did. This story focuses on the events during WWII when the Japanese and American soldiers fought over the possession of the Philippine Islands. This was the first ever book I’ve read in regards to my own culture’s history, and I found it very educational and enlightening. The storytelling was incredibly unique and captivating. Firstly, I love how the book was told from three different perspectives. I feel like each point of view brought something new to the story even though they’re all dealing with the war. I loved how the author was able to seamlessly weave in folktales throughout the story. It really made me feel as if I was in the cellar with the Karangalan family. These stories were not only interesting, but they provided so many life lessons and messages that were prominent to the story. Each folktale serves a purpose in the story, but my favorites were definitely Ghost Children, Portrait of an Aristocrat, and A Cure for Happiness. Ghost Children, in my opinion, is unmatched. That story stuck with me the most even though it was so painful for me to read. I would give 5 stars to that folktale alone. I wasn’t the biggest fan of some of the other folktales that dealt with more magical realism, but that’s just my personal preference. As a whole, the entire book flows so well transitioning from folktales to the main story. The parts of the book describing what was happening in the war were written so vividly that I could feel the stress and intensity of the situation. The ending happened really fast, and I would’ve liked more closure with the characters, but I loved the message that it left me with. This is a great story about family, community, love, loss, and survival. <3
June 13, 2009
This is a wonderful book. We read this captivating novel in the Mostly Literary Fiction group in April 2009, with a follow-up Q&A with the author herself, Tess Uriza Holthe, on the GoodReads.com network. Check it out at:
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1...
http://www.goodreads.com/group/show/1...
April 7, 2021
This book shook the very core of my soul. I've never felt Filipino culture as I know it expressed through the style of story-telling alone the way this book has done. I was in awe of how Tess Uriza Holthe centered the importance of story-sharing, folklore, and oral history in Filipino culture so effortlessly within the plotline.
Tess Uriza Holthe writes with spellbinding grace in weaving the terror and desperation of WWII in with the beauty, vibrancy, and distinctiveness of our people. It all comes together in such a heartbreakingly flawless way, I struggled to breathe while reading many parts of it.
You could almost smell the lush jungles, taste the ripe mangos, feel the dust of crowded Manila streets, touch the blades of the bolo knives, and hear the sounds of bamboo hitting bamboo during the tinikling dances through the meticulous language Holthe writes with.
When The Elephants Dance is a testimonial to the unimaginable strength, pride, and resilience of the peoples of the Phillipine islands from the time of initial colonization by Spain in the 1500's, throughout and beyond their fight for freedom in World War II. It also bears witness to culture(s) who refuse to be erased and the resistance fighters who ensured their voices would be heard.
For my Filipino brothers and sisters - this is absolutely a must-read. Tess Uriza Holthe honors the resolve of our ancestors throughout this book and they weep with the memories that will never be forgotten, which are so powerfully witnessed here.
For everyone else - this is required reading if you have any desire to understand what Filipino people have endured in the face of oppression in order to reclaim what was taken from them. The story unearths so much that has been kept out of sight and out of mind, but must be looked at in the face.
This book has Ruby Ibarra's words ringing in my ears so I'll leave it with this:
"So let it be known, if you don't already
Pinays have always been part, and
parcel, if not, imperative and critical to the struggle.
Filipinas are no strangers to wielding our own power.
Of all the privileges that exist in this
world, none of which you may be a benefactor of
there is at least one you bear
and that is the privilege of having been born a Filipina.
Your DNA contains building blocks made from the
mud of over 500 years of resistance and survival."
Tess Uriza Holthe writes with spellbinding grace in weaving the terror and desperation of WWII in with the beauty, vibrancy, and distinctiveness of our people. It all comes together in such a heartbreakingly flawless way, I struggled to breathe while reading many parts of it.
You could almost smell the lush jungles, taste the ripe mangos, feel the dust of crowded Manila streets, touch the blades of the bolo knives, and hear the sounds of bamboo hitting bamboo during the tinikling dances through the meticulous language Holthe writes with.
When The Elephants Dance is a testimonial to the unimaginable strength, pride, and resilience of the peoples of the Phillipine islands from the time of initial colonization by Spain in the 1500's, throughout and beyond their fight for freedom in World War II. It also bears witness to culture(s) who refuse to be erased and the resistance fighters who ensured their voices would be heard.
