Pulitzer-Prize winning author, Viet Thanh Nguyen, has surmised, Apostol's book of memes and memories, "INSURRECTO', plunges us into the vortex of memory, history, and war." INSURRECTO takes American readers to the land of the Philippines as defined by cinema, yellow journalism, popular sports figures (like Mohammed Ali) and Youtube videos. It takes present day Overseas Working Filipinos on a tour of what it is like to live in

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Reviewed by Kevin Stoda

Apostol, Gina (2018) INSURRECTO: Soho, 316 pages

Insurrecto

As the Pulitzer-Prize winning author, Viet Thanh Nguyen, has surmised, Apostol's book of memes and memories, "INSURRECTO', plunges us into the vortex of memory, history, and war."

INSURRECTO takes American readers to the land of the Philippines as defined by cinema, yellow journalism, popular sports figures (like Mohammed Ali) and Youtube videos. It takes present day Overseas Working Filipinos on a tour of what it is like to live in Duterte's regimeall the while alluding to Marcos and American occupation memories which are too seldom taught in schools.

Gina Apostol takes us on this divided tour by using at least four voices: (1) the voice of an American woman who grew up and was influenced by childhood memories of her fatherwho had created and directed a classic cult film in the Philippines at the end of the turbulent '60s a la Coppola's classic Apocalypse Nowfilm almost a decade, (2) the voice of a Filipino translator, who would like to be a screen writer herself, (3) the voice of Gina Apostle herself, and (4) the voice of official history in the form of Endotes to denote an allusion so-called official histories of American or Filipino history and culture.

To all of this are added the fictional characters in the screen places, all of whom which all three desire to write and produce themselves to a great degree.

In short, INSURRECTO is about who has control to the memories of America's great colonial horrorswhich are often ignored in AMERICAN educationas well as they histories of both Filipino victims or collaborators in occupation during colonial and post-colonial occupation of minds and bodies up through the present. INSURRECTO is certainly a novel that demands or requires novelists and historian to jump start a retelling and re-investigation of our mutual histories.

As we approach the 75th anniversary of the end of WWII and Colonial occupation of the Great-but-oft-forgotten or -ignored Archipelago of East Asia must be restudied as part and parcel of American history and culture.

As Scott Simon noted on NPR, in INSURRECTO, the character"Chiara is an American who wants to make a movie about an event during the Philippine-American War. She hires an interpreter named Magsalin, who takes her to the island of Samar and specifically to the town of Balangiga, where Philippine rebels were massacred in a retaliation for an attack on U.S. forces in 1901. Magsalin reads Chiara's script and writes a different story."

In order to explain her approach in this texture-rich-media-heavy novel, Apostol herself has been emphasizing in a variety of interviews recently, "You know, this notion that in all of us there are multiple identities, you know, and we don't recognize the simultaneity of them. I'm a mom, I'm a daughter, I'm a teacher, I'm a writer, I'm a Filipino, I'm a American. And I really like this kind of seeing things from various points of view."

Therefore, it should not be unexpected that Apostol has chosen a variety of media devicesincluding lithographic images, posters, social media and Googling, and onto cinematographic planning and literary translationto described the complicated real-life experiences of her main protagonists throughout the work.

Balinga township in the Philippines is the key-but-long forgotten USA memory and meme which plays on the multiple narrative versions of its own story throughout INSURRECTO. I should note that "insurrectos" was the term used by Filipinos to describe 14 year war against colonialism that so many participated in between 1898 and 1912. This is a name that the author and her main protagonists relish as they take on the memes and goddesses of history on two or more continents throughout the novel.

Balinga is a small town on Samar Island. Balinga is also the location of a major USA colonial set-back which was then followed by the most brazen of American massacres since the days of the Indian Wars in the Old West and forced marches of Native American to Oklahoma. Balinga is the goal of a journey for the protagonists and their drivers. Balinga is the memory of a daughter. Balinga is the memory of a Filipina lover. Balinga is the location of a classic re-enactment in film undertaken in the late 1960s just as Ferdinand Marcos was taking power in a coup.

I short first note that in westernized Filipino-American history, the first Balangiga massacre is also called the Balangiga incident or the Balangiga conflict. Americans in 1902 claimed that a surprise massacre of USA troops took place in Balangiga in 1901 during the PhilippineAmerican War.

In sum, he term Balinga Massacre initially referred to the killing of about 48 members of the US 9th Infantry by the townspeople allegedly augmented by guerrillas in the town of Balangiga on Samar Island during an attack on September 28 of that year.

