The Philippines are an Asian anomaly: a primarily Catholic nation bred on European and American culture, the country has long been subjugated by foreign powers and homegrown dictators alike, leaving the people to quietly endure. But as F. Sionil José proves, they have never been silenced. One of the premier novelists in the Philippines (he won the Magsaysay Award, the Asian equivalent of the Nobel, in 1980), José's acclaimed Rosales saga chronicles the Filipino struggles and triumphs during the 20th century. Dusk, the fifth book in the saga but the first released in the United States, showcases a writer who deserves a much wider audience. This rich historical novel takes place at the end of the 19th century as the Filipinos, with the aid of the Americans, finally expelled the Spanish after three centuries of often brutal rule. Major themes are on display here--war and peace; rich versus poor; tyranny versus freedom--all passionately presented within the context of one man and his family. After being unjustly dismissed from the seminary by a corrupt priest and then suffering the death of his brother at the hands of Spanish authorities, Istak Samson is forced to flee from increasing oppression and lead his family on a journey for a new home. This harsh quest from the coast to the central plains eventually leads Samson to find love, peace, and relative prosperity, as well as provide a device for José to vividly describe the beauty and complexity of his homeland and to elaborate on the cultural effects of Spanish occupation. The joy Samson finds, like Philippine independence, is short-lived, as the Filipinos soon engage in a bloody conflict with the Americans, who have substituted Spanish imperialism with their own. Unable to reconcile his pacifist nature with his sense of duty to his country, Samson reluctantly joins the rebel forces in their battle to reassert their freedom. After setting the stage for tragedy, José does not follow an easy route to a happy ending but instead builds to a climax that is moving, if not unexpected. In telling his epic tale from the perspective of a common peasant, José lends a powerful voice to a people long trapped in the midst of historical upheaval.


From Publishers Weekly
Tapping a mostly unknown chapter in American history, Jose, one of the Philippines' most prominent authors, has created a vivid chronicle of Filipino life on the eve of the Spanish-American War. Set in the deep Filipino countryside in an area penetrated only by the Catholic church, the novel charts the fortunes of Istak, a member of the Ilokono tribe who trained as an acolyte under a kind priest. Able to speak Spanish and Latin and more comfortable writing than farming, Istak finds himself distanced from his family's simple village life. Driven off their land, Istak's family is beset on all sides, traveling across unknown territory and under attack by other tribes and Spanish soldiers. Istak's emerging political awareness coincides with the invasion of the Philippines by American forces, and he finds that his educated status obliges him to play a role in this conflict as well. Jose recalls Gabriel Garcia Marquez in his concern for the effects of national politics on peasant life, though this book doesn't match Marquez for character sophistication or verbal acrobatics. Readers unfamiliar with the history of the region may wish for more background on the prevailing political conditions?which are probably well known to the book's original audience. Jose also never provides much insight into the "enemy"?either the church or the invading Americans. Still, this novel is a solid introduction to one of Southeast Asia's most respected voices. (May) FYI: Jose is editor and publisher of the literary journal Solidarity, as well as founding president of the Philippines PEN center. Dusk is part of his five-part Rosales saga. A previous novel, Sins, was also published in America by Random House.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Dusk demonstrates why many claim that Jos? (Sins, LJ 4/1/96) could be the first Filipino writer to win a Nobel prize. The opening work of a five-novel series, the "Rosales Saga," it lures readers into its 19th-century setting in the Philippines and soon introduces Istak and his family as they flee from their home in Ilokos and try to regain even a meager existence in another region, Pangasinan. Jos? says he examined Filipino history in this novel to give the "`little people'a nobler image of themselves." He achieves that aim, especially with the unforgettable and admirable Istak. Jos? also succeeds in personalizing his nation's attempt to shrug off the deleterious effects of Spanish colonialism only to face an equally unattractive foeAAmerican imperialism. One only hopes that the publisher does not linger long in its plans to issue the entire "Rosales Saga." Highly recommended.AFaye A. Chadwell, Univ. of Oregon Lib. System, EugeneCopyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.


The New York Times Book Review, Frank Gibney
Despite the enormous amount of attention to multiculturalism in recent years, Filipinos have not received much notice. This is a pity.... Reading a book like José's in the centenary year of Philippine independence is good medicine....