For my Filipino brothers and sisters - this is absolutely a must-read. Tess Uriza Holthe honors the resolve of our ancestors throughout this book and they weep with the memories that will never be forgotten, which are so powerfully witnessed here.
For everyone else - this is required reading if you have any desire to understand what Filipino people have endured in the face of oppression in order to reclaim what was taken from them. The story unearths so much that has been kept out of sight and out of mind, but must be looked at in the face.
This book has Ruby Ibarra's words ringing in my ears so I'll leave it with this:
"So let it be known, if you don't already
Pinays have always been part, and
parcel, if not, imperative and critical to the struggle.
Filipinas are no strangers to wielding our own power.
Of all the privileges that exist in this
world, none of which you may be a benefactor of
there is at least one you bear
and that is the privilege of having been born a Filipina.
Your DNA contains building blocks made from the
mud of over 500 years of resistance and survival."
April 4, 2021
This was a book that was chosen for my book club group and if not for that I’m sure I would have never read. It describes the Philippines during WWII with the Japanese occupation. It was horribly brutal and difficult to read at times. I must admit I skimmed over many sections that were just too horrific. By the end of the book I was glad to have read because I learned quite a bit about the history of the Filipino people.
The author interwove stories she was told as a child, tales combined with witches, ghosts and magic, dark spells and curses. She kept alive the sense of love, family and hope.
The beginning chapter explains the title of the book: “when the elephants dance the chickens must be careful. The great beasts as they circle one another, shaking the trees and trumpeting loudly are the Amerikanos and the Japanese as they fight. And our Philippine Islands? We are the chickens.”
The author interwove stories she was told as a child, tales combined with witches, ghosts and magic, dark spells and curses. She kept alive the sense of love, family and hope.
The beginning chapter explains the title of the book: “when the elephants dance the chickens must be careful. The great beasts as they circle one another, shaking the trees and trumpeting loudly are the Amerikanos and the Japanese as they fight. And our Philippine Islands? We are the chickens.”
March 11, 2025
A difficult reminder of the atrocities my grandparents lived through. It bothers me that I haven't come across many novels that represent this history.
January 24, 2016
First sentence: Papa explains the war like this: “When the elephants dance, the chickens must be careful.”. I first picked up this book because of the title and this opening line. The elephants in this tale are the Japanese and Americans fighting over the Philippines. The Filipinos are the chickens.
The novel takes place during WWII, towards the end of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. The Filipinos had suffered greatly during those three years of occupation. They were starving, and subject to being picked up by the Japanese, seemingly at random, only to be tortured or killed. The book focuses on an extended family living in the basement of an apparently abandoned house. They venture out, one or two at a time, only to forage for food or medicine. To comfort themselves and each other they tell stories – sometimes traditional Filipino folk tales, and sometimes stories from their own past. These are intended to help each other understand and endure their situation, or to teach a lesson they will need to survive.
It’s an interesting idea and it could have been a really good book, but Holthe just wasn’t quite up to the task. The basic plot of the family’s enduring/surviving the occupation is a riveting one, and Holthe really shines in those sections of the book. However, it seems she was trying too hard to impress, or that she was determined to include every possible Filipino tradition and folk tale in an effort to educate the reader about her parents’ homeland. When she interrupts the plot line to tell another story, she loses momentum, and the attention of the reader.
The novel takes place during WWII, towards the end of the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. The Filipinos had suffered greatly during those three years of occupation. They were starving, and subject to being picked up by the Japanese, seemingly at random, only to be tortured or killed. The book focuses on an extended family living in the basement of an apparently abandoned house. They venture out, one or two at a time, only to forage for food or medicine. To comfort themselves and each other they tell stories – sometimes traditional Filipino folk tales, and sometimes stories from their own past. These are intended to help each other understand and endure their situation, or to teach a lesson they will need to survive.
It’s an interesting idea and it could have been a really good book, but Holthe just wasn’t quite up to the task. The basic plot of the family’s enduring/surviving the occupation is a riveting one, and Holthe really shines in those sections of the book. However, it seems she was trying too hard to impress, or that she was determined to include every possible Filipino tradition and folk tale in an effort to educate the reader about her parents’ homeland. When she interrupts the plot line to tell another story, she loses momentum, and the attention of the reader.
