Receive Your Copy The Woman Who Had Two Navels Imagined By Nick Joaquín Distributed As Manuscript

a challenging read and I found the weaving in and out between past and present a bit more so, However, the writing in those parts were quite beautiful, I found myself quite confused at times but I wonder if that was intentional, The main character Conchita is also confused for much of the story, I may have been as confused as she was at some parts, Overall a pretty good read, Some books greatly deserve another reading to completely grasp the story, I think this may be one of those books, Nastress ako sa pagbabasa ng novel na ito ni Nick Joaquin, Bukod sa nahirapan akong unawain ang mga nangyayari sa kuwentong may iba't ibang punto de bista ng mga tauhan, ang hilig din niya sa napakahahabang pangungusap, Imagine, one sentence, umaabot ngpages Kahilig n'ya sa ganitong style,

Ito rin yata ang pinakaburgis n'yang kuwento, Burgis din naman ang "Candido's Apocalypse" at mahahaba ang pangungusap pero nilevel up pa ni Joaquin dito, Setting pa lang, can't afford na: sa Hong Kong kasi nangyari ang kuwento, No wonder love na love s'ya ng mga Chinese, Hahaha!

Hindi ko nagustuhan ang kuwento dahil ang weird n'ya at parang pangteleserye ang dialogue pero in English, Tapos nangyari lang ang lahat in a span of, what,ordays Ang ewan din ng two navels ng bida, Symbolic lang s'ya, metaphorical, pero di ko bet, It's a "comingofage" story na mapait sa panlasa,

Ang malala pa, tinapos ang arc ni girl na may two navels sa kudaan, Jinustify ng ibang mga tauhan ang kagagahan niyang ginawa sa didactic na usapan, Bale ang nangyari, nasolve ang problema ni girl by creating another problem, Two wrongs don't make a right, di ba Pero iyon ang ginawa ni Ateng,

Tapos mega explain lang sa dulo si Father kung bakit nagawa iyon ni girl na may dalawang pusod kuno, Na kesyo she finally found herself, her will to live, her free will, Na kahit "masama" ang desisyon n'ya, at least it's her choice, I mean, WTF, man Nu pinagsasasabi mo d'yan Pari ka, di ba Anyare Hahaha!

Exciting lang 'yung premise, 'yung simula, nang ireveal ng bida ang tungkol sa dalawa niyang pusod, pero mas umikot ang kuwento sa mga taong nakapalibot sa kanya.
Mas marami silang exposure kaysa sa kanya, Puro back story na nakakalitong sundan, although naappreciate ko naman ang history lesson sa end of Spanish colonization at ang panghihimasok ng US,

Naappreciate ko rin syempre ang mahusay na paglalarawan ni Joaquin sa mga eksena, lalo na sa paligid, Vivid naman.

Pero maliban d'yan, wala na, I therefore conclude na hindi ako fan ng fiction ni Joaquin, Maybe I should try reading his nonfiction works next, pero baka matagalan pa, Nababagot talaga kasi ako sa writing n'ya,

I mean, boring din naman ang writing nina Orhan Pamuk at Thomas Mann, pero may mararamdaman ka sa kuwento nila kahit boring ang nangyayari, Nasa delivery e. May astonishment at wonder. E dito kay Joaquin, ang primary emotion ko while reading was ennui, Sorry not sorry.

Read this novel if you want to learn about the past at kung nais mong malaman ang writing style ni Joaquin at ng mga fictionist natin noon.
Pero kung light reading at pure entertainment ang hanap mo, skip this, the words are really deep but it expresses such meaning, . . whop thought that two navels actually meant rebirths It took a lot of effort to make me realize that, . . I was first introduced to the works of Nick Joaquin in first year high school when our class was divided into groups and each group had to put on a play of May Day Eve to get to know his work.
I found May Day Eve brilliant with imagery, The twist of the witch and the devil in the mirror, an old husband and wife's metaphors to demonstrate the animosity in their marriage was a whimsical way to tell a story, I thought.
With my newfound appreciation for Nick Joaquin, I bought The Woman Who Had Two Navels and left it sitting on my shelf foryears,

Throughout the years I tried to pick it up a few times but it failed to capture my attention for long for the same reason I now give it three: it doesn't have a clear or captivating plot.


