Three Filipino Women

3-4 years ago a friend of mine gave me a book as a birthday present: Three Filipino Women by F. Sionil Jose. It gathered dust in my bookshelf for that same amount of time. I would lift it occasionally and try to start reading, but I just wasn't interested because I simply wasn't into Filipino literature.

I don't know what compelled me this weekend but I found myself reading it. The book is a compilation of three unrelated novellas by Jose. The first story, Cadena De Amor (Spanish for Chain of Love), is a story about two childhood friends, a boy and a girl, and how they both grew up to become successful, and in the case of the girl Narita, powerful people. What I found striking, and later on, haunting, is Narita's strength, which I probably won't do justice if I try to describe it here. I found Cadena De Amor bittersweet, like a pleasant memory that turned out to be a lie. I prefer not to go on at this point. Just get the book if you can. It's highly recommended reading.