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DreamEden
Recent events in the Philippines - the 1986 People Power Revolution, the ouster of President Marcos, the election of Corazon Aquino, and the coup of 1989 - are the backdrop of this new novel by a celebrated Filipina writer. She focuses on the experiences of the people in and beyond Gulod, a barrio that "has spread like a field sown by a blind hand" on the outskirts of Manila, on the fringes of power, in the tangled roots of dreams. The story is told through the conflicting lives and ambitions of disillusioned lawyer Benhur, the politician Osong for whom he works, Osong's wife Sally, the retired Col. Moscoso, and many others whose potent but fragile hopes are shaped and destroyed in a context of ceaseless revolutionary change. Linda Ty-Casper combines historical objectivity with convincing moral authority and provides readers with a remarkable sense of people and place, a leap of insight into what it is to live in the Philippines today at a critical juncture in the nation's history. Research in newspaper archives and interviews with participants in the revolution inform her narrative. The events are actual; her fictional characters are believable; her prose is sardonic, compassionate, and virtuosic.
480 pages, Paperback
First published May 1, 1996
About the author
Linda Ty-Casper
20 books17 followersLinda Ty-Casper is a highly-acclaimed Filipino writer. She was born as Belinda Ty in Manila, Philippines in 1931. Her father worked in the Philippine National Railways; her mother was a school teacher and textbook writer. It was her grandmother who told her stories about the Philippine struggle for independence, a topic she picked up in her novels. She has law degrees from the University of the Philippines and Harvard. However, erroneous and biased statements in books at Widener Library converted her into an advocate, through faithfully researched historical fiction, of Filipino's right to self-definition/determination.
Her numerous books are generally historical fiction. The Peninsulars centers on eighteenth-century Manila; The Three-Cornered Sun written on a Radcliffe Institute grant, deals with the 1896 Revolution; and Ten Thousand Seeds, the start of the Philippine American War. Contemporary events, including martial law years, appear in Dread Empire, Hazards of Distance, Fortress in the Plaza, Awaiting Trespass, Wings of Stone, A Small Party in a Garden, and DreamEden.
Her stories, collected in Transparent Sun, The Secret Runner, and Common Continent, originally appeared in magazines such as Antioch Review, The Asia Magazine, Windsor Review, Hawaii Review, and Triquarterly. One short story was cited in The Best American Short Stories of 1977 Honor Roll. Another won a UNESCO and P.E.N. prizes.
She has held grants from the Djerassi Foundation, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the Wheatland Foundation. She and her husband, (literary critic and professor emeritus of Boston College) Leonard Casper, reside in Massachusetts. They have two daughters.
(biography lifted from: http://www.palhbooks.com/Linda.htm)
Her numerous books are generally historical fiction. The Peninsulars centers on eighteenth-century Manila; The Three-Cornered Sun written on a Radcliffe Institute grant, deals with the 1896 Revolution; and Ten Thousand Seeds, the start of the Philippine American War. Contemporary events, including martial law years, appear in Dread Empire, Hazards of Distance, Fortress in the Plaza, Awaiting Trespass, Wings of Stone, A Small Party in a Garden, and DreamEden.
Her stories, collected in Transparent Sun, The Secret Runner, and Common Continent, originally appeared in magazines such as Antioch Review, The Asia Magazine, Windsor Review, Hawaii Review, and Triquarterly. One short story was cited in The Best American Short Stories of 1977 Honor Roll. Another won a UNESCO and P.E.N. prizes.
She has held grants from the Djerassi Foundation, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the Wheatland Foundation. She and her husband, (literary critic and professor emeritus of Boston College) Leonard Casper, reside in Massachusetts. They have two daughters.
(biography lifted from: http://www.palhbooks.com/Linda.htm)
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 28, 2022
Where do I begin with this book?
It has a lot of things going on - a lot of feelings, a lot of point of views. Ultimately, the book objectively puts into perspective the EDSA Revolution or People Power I. That it wasn’t peace and rainbows as it was always made out to be, that it was a period of utter uncertainty — not knowing what’s going to happen in your country. It paints the EDSA Revolution as People vs Fascists or Cronyism or Bad Governance (as it should be?!) instead of what has been normally argued by people as Marcos vs. Aquino.
