"Para Kay B" by Ricky Lee

Read: 4/5/09

4/5 stars

My advance apologies to non-readers of Filipino, as this book that I'm reviewing is written mostly in Taglish, the curious mix of Tagalog and English peculiar here in the Philippines.

Para Kay B (o kung pano dinevastate ng pag-ibig ang 4 out of 5 sa atin) (For B: or how love has devastated 4 out of 5 of us) is the first novel of accomplished Filipino screenwriter, Ricky Lee. Lee has written short stories, plays, tv and movie scripts, as well as what is considered the scriptwriting bible in the Philippines, Trip to Quiapo. Recently, his most famous screenwriting work, Himala, was voted as Best Asia-Pacific Film of All-Time through a worldwide online voting conducted by CNN.

That said, I, personally, am not so familiar with Ricky Lee. Why? Because I am one of that strange species of citizen that has a hard time reading works written in one of our national languages. (We only have two, by the way: English and Filipino). Plus, I never really got to watch a lot of local films (also perhaps for the same reason). I'm not exactly proud of it, but I am what I already am. All I can do now is to remedy this lack and sort of make sure that my kids don't go through the same deficiency in heritage, too.

So, when my book club decided to go for a novel written in Filipino this month, I was both alarmed and delighted. Alarmed that it might take me a while to finish the book; delighted because I'm serious about wanting to read more works written in our language.

Thankfully, Para Kay B wasn't a difficult read. The story begins with the narrator's theory of how only 1 out of 5 people really end up with the one they truly love. The narrator then proceeds to tell the story of five women, each with her own love story: from one who loves what is perhaps only a memory, to a forbidden love, to a woman who comes from a place where there is no love, to a married woman who is potentially a lesbian, and to a promiscuous girl who is worshipped by a writer.

The connection among these stories? None other than that they are mostly creations of the writer who wrote them. Yes, that sounds strange, but not if I said that the writer of the stories has made himself a character in his own story (not Ricky Lee himself, but the fictional writer of the novel). What might sound stranger is that the "writer" has also taken his characters out of their story and brought them into his real world.

This is something that I did enjoy while reading this book: the metafictional aspect-the awareness of the characters that they are characters, the actualization of the process of a writer as he creates his characters. However, at the point when Lucas, the writer, started rhapsodizing about the difficulties writers face as they bring their characters to life, I felt that the real writer, Lee, might have been getting a bit self-indulgent. Yes, I like metafiction, but not particularly when it reads like the writer begging the reader to understand what he goes through.

Nevertheless, I do respect Lee for writing a book like this. I say so in light of the criticism that he has received for what others interpret as "selling out." In the book's final note, Lee admits that his dream has always been to write a novel, that he wants to be read by everyone, everywhere: from the lowliest commuter to the professor of high literature. As a reading advocate, you've got to love this dream.:) And I have to agree that his book is highly readable.

"Isolating" himself for three years, Lee finished three novels, Para Kay B being the first one released. Why? Because it is about love which, according to Lee, is different from the usual political and social commentary that he writes. True to a certain extent. However, though Lee's main topic is about love, he could not or did not avoid injecting keen social observations in his novel, which I found strengthened his story further. If it's populist, so what? It speaks to the heart, I believe, of most of my countrymen, covering experiences that a lot of them are familiar with, and I don't just mean love.

He writes intelligently, has interesting characters and a fascinating storyline, and he has got this non-Filipino reader actually enjoying his book. For all of these reasons, I think I'll be keeping an eye out for his next novels. Kudos to Ricky Lee.