From Kirkus Reviews
From Filipino writer Jos, the first novel in the acclaimed Rosales Saga makes its American debut. Chronicling a century of Philippine history as experienced by one family, the story begins in the late 1800s as, in response to a growing indigenous revolutionary movement, the ruling Spanish increase their oppression. And it ends as American forces, after ousting Spain from Cuba in 1898, battle Philippine rebels who want to establish a government independent of American suzerainty. Jos is one of those writers for whom sociopolitical message--here, the sorry record of injustice--is as important as purely literary concerns. This means that character and plot are shaped by issues, not just imagination. The hero is Istak, a would-be seminarian whos expelled from the church when he happens upon the new priest making love to a young parishioner. The priest insists further that Istak's family leave the lands they have farmed, and when Istak's father Ba-ac, who had been brutally maimed by this same priest, murders him, the family must find new lands as well as elude the pursuing Spanish authorities. Istak, torn between his faith and the cruelty he witnessesa young girl is raped, and his brother is killed by the authorities--becomes the family's leader as they trek into remote areas in search of a new home. Eventually, they find sanctuary: Istak marries happily, becoming a farmer and a noted healer. But now, though the Spanish have left, the country is at war with America, and Istak the pacifist finds himself fighting on the rebel sidebecause he believes in a free and united Philippine nation. Death in battle is inevitable. The obvious political agenda overwhelms the narrative, but Joss luminous evocations of the land and the life are fair compensations. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Book Description
With Dusk (originally published in the Philippines as Po-on), F. Sionil Jose begins his five-novel Rosales Saga, which the poet and critic Ricaredo Demetillo called "the first great Filipino novels written in English." Set in the 1880s, Dusk records the exile of a tenant family from its village and the new life it attempts to make in the small town of Rosales. Here commences the epic tale of a family unwillingly thrown into the turmoil of history. But this is more than a historical novel; it is also the eternal story of man's tortured search for true faith and the larger meaning of existence. Jose has achieved a fiction of extraordinary scope and passion, a book as meaningful to Philippine literature as One Hundred Years of Solitude is to Latin American literature.

"The foremost Filipino novelist in English, his novels deserve a much wider readership than the Philippines can offer."--Ian Buruma, New York Review of Books


"Tolstoy himself, not to mention Italo Svevo, would envy the author of this story."--Chicago Tribune


From the Inside Flap
With Dusk (originally published in the Philippines as Po-on), F. Sionil Jose begins his five-novel Rosales Saga, which the poet and critic Ricaredo Demetillo called "the first great Filipino novels written in English." Set in the 1880s, Dusk records the exile of a tenant family from its village and the new life it attempts to make in the small town of Rosales. Here commences the epic tale of a family unwillingly thrown into the turmoil of history. But this is more than a historical novel; it is also the eternal story of man's tortured search for true faith and the larger meaning of existence. Jose has achieved a fiction of extraordinary scope and passion, a book as meaningful to Philippine literature as One Hundred Years of Solitude is to Latin American literature.



"The foremost Filipino novelist in English, his novels deserve a much wider readership than the Philippines can offer."--Ian Buruma, New York Review of Books


"Tolstoy himself, not to mention Italo Svevo, would envy the author of this story."--Chicago Tribune

FROM THE PUBLISHER

With "Dusk" (originally published in the Philippines as "Po-on"), F. Sionil Jose begins his five-novel 'Rosales Saga'. Set in the 1880s, "Dusk" records the exile of a tenant family from its village and the new life it attempts to make in the small town of Rosales. Here commences the epic tale of a family unwillingly thrown into the turmoil of history. But this is more than a historical novel; it is also the eternal story of man's tortured search for true faith and the larger meaning of existence. Jose carefully begins to paint a portrait of his country, showing the terrible physical and emotional hardships the people endure as the Philippines is transformed by the "liberation" from Spanish rule and by the oppression that continues, even as the Americans take over. Still, far from drawing a picture of hopelessness, Jose has achieved a fiction of extraordinary scope and passion, a book as meaningful to Philippine literature as "One Hundred Years of Solitude" is to Latin American literature.

FROM THE CRITICS

Time

One of the [Philippines'] most distinguished men of letters.

Le Monde

The literary work of Jose is inseparable from the modern politics and history of the Philippines.

