Pia’s Reviews > A Natural History of Empire > Status Update

Some Quiet Conversation. Hokey at the end. Became clumsy because the writer could not help himself and just said the ideas of the story outright. This could work, maybe, if 1) earned prior or 2) the sentences were constructed in a more elegant way.

Then Cruel Quiet. Components are cliché. Execution was great

Halfway through, all of the stories are well-written but everything has been a bummer. Filipino Literary fiction that tackles capital-h History in its themes tends to stupefied in cynicism. Its limiting

A Natural History of Empire. This is the first short story set in the Filipino-American War and told from the perspective of the damned monstrous colonizers that I stomached reading through—even with depictions of slaughter & torture. The reason for this is its center is a Filipino traitor, and how their treachery ultimately tipped the tides against us, and caused out defeat. A cunning mind, a demonic soul.

The Fingers of Sta Juana. Fuedal relations, so-called-passions, during the period of society they were produced. I liked the style of Sy’s writing, it elevates what would be a standard crime of passion story (although content-wise that is still what it is).