However, an even larger massacre by USA military commanders quickly followed in response. In this Second Massacre of Balinga or Samar Island in the Philippines American forces sought revenge and retribution. Specifically one General Jacob H. Smith sailed to the island and indicated to the 300-plus troops whom he brought with him:"I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn; the more you kill and burn, the better it will please me" The interior of Samar must be made [into] a howling wilderness."

According to subsequent initial American reports, USA columns or forces "marched across the island, destroying homes and shooting people and draft animals. Littleton Waller, in a report, stated that over an eleven-day period his men burned 255 dwellings, shot 13 carabaos and killed 39 people."However, Anti-imperialist American congressmen, Mark Twain, and many Filipino historian claim that more than 300 Filipinos (men, women and children) were massacred by the forces acting under Gen. J.H. Smith's obscene orders. Others were simply tortured

As a consequence of his order, Gen. Jacob Smith became known as"Howling Wilderness Smith". He further ordered "to kill all persons who were capable of bearing arms and in actual hostilities against the United States forces. When queried by Waller regarding the age limit of these persons, Smith replied that the limit was ten years of age."

Throughout the novel, the two main female protagonists subsequently vie to recreate the "real" history on paper (as a manuscript of film) throughout most of the novela novel, which is set in present (President Rodrigo Duterte's ) Philippines,where as in the day of Dictator Ferdinand Marcos (50 years earlier), Filipinos have been being killed (apparently on whims) by run-amok vigilantes and police forces.

Peter Gordon has observed of Apostol's novel, INSURRECTO: "The use of movie-script framing allow passages to be cinematic; the sections that take place in Balangiga in 1901 are particularly, evocatively and dramatically so. The boredom of the soldiers and the their obliviousness to the situation is oppressively palpable. Apostolor it is Chiara?creates the character of the well-bred and well-connected pioneer photographer Cassandra Chase, on location in Balangiga and a thorn in the side to the military establishment."

This book is more than a fun read. Often it is a tour d'force of post modern literary techniques and on par with many of Latin America's works. (Occasionally, allusions toSpanish and New Spain's occupation of the Philippines are made by Apostol, whose name is certainly Spanish for "Apostle", like in those who followed Jesus. Further, allusions are sometimes made to ancient Filipino heritage and/or lost memories and culture passed down through the strong position in the home, in the workplace and even in government leadership.)

This novel is also a feminist work as the two main protagonists in the fictional work are in constant discussion as to how a modern feminist might approach the narration of the Balinga Massacre for modern audiences. Likewise, in the two screen plays developed by the two protagonists in a sort of modern dual of words and memory, both women writers have chosen to focus on woman protagonists (for the final version of the screenplay.)

Finally, as in the Latin American literature, such as Manuel Puig's (1976) KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN, the author, Gina Apostle, rewrites the role of "reference notes", which she has used to manipulate the usage of Endnotes at the end of her novel. . (In contrast, Manuel Puig had manipulated the reader, audience, memory and authoritative scientific positivism in KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN by playing with the authority of footnotes.).

For its play on Latin American literature and film, the novel INSURRECTO is to be recommended. When you combine it with intra-feminist arguments and the role back of private and public memories of colonialism while making a contrasting tale to Copolla's Apocalypse Now, Gina Apostol's work is a must readeven though one wishes it could be of a meatier length, like Gabriel Garcia's Love in the Time of Cholera or 100 Years of Solitude (both running well-over 400 pages.)

Authors Website: http://eslkevin.wordpress.com/2009/07/09/3-big-paradigms-hol

Authors Bio:

KEVIN STODA-has been blessed to have either traveled in or worked in nearly 100 countries on five continents over the past two and a half decades.--He sees himself as a peace educator and have been-- a promoter of good economic and social development--making-him an enemy of my homelands humongous DEFENSE SPENDING and its focus on using weapons to try and solve global issues.

"I am from Kansas so I also use the pseudonym 'Kansas' and 'alone' when I write and publish.- I-keep two blogs--one with BLOGGER and one with WORDPRESS.- My writings range from reviews to editorials or to travel observations.- I also make recommendations related to policy--having both a-strong background in teaching foreign languages and degrees in teaching in history and the social sciences.--As a Midwesterner, I also write on religion and living out ones faith whether it be as a Christian, Muslim or Buddhist perspective."

On my own home page, I also provide information for language learners and travelers http://www.geocities.com/eslkevin/-,- http://the-teacher.blogspot.com/-& http://alone.gnn.tv/

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