August 16, 2008
Stories are to humans as fur is to animals. This book, about the Filipino experience of the Japanese occupation of the Phillipines in WWII, is based on the author's family's own heirloom stories of the war. The Karangalan family, along with about 10 of their neighbors hide in their basement in order to avoid the Japanese discovering their existence. Tensions easily spark between the different characters over finding food, missing family members, surviving the terrors of war, etc. It is in these moments that the author shows how the characters use Filipino folk stories in order to diminish the tension and to remind everyone that they will survive the war only as a united group. I was unaware of the Filipino experience during WWII, often we focus on the Jewish or the US experience. I am thankful to this book for expanding my appreciation for Filipino culture and history. The writing is full of pride and compassion.
November 11, 2012
Seriously, this book was like drinking cold guava juice on a sweltering day. It is World War II and the Americans are fighting to take back control of the Philippines. Meanwhile, the Filipinos must hide and wait out the war because the ones caught are being tortured and held in Japanese camps.
"Papa says that the Philippines is far, far behind the other countries. He says that we are like abused children who have never been allowed to grow. How can we care for ourselves when we have always been told what to do? How can we stand together when so much division has been created among us? He says I must pray there there will not be another war such as this, for we may not survive a next time. He tells me that we have been granted a second chance now that the Amerikanos have given us back out independence."
The story follows a couple of Filipino families through some main characters: Alejandro, a young boy; Isabelle, the young girl who wants to become a medical doctor, and Domingo, the guerrilla commander who fights against the Japanese. The rest of their families wait out the war in the basement of a house and when they must talk about themselves, they use folklore.
The book was written in present tense so I wasn't sure how it would read, but as soon as I started reading it, I knew that Tess Holthe holds her own among master storytellers. If you've ever sat around a fire to listen to folklore, maybe you've drank coffee with a veteran or war survivor who was willing to talk about his/her experiences, or if you are in fact a war survivor, you will find things in this book that will either have you nodding in agreement, or will bring back some memories. Some parts of the story touched me in a personal way, I must say. The only reason it doesn't get a 5 for me is because although I loved the story-telling by the characters in the basement, some seemed too long that they stalled the main story taking place (though "A cure for happiness" was my favorite).
The book embraces the Filipino culture by giving you history through narrative and folklore, even going back to the Spanish influence on the Philippines and the discrimination and classicism. There is conflict in every chapter, and the plot is fast-paced and adrenaline filled. What sets it apart from other war stories is the focus on the "guerrillas." Why is it that people rarely write about them when every war has them?
The love story that follows the guerrilla Domingo and his love triangle was one of my favorite parts of the book; especially since it doesn't end in the way you would expect.
(Thanks, Judy for shipping me this marvelous book to read :-)
"Papa says that the Philippines is far, far behind the other countries. He says that we are like abused children who have never been allowed to grow. How can we care for ourselves when we have always been told what to do? How can we stand together when so much division has been created among us? He says I must pray there there will not be another war such as this, for we may not survive a next time. He tells me that we have been granted a second chance now that the Amerikanos have given us back out independence."
The story follows a couple of Filipino families through some main characters: Alejandro, a young boy; Isabelle, the young girl who wants to become a medical doctor, and Domingo, the guerrilla commander who fights against the Japanese. The rest of their families wait out the war in the basement of a house and when they must talk about themselves, they use folklore.
The book was written in present tense so I wasn't sure how it would read, but as soon as I started reading it, I knew that Tess Holthe holds her own among master storytellers. If you've ever sat around a fire to listen to folklore, maybe you've drank coffee with a veteran or war survivor who was willing to talk about his/her experiences, or if you are in fact a war survivor, you will find things in this book that will either have you nodding in agreement, or will bring back some memories. Some parts of the story touched me in a personal way, I must say. The only reason it doesn't get a 5 for me is because although I loved the story-telling by the characters in the basement, some seemed too long that they stalled the main story taking place (though "A cure for happiness" was my favorite).
The book embraces the Filipino culture by giving you history through narrative and folklore, even going back to the Spanish influence on the Philippines and the discrimination and classicism. There is conflict in every chapter, and the plot is fast-paced and adrenaline filled. What sets it apart from other war stories is the focus on the "guerrillas." Why is it that people rarely write about them when every war has them?
The love story that follows the guerrilla Domingo and his love triangle was one of my favorite parts of the book; especially since it doesn't end in the way you would expect.
