Smaller and Smaller Circles

Ang Smaller and Smaller Circles ni FH Batacan ang aking Book #7. It's a detective thriller featuring a Jesuit priest with rock star hair and old money cooly running after a serial killer in the Payatas area whose main targets are little boys aged 12-13.

Ang bilis lang niya basahin. Interesting siya para sa akin kasi it's a detective thriller. Kung ikaw ay typical na bookworm na bata na nagbasa ng Nancy Drew nung mid-grade school ka (or Bobsey Twins o Hardy Boys), masisiyahan ka sa librong ito. I think I read somewhere that a film company optioned this book and might be turned into a movie. O di ba?

But anyhow, I think of this book as some kind of mutant. Gusto ko lang enumerate ang weirdness niya para sa akin:

1. Pari ang bida. (Hello, Father Nudas, wherever you are.) Jesuit na galing sa mayamang pamilya at guwapo. (6 feet 3! Rock star hair! Listens to REM!) Forensic anthropologist na nag-aral sa France and can speak at least 4 languages. Can you say rennaisance man? So ang mga Heswita at ang kanilang "Ad majorem" ek na motto ay hindi lang pang-outreach program at pagtuturo ang ginagawa kundi they are also tough guys who can apprehend a smooth criminal.

Sabi nga ulit ni Augusto Saenz, S.J.: “You think you have an interesting life,” Saenz says by way of explaining why he engages in forensic sleuthwork. “And for the most part you do. You teach, you say Mass, you conduct research, see patients. Travel. Lecture. You do everything you’re supposed to do the way it’s supposed to be done. Once in a while, there’s a chance to do more. And you take it.”

Father Gus and his assistant Jerome Lucero are so alike in mind na puwede nilang tapusin ang sentences ng isa't isa. Si Jerome ay dati niyang estudyante, and I can smell some tension, heehee. Point of interest sa akin kung paano ang mga alagad ng Diyos ay ico-combine ang very logical way of solving crime. Una, natural ba yan sa Pilipinas? Ang detective genre ay isang Western na tipo ng fiction. Western, logical, very Enlightenment era ang mga bida at genre mismo. Paano gagawin ang transfer sa isang lugar na ang knowledge ay dinadaan sa "kutob"?

2. May serial killer. Ang mga serial killer ay matalino--graduate nga siya ng UP eh. At puwede siyang maging poster boy tulad ni La Diva: galing sa poor family, Payatas bred. Yun nga lang abused. (Using my best Neil Garcia voice: "Were you molested as a child?") Sabi nila, walang mga serial killer sa Pinas dahil ang criminal profile na ganito ay pang "thirty something white male." Pero may theory si Father Gus: “..serial killing is a far more prevalent phenomenon in the country than the police have the capability or the inclination to detect. This is because little, if any comparison is ever made between the particulars of murders committed at different times or places.”

Gusto ko pang mag-elaborate kaya lang kasi may exam pa dito ang mga estudyante ko sa Monday so itutuloy ko na lang some other time. Pero gusto ko lang i-share na disappointed ako sa class discussion namin kasi naman parang laki sa vacuum ang mga tao sa klase ko. I specifically chose this book kasi it's somehow bridging the popular with the literary--I know, I know, it's been said of the book countless of times. And I figured, it'll be an interesting read for those who read The Da Vinci Code. But the thing was, halos walang nagbabasa sa kanila ng kahit na Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Agatha Christie o kahit na nga Silence of the Lambs or The Borne Conspiracy. The closest they can get is C.S.I. pero napaka-bare nun. Paano mo ipapa-critique ang isang genre kung yung tradisyon mismo nito hindi nila alam? Ano yun balik Formalist na naman ba kami? Gusto ko ngang mag-Neil Garcia impression ulit kahapon eh: "You are all so culturally deprived." Hay.