The novel covers the Snap Elections in 1986 up until the early years of the Cory Aquino administration. It perfectly captures the emotions that normal, ordinary, everyday Filipinos are experiencing, amidst a backdrop of political turmoil and rapidly changing times. It narrates the lives of the Vitaliano family and their neighbors and peers in Gulod, and while it presents different point of views, it is mainly told in the POV of Benhur Vitaliano, a privileged professional who questions himself and society, and his relationship with Osong Cayetano, a despicable rich kid that leeches off on politicians no matter who they are for his own benefit. I honestly love how Linda Ty-Casper was able to balance the nitty gritty of day-to-day interactions while a big political uprising was going on. That no matter how history made the EDSA revolution out to be, the experiences of the ordinary people also count in making this history.
While it’s considered as fiction, I felt like the book also serves as social commentary — that while most of us are fighting for better governance and for better lives, there are some who sees these things as fanfare; as if you’re trying out a new restaurant or a new brand of dishwashing liquid, not realizing the impacts of these transitions of power. That the “good vibes” culture was also present during those times and which, in my opinion contributed to the apathy that most of the Filipinos have towards government. I felt like this complacency contributed to that fact as it was present from the smallest unit up until the ones in power.
Lastly, the book provides no praise nor bias towards Aquino nor Marcos. In fact, I could even say that it’s actually pro-Filipino that all throughout the novel it emphasizes that priority should be given to the people. It presented the “hypocrisy” of the post-ML administration, of how it promises big things, but still resorted to cronyism and oligarchy (this actually makes you understand the hate the Liberal Party is getting and how the Marcos family used it to their advantage and how it is still happening today). It presents a reality that even after a huge struggle has been won over, in this case — the toppling of a dictator, lives don’t change drastically; in fact, it has to be worked on by the incoming government, with their constituents in mind. Which in my opinion, post-ML governments have failed to do.
The book focuses on the social classes’ — the rich and the poor — experiences during that turbulent time. It raises a lot of important realities to help better understand why our society nowadays has resulted to be this way. All that from a fiction novel. I urge everyone to read this (if you’re more of a narrative kind of person compared to an academic tackling of this significant event in our history).
Writing-wise though, as with the Filipino novels written in English that I’ve encountered, the prose felt formal — as if you’re reading an assigned reading in English class. And some parts, especially the latter ones felt like you were going in and out of consciousness. Despite that though, it was able to convey what it wanted to convey effectively.
To conclude this surprisingly long review (and probably one of the few times that I’ve ever been articulate to the best of my ability), the book presents the questions: Is democracy even a democracy when you know that the government is controlled by a top few? Is the Martial Law administration and those that followed it really that different from one another?
4.5/5
It has a lot of things going on - a lot of feelings, a lot of point of views. Ultimately, the book objectively puts into perspective the EDSA Revolution or People Power I. That it wasn’t peace and rainbows as it was always made out to be, that it was a period of utter uncertainty — not knowing what’s going to happen in your country. It paints the EDSA Revolution as People vs Fascists or Cronyism or Bad Governance (as it should be?!) instead of what has been normally argued by people as Marcos vs. Aquino.
The novel covers the Snap Elections in 1986 up until the early years of the Cory Aquino administration. It perfectly captures the emotions that normal, ordinary, everyday Filipinos are experiencing, amidst a backdrop of political turmoil and rapidly changing times. It narrates the lives of the Vitaliano family and their neighbors and peers in Gulod, and while it presents different point of views, it is mainly told in the POV of Benhur Vitaliano, a privileged professional who questions himself and society, and his relationship with Osong Cayetano, a despicable rich kid that leeches off on politicians no matter who they are for his own benefit. I honestly love how Linda Ty-Casper was able to balance the nitty gritty of day-to-day interactions while a big political uprising was going on. That no matter how history made the EDSA revolution out to be, the experiences of the ordinary people also count in making this history.
While it’s considered as fiction, I felt like the book also serves as social commentary — that while most of us are fighting for better governance and for better lives, there are some who sees these things as fanfare; as if you’re trying out a new restaurant or a new brand of dishwashing liquid, not realizing the impacts of these transitions of power. That the “good vibes” culture was also present during those times and which, in my opinion contributed to the apathy that most of the Filipinos have towards government. I felt like this complacency contributed to that fact as it was present from the smallest unit up until the ones in power.