(Thanks, Judy for shipping me this marvelous book to read :-)
December 23, 2007
this book came to me as a gift from a dear friend and i was eager to read it, since my own family comes from the Philippines and this book tells the little known history of this country of over 7,100 islands. set in World War II during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines. this novel puts great emotional demands on the reader, your heart breaks at the extreme suffering and tragedy of war and the ravages of colonialism. but ultimately you celebrate the strength of the human spirit and the courage of the Filipino people. this is a book that will linger in your mind, long after you've finished the last page.
i learned from my aunt that my own grandparents met each other while their families were hiding from the Japanese in the mountains. this book created an opportunity for me to learn more about my own family history and piqued my interest in the history of the Philippines which regrettably I did not know very much about (you were right mom, i have no culture:) ).
i learned from my aunt that my own grandparents met each other while their families were hiding from the Japanese in the mountains. this book created an opportunity for me to learn more about my own family history and piqued my interest in the history of the Philippines which regrettably I did not know very much about (you were right mom, i have no culture:) ).
May 26, 2012
Didn't think I'd like this book when I first picked it up. Honestly, it was the best choice at the time (New Arrivals at B&N). Boy, was I mistaken. I was drawn into the plot within the first three pages, and addicted since. Since I am also a huge fan of Asia-based stories, I easily clicked into it. The setting is in Philippines during the Japanese invastion and Tess, the author, has an excellent voice and descriptive style.
Hauntingly beautiful and soulfully written. I wonder why authors like Tess Holte don't come out with novels more frequently?
Hauntingly beautiful and soulfully written. I wonder why authors like Tess Holte don't come out with novels more frequently?
July 10, 2007
Riddled with cliches, geographical and cultural inaccuracies, and one-dimensional characters. It also demonstrates a very poor understanding of how socio-economic class functions in the rural Philippines. The storytelling is decent, but there are better novels on the Philippines during WWII out there (When the Rainbow Goddess Wept by Cecilia Manguerra Brainard, for one).
July 28, 2012
Posted also on Amazon
Tess Uriza Holthe has a lot of brio attempting to take on the horrific Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II, as well as Filipino tradition, folklore, and geography, all while explaining this mass to a (presumedly) Western audience.
Unfortunately, this attempt to make an extremely representative Filipino work (as she indicates she intended to do in the intro of my edition) may have crippled the ultimate product.
Not that there isn't a lot of good in the novel. First of all, the book's ferociously ambitious and expansive in scope, handling a large cast and touching on heavy themes and history. Even if the author's ambition didn't always pan out (as I will explain) and frankly, may have been her biggest weakness, it was also her greatest strength. The novel is big and because of that, I applaud it. Even if I may not have ultimately liked it all that much, I did have a strong reaction to it.
The stories, even if they can be too didactic at worst, have a real power to them. The standouts are the first told by Alejandro's father, "A Cure for Happiness," and the one told by the Aling Anna, "Ghost Children," which take fairly conventional tropes, the scorned woman and a revenge spirit, and do something a little more interesting with them.
In relation to that, I liked the matter-of-fact handling of supernatural and fantastical elements. Man with psychic abilities? Whatever. Ghosts? Whatever. Little elf-creatures? Whatever. It fits in with the Filipino culture I grew up with. My mother used to tell me a witch would eat me if I didn't go to sleep for heaven's sake.
Also, individual scenes of the occupation can be gripping. The jawdropping opener and Alejandro's sister Isabelle's section in particular seared themselves into my brain. When Holthe focused more on the action and forgot about trying to feed us "History! Culture" the book really picked up.
But. . .
You can see Holthe straining to give as comprehensive a view of Filipino life and history as possible, through the often unbelievable info dumps the characters provide. For instance, one of the main narrators, the twelve-year-old Alejandro, duly informs us that Tagalog, the main language of the Philippines, is one of 87 in the whole country. What twelve-year-old in WWII era Philippines would know that specific number? Furthermore, even if he did, why would he feel the need to mention that? This need to explain everything is consistent throughout the novel and tends to cause the pacing of the narrative to drag when it should have been racing. Perhaps my view is a bit skewed, since I am a Filipino-American fairly familiar with the world she depicts, but Filipinos would not need to explain to each other what "ate" meant or what is in pancit. I think she could have given even an audience unfamiliar with the Philippines a little more credit. Let them work for it a bit. This is the age of Google, after all.
Related to this is the rendering of Tagalog phrases. From a technical standpoint, the way every single phrase was immediately translated afterwards soon became expected and very repetitive. It might have been better if she had used no Tagalog at all and only indicated changes to Spanish or English; after all, all the characters more or less spend the majority of the novel speaking to each other in that language.
