The friends and relatives who gather for the wake of Don Severino Gil, aging Filipino playboy, personify reactions to an authoritarian government ranging : from complicity to apathy to resis tance. Gil's mysteriously closed casket may be a metaphor for the Marcos re gime. Yet not all of the characters in this novel are mere symbols, nor are the agonies revealed merely political ones. Through Ty-Casper's often ele gant prose, we can see humans strug gling to ``rise from a life lived in cor ners.'' Awaiting Trespass is the first of her novels to be published in North America and the first that could not be published in her native Philippines. L.M. Lewis, Social Science Dept., Eastern Kentucky Univ., Richmond
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From 500 Great Books by Women; review by Holly Smith
Linda Ty-Casper examines life in the contemporary Philippines through the behavior and memories of relatives and friends during the three-day wake of Don Severino Gil. Severino's sudden death and his closed-casket are cause for much speculation. His three sisters, all past eighty, mourn with the expected amount of grief and one eye open to see who comes to the vigil. Severino's "favorite niece" Telly, arrives. The family has forgiven her for being forty-nine and divorced because she is a "poet," though she knows "she writes poetry only in her mind...to silence the furious screech that suddenly - with much cunning, always catching her by surprise - twists through her until her head begins to feel like an expanding circle." Father Sevi, Severino's only legitimate heir and estranged from his father for many years, brings with him reservations about involving himself with his family again and wonders: "Was it pride all along that made him want to be a priest, that kept him a priest: weakness hiding in weakness?" Through Telly, Father Sevi, and others, a picture emerges of a country ruled by corruption and greed, of people who benefit from inequities and people who want to expose them. A powerful book, Awaiting Trespass is currently banned in the Philippines. -- For great reviews of books for girls, check out Let's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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