For its second published work, the ever-valiant publishing house Exploding Galaxies has resurrected "The Three-Cornered Sun" by Linda Ty-Casper. Let me first explain why I say "valiant"; if you weren’t aware, this young house has made it a mission to rediscover long-forgotten or neglected works of Philippine literary fiction.
It’s a genre that, even in the best of times, is niche and escapes mainstream popularity. Now, as for me, I love fiction and will forever be cheering on Exploding Galaxies in its quixotic quest; though I am well aware that, from a bottom-line standpoint, it’s a Sisyphean task. So here's to valor of a particular type, and it earns my standing applause.
Linda Ty-Casper’s novel is historical fiction at its finest. It reminds us that while history can pertain to events, illustrious personages, and upheavals, it always revolves around people—individuals and groups of like-minded individuals who occupy the canvas and either complete the picture or influence events as they unfold… or fail to do so. In this particular case, drawing from anecdotes and stories passed down by her grandmother, Ty-Casper brings to life the era of the Spanish-Philippine Revolution, the days preceding the 1896 struggle, and its aftermath. Surprisingly, it’s a monumental task that the author is more than ready to tackle; what might have been mere pages in our grade school history books and hours of class discussion are transformed into flesh-and-blood characters and detailed, colorful lives.
I’m not going to give away spoilers or offer a blow-by-blow account of the books that comprise this novel. However, it's enlightening to know how the shadows of historical figures such as Jose Rizal, Andrés Bonifacio, and Emilio Aguinaldo loom over particular books, providing hints on their content and offering insider portraits. The beauty of this novel lies in discovery and enlightenment—a perspective or point of view that may not be standard or generally accepted but offers a fresh new way to examine our history. The prism through which this is achieved is the Viardo family and how its members become swept up in the events portrayed in the novel.
This human presence, with its diversity and variety inherent in any family, allows the author and the novel to intimately engage with history while providing depth, texture, and nuance. In a sense, this is what the novel captures in a way that a history book cannot. It's part of what makes this such an engaging read. The impact on lives and the characters we encounter become just as crucial as the sequencing of events and historical record.
First published in 1979, Exploding Galaxies has acquired the reprint rights of "The Three-Cornered Sun". Born in 1931, Linda Ty-Casper resides in Massachusetts, USA, and in her foreword to this reprint says, “I didn’t think there were any new readers for it. I’ve never been widely read for some reason, but I persisted in writing about us - to fill the absence of our side.”
Your journey of discovery as a reader of this novel will involve understanding how the "Revolution" was as much a struggle between groups of Filipinos as it was directed against Spain. On one hand, there were the old order of Filipinos entrenched within Spanish rule; on the other, there was a cadre of "enlightened" individuals who had traveled and absorbed ideas viewing colonialism as a dying system; and finally, there emerged a new, militant class of thinkers who rejected any yoke of oppression. Even if they could all agree on an abstract theory of independence, determining how to achieve it and the timeline involved led to significant internal conflict and inertia. Bringing all of this to life is the reward for delving into this dense novel.
And dense it is; it reads like an epic novel. Stark images abound, such as the depiction of big red ants crawling over the supine body of the Viardo matriarch in an early chapter. I appreciate how these images help history take on color, adding a realism that the historical record often ignores or fails to evoke. I deliberately use the word "ignite" here because it best captures what Ty-Casper achieves: igniting our understanding of history. Without the reprint, I, for one, would have remained ignorant of the book’s existence. Kudos to Exploding Galaxies!
Photos from Linda Ty-Casper’s Wikipedia page