Furthermore, there were a few blatant inaccuracies and logical headscratchers. For instance, Visayans are the people of Visayas, not the name of the island group itself. Not to mention, Alejandro walks twenty km to and back from home each day. Really? Although that's still more believable than the fact that Domingo, the guerilla commander, manages to walk from the mountains to Manila and back in time to participate in key events. Luzon the island is small, but for people on foot, often injured and weak from hunger, it seems illogical for them to be available to gallivant over all corners of the island in the amount of time indicated, especially on rough terrain.
Finally, what I indicated was the book's greatest strength -- its ambition -- was its greatest weakness. The cast of characters is large and frankly, not always that well sketched out. Several times I would read a character's name, blink, and would not remember who it was. I'm not saying every character needs to be fleshed out, but some characters felt tacked on, and it really made it difficult for me to care for their situation. The fairly pedestrian prose, too much telling and not enough showing, and awkward dialogue didn't help. The three main narrators -- Alejandro the twelve-year-old boy, Isabelle the seventeen-year-old wannabe doctor, and Domingo the weary illegitimate guerilla commander -- all sounded suspiciously similar in voice. The characters' story arcs, particularly one regarding Isabelle and a Filipino informant for the Japanese, developed way too quickly and even implausibly, even if you account for the compressed timeline and desperate circumstances.
Overall, this is not a bad novel, particularly for a debut novelist. Holthe should be commended for daring to take on something as big as the Japanese occupation during WWII and then trying to contextualize it in the greater history and culture of the Philippines for her first go. However, as a whole, it's very technically flawed and too didactic.
I think I would be less annoyed with the novel if the marketing, etc., hadn't trumpeted it as a great Filipino novel on par with Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude or Isabel Allende's The House of Spirits. It's, bluntly, not. It's especially grating when I think of Filipino and Filipino-American writers whose works have taken on similar themes and history and did it so much better, with more subtlety, more complexity, more style. Like Carlos Bulosan and his tour-de-force quasi-autobiographical account of Filipinos under Spanish (and American) oppression. Or Lysley Tenorio and his witty, pop-culture-infused short stories. Or hell, Jessica Hagedorn and her on-point critiques of the effects of imperialism and gender and class restrictions in Filipino society.
It's perhaps unfair to put too much weight on a debut but when a novel is compared to such seminal works, I expect a lot more.
Tess Uriza Holthe has a lot of brio attempting to take on the horrific Japanese occupation of the Philippines during World War II, as well as Filipino tradition, folklore, and geography, all while explaining this mass to a (presumedly) Western audience.
Unfortunately, this attempt to make an extremely representative Filipino work (as she indicates she intended to do in the intro of my edition) may have crippled the ultimate product.
Not that there isn't a lot of good in the novel. First of all, the book's ferociously ambitious and expansive in scope, handling a large cast and touching on heavy themes and history. Even if the author's ambition didn't always pan out (as I will explain) and frankly, may have been her biggest weakness, it was also her greatest strength. The novel is big and because of that, I applaud it. Even if I may not have ultimately liked it all that much, I did have a strong reaction to it.
The stories, even if they can be too didactic at worst, have a real power to them. The standouts are the first told by Alejandro's father, "A Cure for Happiness," and the one told by the Aling Anna, "Ghost Children," which take fairly conventional tropes, the scorned woman and a revenge spirit, and do something a little more interesting with them.
In relation to that, I liked the matter-of-fact handling of supernatural and fantastical elements. Man with psychic abilities? Whatever. Ghosts? Whatever. Little elf-creatures? Whatever. It fits in with the Filipino culture I grew up with. My mother used to tell me a witch would eat me if I didn't go to sleep for heaven's sake.
Also, individual scenes of the occupation can be gripping. The jawdropping opener and Alejandro's sister Isabelle's section in particular seared themselves into my brain. When Holthe focused more on the action and forgot about trying to feed us "History! Culture" the book really picked up.
But. . .
You can see Holthe straining to give as comprehensive a view of Filipino life and history as possible, through the often unbelievable info dumps the characters provide. For instance, one of the main narrators, the twelve-year-old Alejandro, duly informs us that Tagalog, the main language of the Philippines, is one of 87 in the whole country. What twelve-year-old in WWII era Philippines would know that specific number? Furthermore, even if he did, why would he feel the need to mention that? This need to explain everything is consistent throughout the novel and tends to cause the pacing of the narrative to drag when it should have been racing. Perhaps my view is a bit skewed, since I am a Filipino-American fairly familiar with the world she depicts, but Filipinos would not need to explain to each other what "ate" meant or what is in pancit. I think she could have given even an audience unfamiliar with the Philippines a little more credit. Let them work for it a bit. This is the age of Google, after all.