The book was divided according to the various characters' backstories, making it appear that the characters' few actions in the present stem from a distant past, The fact that the book was arranged according to character leads me to believe that the author intended it to be characterdriven as opposed to plotdriven, Plottingthe sequencing of events based on character movementswas not clearly established in the book, Plotting plays second fiddle to characterization, But if that's the case, then why do I still feel like I don't know much about the characters despite being given large chunks of their backstories one character at a time Could it be because their inner motivations are lacking in the narrative

The story in main is told by Pepe Monson, a friend of Paco Texeira's and of one of Connie's acquaintances.
It was Connie's arrival at Pepe's office claiming that she has two navels that sets the story in motion, so it seems that Pepe would have a large role in the story, but it appears Pepe's only role in fact is to connect the cast of characters a supporting role.
What does Pepe Monson want It seems that Pepe doesn't do much except get swept up in the mother and daughter's chaos,

What exactly did Connie, "the woman who had two navels," want Was it Paco Texeira, the handsome but married band leader who both she and her mother were at tug of war to seduce By the end of the novel it seems so.
Was it to break free from the clutches of her "The Graduate" mother Probably, A compelling want or desire usually drives the plot forward, but what Connie wants isn't made clear by either her declarations or her actions, Neither are her mother's intentions clear,

What are Paco Texeira's and the rest of the cast of characters' aims It seems that things are merely happening to most of them, Most of them appear passive instead of active, Nick Joaquin is a puppeteer who seems to make his characters do anything he wants because the characters don't appear to have full motivations of their own,

The characters all talk alike they all speak with the voice of Nick Joaquin, which makes it difficult to keep track of which character is speaking, It sometimes gets confusing.

Nevertheless, Nick Joaquin has an idiosychratic voice that makes his stories interesting, He has a quirky way of telling a story using metaphors,

Like watching a film by Woody Allen where every character talks like Woody Allen, reading The Woman Who Had Two Navels still works because of the writerdirector's peculiarity.
Nick Joaquin sounds like Nick Joaquin, He's fun, funny, and doesn't sound like anyone else, No other Filipino writer sounds like Nick Joaquin because of his dialogue and narration,

Not a lot of physical descriptions or features distinguishing each character from one another are given, The characters are somewhat fleshed out through their backstories, interactions with one another, reactions, and a few descriptions of their attire,

To hell with setting, Not a lot of setting descriptions are given, A few details are enough for the imagination to fill in the rest, It is sufficient to know that the character is in Hong Kong or in an office or by the harbor or by a temple or by a pond, Or let the narrator talk about handling the steering wheel of an automobile and the imagination will fill in the rest of the imagery details of driving outside, Place details or imagery descriptions are sparse and sometimes all there is are talking heads breezing through settings, but Nick Joaquin gets away with it because of his idiosynchratic storytelling, giving it a dreamlike effect.


The number one setback of his idiosynchratic storytelling, however, is backstories, His characters are mostly built through backstories, which are generally burdensome to read through, There's a lot of thinking and remembering going on among the characters, very little of doing in the present, Possibly threefourths or more of the book is backstories, And yet I think that is both its setback what makes it drag along and appeal what makes it worth the read in the end, because what Nick Joaquin is really writing about is nostalgia, the longing for an imagined past.


Trudging through the heft of backstories to get through the book, as a result of how it's written you get a book mostly about the past, The past weighs heavily on the characters in the novel, By writing it this way, Nick Joaquin is able to convey the characters' wistful yearning to return to an irrecoverable past, the past of memory, or maybe the past of the imagination.


The novel is good despite being weighed down by backstory tonnage, because Nick Joaquin is quirky, witty, and writing about a woman who claims to have two navels.
This makes the reader curious, why is Connie claiming to have two navels It makes the reader wonder if

it's possible for a person to have two navels, or if Connie is a bit crazy, or if her mother is right that she just wants attention.
Regardless of which it is, her mother's reaction to her claiming to have two navels is very telling about the character of the mother, which in turn gives insight into the character of the daughter.
Suspending disbelief regarding the possibility of two navels, the novel gives readers wiggle room for some mental fun,

That's my interpretation of the Woman Who Had Two Navels, Three solid. Some memorable characters. One memorable Nick Joaquin. .