Publishers Weekly

Tapping a mostly unknown chapter in American history, Jose, one of the Philippines' most prominent authors, has created a vivid chronicle of Filipino life on the eve of the Spanish-American War. Set in the deep Filipino countryside in an area penetrated only by the Catholic church, the novel charts the fortunes of Istak, a member of the Ilokono tribe who trained as an acolyte under a kind priest. Able to speak Spanish and Latin and more comfortable writing than farming, Istak finds himself distanced from his family's simple village life. Driven off their land, Istak's family is beset on all sides, traveling across unknown territory and under attack by other tribes and Spanish soldiers. Istak's emerging political awareness coincides with the invasion of the Philippines by American forces, and he finds that his educated status obliges him to play a role in this conflict as well. Jose recalls Gabriel Garca Marquez in his concern for the effects of national politics on peasant life, though this book doesn't match Marquez for character sophistication or verbal acrobatics. Readers unfamiliar with the history of the region may wish for more background on the prevailing political conditionswhich are probably well known to the book's original audience. Jose also never provides much insight into the "enemy"either the church or the invading Americans. Still, this novel is a solid introduction to one of Southeast Asia's most respected voices. FYI: Jose is editor and publisher of the literary journal 'Solidarity', as well as founding president of the Philippines PEN center. "Dusk" is part of his five-part 'Rosales' saga. A previous novel, "Sins", was also published in America by Random House.

Library Journal

"Dusk" demonstrates why many claim that Jose ("Sins", LJ 4/1/96) could be the first Filipino writer to win a Nobel prize. The opening work of a five-novel series, the "Rosales Saga", it lures readers into its 19th-century setting in the Philippines and soon introduces Istak and his family as they flee from their home in Ilokos and try to regain even a meager existence in another region, Pangasinan. Jose says he examined Filipino history in this novel to give the "little people'a nobler image of themselves." He achieves that aim, especially with the unforgettable and admirable Istak. Jos also succeeds in personalizing his nation's attempt to shrug off the deleterious effects of Spanish colonialism only to face an equally unattractive foeAmerican imperialism. One only hopes that the publisher does not linger long in its plans to issue the entire "Rosales Saga." Highly recommended. Faye A. Chadwell, Univ. of Oregon Lib. System, Eugene

Kirkus Reviews

From Filipino writer Jose, the first novel in the acclaimed 'Rosales Saga' makes its American debut. Chronicling a century of Philippine history as experienced by one family, the story begins in the late 1800s as, in response to a growing indigenous revolutionary movement, the ruling Spanish increase their oppression. And it ends as American forces, after ousting Spain from Cuba in 1898, battle Philippine rebels who want to establish a government independent of American suzerainty. Jos￯﾿ﾽ is one of those writers for whom sociopolitical message—here, the sorry record of injustice—is as important as purely literary concerns. This means that character and plot are shaped by issues, not just imagination. The hero is Istak, a would-be seminarian who's expelled from the church when he happens upon the new priest making love to a young parishioner. The priest insists further that Istak's family leave the lands they have farmed, and when Istak's father Ba-ac, who had been brutally maimed by this same priest, murders him, the family must find new lands as well as elude the pursuing Spanish authorities. Istak, torn between his faith and the cruelty he witnessesþa young girl is raped, and his brother is killed by the authorities—becomes the family's leader as they trek into remote areas in search of a new home. Eventually, they find sanctuary: Istak marries happily, becoming a farmer and a noted healer. But now, though the Spanish have left, the country is at war with America, and Istak the pacifist finds himself fighting on the rebel sideþbecause he believes in a free and united Philippine nation. Death in battle is inevitable. The obvious political agenda overwhelmsthe narrative, but Jose's luminous evocations of the land and the life are fair compensations.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

The foremost Filipino novelist in English, his novels deserve a much wider readership than the Philippines can offer. His major work, the Rosales Saga, can be read as an allegory for the Filipino in search of an identity. — Ian Buruma

Marvelous. — Peter Bacho

America has no counterpart...no one who is simultaneously a prolific novelist, a social and political organizer, an editor and journalist, and a small-scale entrepreneur...As a writer, Jose is famous for two bodies of work. One is the Rosales sequence, a set of five novels published over a twenty-year span which has become a kid of national saga...Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere, published in Spanish (despite its Latin title) in the late nineteenth century, was an influential Uncle Tom's cabin-style polemic about Spanish rule. The Rosales books are a more literarily satisfying modern equivalent. — James Fallows

Tolstoy himself, not to mention Italo Svevo, would envy the author of this story...This short...scorching work whets our appetite for Sionil Jose's masterpiece, the five-novel Rosales Saga. — Joseph Coates

[Jose] never flattens his characters in the service of rhetoric...more impressive is Jose's ability to tell important stories in lucid, but never merely simple prose...It's refreshing to see a politically engaged writer who dares to reach for a broader audience. — Laura Miller