Related to this is the rendering of Tagalog phrases. From a technical standpoint, the way every single phrase was immediately translated afterwards soon became expected and very repetitive. It might have been better if she had used no Tagalog at all and only indicated changes to Spanish or English; after all, all the characters more or less spend the majority of the novel speaking to each other in that language.
Furthermore, there were a few blatant inaccuracies and logical headscratchers. For instance, Visayans are the people of Visayas, not the name of the island group itself. Not to mention, Alejandro walks twenty km to and back from home each day. Really? Although that's still more believable than the fact that Domingo, the guerilla commander, manages to walk from the mountains to Manila and back in time to participate in key events. Luzon the island is small, but for people on foot, often injured and weak from hunger, it seems illogical for them to be available to gallivant over all corners of the island in the amount of time indicated, especially on rough terrain.
Finally, what I indicated was the book's greatest strength -- its ambition -- was its greatest weakness. The cast of characters is large and frankly, not always that well sketched out. Several times I would read a character's name, blink, and would not remember who it was. I'm not saying every character needs to be fleshed out, but some characters felt tacked on, and it really made it difficult for me to care for their situation. The fairly pedestrian prose, too much telling and not enough showing, and awkward dialogue didn't help. The three main narrators -- Alejandro the twelve-year-old boy, Isabelle the seventeen-year-old wannabe doctor, and Domingo the weary illegitimate guerilla commander -- all sounded suspiciously similar in voice. The characters' story arcs, particularly one regarding Isabelle and a Filipino informant for the Japanese, developed way too quickly and even implausibly, even if you account for the compressed timeline and desperate circumstances.
Overall, this is not a bad novel, particularly for a debut novelist. Holthe should be commended for daring to take on something as big as the Japanese occupation during WWII and then trying to contextualize it in the greater history and culture of the Philippines for her first go. However, as a whole, it's very technically flawed and too didactic.
I think I would be less annoyed with the novel if the marketing, etc., hadn't trumpeted it as a great Filipino novel on par with Gabriel Garcia Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude or Isabel Allende's The House of Spirits. It's, bluntly, not. It's especially grating when I think of Filipino and Filipino-American writers whose works have taken on similar themes and history and did it so much better, with more subtlety, more complexity, more style. Like Carlos Bulosan and his tour-de-force quasi-autobiographical account of Filipinos under Spanish (and American) oppression. Or Lysley Tenorio and his witty, pop-culture-infused short stories. Or hell, Jessica Hagedorn and her on-point critiques of the effects of imperialism and gender and class restrictions in Filipino society.
It's perhaps unfair to put too much weight on a debut but when a novel is compared to such seminal works, I expect a lot more.
October 22, 2021
I was so close to giving When the Elephants Dance a full five stars. Most of the novel was, to me, near perfect: the characters' arguments and responses were spot-on; the setting seemed to come to life in my mind's eye; the stories-within-a-story were all, each and every single one of them, completely immersive and worth the read.
Only the final fifty or so pages brought my rating down. The ending was so unbelievably rushed, and the amount of senseless slaughter focused so heavily on the friends and relatives of one specific character, that I couldn't help but be disappointed. Apart from that, I consider this novel a wonderful read.
Only the final fifty or so pages brought my rating down. The ending was so unbelievably rushed, and the amount of senseless slaughter focused so heavily on the friends and relatives of one specific character, that I couldn't help but be disappointed. Apart from that, I consider this novel a wonderful read.
March 26, 2025
I really wanted to like this book but it just didn’t come together for me. I wanted more of the WWII story. I was distracted by the mythological stories interlaced with the war story. They were too long and didn’t relate to the main story line. Also the background stories didn’t enhance the understanding of the main story line. In the end I just didn’t care about the characters.
December 23, 2025
Once I settled into the pace of this book I could not put it down. A beautifully woven book of Filipino folklore and historical fiction through adversity and hardships the Philippines has faced. I learned so much about my country & people from this book and so grateful I was able to finish it before leaving the Philippines
Displaying 1 - 30 of 529 reviews