Po-on: Difference between revisions

'''''Po-on A Novel''''' is a novel written by [[Francisco Sionil José]], a [[Filipino people|Filipino]] [[Philippine English|English-language]] writer. This is the original title when it was first published in the Philippines in the [[English language]]. In the [[United States]], it was published under the title '''''Dusk A Novel'''''. For this novel’s translation into [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]], the title '''''Po-on Isang Nobela''''' – a direct translation of ''Po-on A Novel'' - was adopted.<ref name=Manoa>[http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/manoa/v018/18.1jose.html Jose, F. Sionil (Francisco Sionil) 1924-present, Spirit and Literature, Manoa - Volume 18, Number 1, 2006, pp. 51-57, University of Hawai'i Press, Project MUSE, Muse.jhu.edu (undated)], retrieved on [[April 17,]] [[2008]]</ref><ref name=Amazon1>[http://www.amazon.com/Dusk-Novel-Modern-Library-Paperbacks/dp/0375751440 Editorial Reviews, Amazon.com], retrieved on: [[April 17,]] [[2008]]</ref><ref name=B&N>[http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Dusk/F-Sionil-Jose/e/9780375751448/?itm=1 Overview (Synopsis) and Editorial Review], Barnes & Noble, Barnes&Noble.com, retrieved on: [[April 17,]] [[2008]]</ref><ref name=RHouse>[http://www.randomhouse.ca/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375751448 "Dusk", About this Book], Random House, Inc., RandomHouse.ca, retrieved on: [[April 17,]] [[2008]]</ref><ref name=AmazonPubWk>[http://www.amazon.com/Dusk-Novel-Modern-Library-Paperbacks/dp/0375751440 Publishers Weekly, Amazon.com], retrieved on: [[April 17,]] [[2008]]</ref><ref name=NYT1>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E2D61339F931A3575BC0A96E958260&scp=1&sq=Dusk+%2B+F.+Sionil+Jose&st=nyt Gibney Frank, Everybody's Colony (page 1)], A book review about F. Sionil Jose’s Dusk, New York: The Modern Library. 323 pp., The New York Times, NYTimes.com, [[August 2,]] [[1998]]</ref><ref name=NYT2>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A06E2D61339F931A3575BC0A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 Gibney Frank, Everybody's Colony (page 2), A review about F. Sionil Jose’s Dusk (page 2)], New York: The Modern Library. 323 pp., The New York Times, NYTimes.com, [[August 2,]] [[1998]]</ref>

''Po-on A Novel'' is the beginning of the so-called ''Rosales Saga'' of F. Sionil José – a series of novels about [[Rosales, Pangasinan]] in the [[Philippines]]. The ''Rosales Saga'' has five parts, all of them individual but interrelated novels, composed namely of the following titles in terms of historical chronology: ''Po-on'', ''Tree'', ''[[My Brother, My Executioner]]'', ''The Pretenders'', and ''Mass''.<ref name=Manoa/><ref name=Amazon1/><ref name=B&N/><ref name=RHouse/><ref name=AmazonPubWk/><ref name=NYT1/><ref name=NYT2/> Among José's five-part novel series, the ''Rosales Saga'', it was the last to be written and published but the first in terms of story-telling chronology.<ref name=NYT3>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950CEED61338F93AA3575BC0A96E958260&scp=2&sq=Dusk+%2B+F.+Sionil+Jose&st=nyt BEST SELLERS: August 9, 1998], And Bear in Mind (Editors' choices of other recent books of particular interest), Dusk by F. Sionil Jose (Modern Library), “A microhistorical novel in which the author, focusing on the trials of a single family, educates the reader in Philippine history and in how the people of that country see themselves,” The New York Times, NYTimes.com, [[August 9,]] [[1998]]</ref><ref name=NYT4>[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9901EED71739F935A35751C1A96E958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3 Notable Books of 1998 (page 3)], Dusk by F. Sionil Jose. (Modern Library), “A microhistorical novel in which the author, focusing on the trials of a single family, educates the reader in Philippine history and in how the people of that country see themselves.”</ref>

Alive in the novel were the concepts and the events that emanated during peacetime and wartime; even the status of the poor and the affluent, of the privileged and the powerful, and of those who have privelegesprivileges, freedoms and rights. During Istak’s time during the final days of the 1900s, the bliss in Istak’s heart when the [[Philippine Republic]] finally achieved [[Philippine independence|independence]] was just for a brief moment. Because that [[liberty|liberation]] was only short-lived: the ruling [[Spaniards]] were only replaced by a new group of strangers from a continent called the [[United States of America]]. This [[colonialism|colonial]] transition occurred after the Spaniards were defeated by the [[United States|Americans]] during the [[Spanish-American War]]. In ''Po-on A Novel'', José revisited these mutual chapters in both [[American history|American]] and [[Philippine history|Philippine histories]], together with the presentation of their social and psychological effects to the Philippine citizenry who had been under foreign occupiers from one time followed by another.<ref name=Amazon1/><ref name=B&N/><ref name=RHouse/><ref name=AmazonPubWk/><ref name=NYT1/><ref name=NYT2/><ref name=NYT3/><ref name=NYT4/>

One of the principal characters of the novel is ''Istak'', a Filipino from the Ilocano stock who was fluent in [[Spanish language|Spanish]] and [[Latin language|Latin]], a talent he inherited from the teachings of an old parish priest in Cabugao. He was a [[acolyte]] aspiring to become a priest. He was also knowledgable in the arts of traditional medicine. The only hindrance to his goal of becoming a full-pledged priest was his racial origins. He lived in a period in [[Philippine history]] when it a possible Filipino uprising against the [[Spanish empire|Spanish government]] was about to erupt, a time after the execution of three [[Filipino mestizo|mestizos]], namely [[Mariano Gómez]], [[José Apolonio Burgos]], and [[Jacinto Zamora]] (or the ''[[Gomburza]]'', an [[acronym]] for the three) at [[Rizal Park|Bagumbayan]] (now known as [[Rizal Park]]) in [[February]], [[1872]]. There were signs that a revolution will happen, despite of the lack of unity among the inhabitants of the Philippines islands at the time. Another approaching occurenceoccurrence was the help the Filipinos would be receiving from the Americans in finally removing the governing Spaniards from the [[archipelago]] after three hundred years.<ref name=Amazon1/><ref name=B&N/><ref name=RHouse/><ref name=AmazonPubWk/><ref name=NYT1/><ref name=NYT2/><ref name=NYT3/><ref name=NYT4/>

The novel recreates the societal struggles in which the characters of ''Po-on'' were situated in, which includes the protagonist ''Istak'' 's personal search for life's meaning and for the true face of his beliefs at principles. ThroughtoutThroughout this personal journey, he was accompanied by a dignity that is his alone.<ref name=Amazon1/><ref name=B&N/><ref name=RHouse/><ref name=AmazonPubWk/><ref name=NYT1/><ref name=NYT2/><ref name=NYT3/><ref name=NYT4/>

*[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9901EED71739F935A35751C1A96E958260&scp=3&sq=Dusk+%2B+F.+Sionil+Jose&st=nyt Notable Books of 1998], The New York Times, NYTimes.com, [[December 6,]] [[1998]]

*[http://showbizandstyle.inquirer.net/lifestyle/lifestyle/view_article.php?article_id=61848 Supnet Macansantos, Priscilla. "Rosales, Pangasinan, reclaims F. Sionil Jose,"] Lifestyle, Inquirer, Inquirer.net, [[April 23,]] [[2007]]

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