Lastly, the book provides no praise nor bias towards Aquino nor Marcos. In fact, I could even say that it’s actually pro-Filipino that all throughout the novel it emphasizes that priority should be given to the people. It presented the “hypocrisy” of the post-ML administration, of how it promises big things, but still resorted to cronyism and oligarchy (this actually makes you understand the hate the Liberal Party is getting and how the Marcos family used it to their advantage and how it is still happening today). It presents a reality that even after a huge struggle has been won over, in this case — the toppling of a dictator, lives don’t change drastically; in fact, it has to be worked on by the incoming government, with their constituents in mind. Which in my opinion, post-ML governments have failed to do.
The book focuses on the social classes’ — the rich and the poor — experiences during that turbulent time. It raises a lot of important realities to help better understand why our society nowadays has resulted to be this way. All that from a fiction novel. I urge everyone to read this (if you’re more of a narrative kind of person compared to an academic tackling of this significant event in our history).
Writing-wise though, as with the Filipino novels written in English that I’ve encountered, the prose felt formal — as if you’re reading an assigned reading in English class. And some parts, especially the latter ones felt like you were going in and out of consciousness. Despite that though, it was able to convey what it wanted to convey effectively.
To conclude this surprisingly long review (and probably one of the few times that I’ve ever been articulate to the best of my ability), the book presents the questions: Is democracy even a democracy when you know that the government is controlled by a top few? Is the Martial Law administration and those that followed it really that different from one another?
4.5/5
June 17, 2020
Started this near June 12 because I was in the mood for a Filipino story written by a Filipino, so what better way to celebrate our independence than with a book about one of the biggest triumphs of our country?
Unfortunately, I had a hard time connecting with the characters. I appreciated the fact that we were given a wide range of characters that were able to shed different lights on a national event, but I would have preferred it if emphasis and development were given to the characters we already had. I understand this novel was meant to be more of characters reacting to a particular series of events, so POVs felt more reflective than contributing to the story moving forward. One chapter I liked captured what I wanted from the book: the scene where Dionisia made bags out of newspapers while reading the headlines—it took on a range of issues through the lens of a female worker. A lot of really good lines came out of that, and I wish the book had taken more of that and expanded it.
I wasn't a fan of the writing. It felt a little too dry for me at times and the dialogue didn't flow for me. I appreciated the scope of the book and the way it was demarcated into three separate parts. Good attempt at fleshing out the relationships between the characters, but it felt disjointed at times.
Overall, I liked how this explored the Filipino consciousness during the EDSA revolution and it did a good job at not sugarcoating what happened then. It acknowledges that while that was a triumph, it didn't result in a happily ever after kind of ending. The epilogue felt less of an epilogue but more like the beginning of another story with an equally terrible ending. This is definitely not a hopeful book, but a reminder that we still have so much work ahead of us.
Unfortunately, I had a hard time connecting with the characters. I appreciated the fact that we were given a wide range of characters that were able to shed different lights on a national event, but I would have preferred it if emphasis and development were given to the characters we already had. I understand this novel was meant to be more of characters reacting to a particular series of events, so POVs felt more reflective than contributing to the story moving forward. One chapter I liked captured what I wanted from the book: the scene where Dionisia made bags out of newspapers while reading the headlines—it took on a range of issues through the lens of a female worker. A lot of really good lines came out of that, and I wish the book had taken more of that and expanded it.
I wasn't a fan of the writing. It felt a little too dry for me at times and the dialogue didn't flow for me. I appreciated the scope of the book and the way it was demarcated into three separate parts. Good attempt at fleshing out the relationships between the characters, but it felt disjointed at times.
Overall, I liked how this explored the Filipino consciousness during the EDSA revolution and it did a good job at not sugarcoating what happened then. It acknowledges that while that was a triumph, it didn't result in a happily ever after kind of ending. The epilogue felt less of an epilogue but more like the beginning of another story with an equally terrible ending. This is definitely not a hopeful book, but a reminder that we still have so much work ahead of us.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews