Ratings per individual section:
In the Raging Beauty of Night: 4.1/5
Sheaves of Things Burning: 3.7/5
Flowers of the Sun: 3.9/5
Kaibigan: 4.2/5
Sa mga Bata (translations): 4.6-4.7/5
Standout poems: "Father," "Once a Child," "Paper Tiger," "Cemetery," "Song of the Rivers," "Rain," "Photographs," "To a Lad in His Early Teens," "Counterfeit," "O Little Rosebud," "Credo," "Kaibigan," "Ang Tsuper," "Bilihin," "Ermita," "Sa Dilim ng Umaga Nang Welga ng Tsuper," "Maganda ang mga Baboy," "Sagot sa Henyo," "Disco," "Liham," "Sa mga Bata" (Hesse's "To Children"), "Maipagbibili Mo Ba? (Guillen's "Can You?"), "Para Kanino" (de Oraa's "For Who?"), Sagot Kay Kuo Mo-Jo (Mao's "Reply to Comrade Kuo Mo-Jo"), "Awit" (Marre's "Song"), "Kaguluhan" (Nikolov's "Conflict")
Actual rating (as a whole): 3.8-3.9/5
In the Raging Beauty of Night: 4.1/5
Sheaves of Things Burning: 3.7/5
Flowers of the Sun: 3.9/5
Kaibigan: 4.2/5
Sa mga Bata (translations): 4.6-4.7/5
Standout poems: "Father," "Once a Child," "Paper Tiger," "Cemetery," "Song of the Rivers," "Rain," "Photographs," "To a Lad in His Early Teens," "Counterfeit," "O Little Rosebud," "Credo," "Kaibigan," "Ang Tsuper," "Bilihin," "Ermita," "Sa Dilim ng Umaga Nang Welga ng Tsuper," "Maganda ang mga Baboy," "Sagot sa Henyo," "Disco," "Liham," "Sa mga Bata" (Hesse's "To Children"), "Maipagbibili Mo Ba? (Guillen's "Can You?"), "Para Kanino" (de Oraa's "For Who?"), Sagot Kay Kuo Mo-Jo (Mao's "Reply to Comrade Kuo Mo-Jo"), "Awit" (Marre's "Song"), "Kaguluhan" (Nikolov's "Conflict")
Actual rating (as a whole): 3.8-3.9/5
Jun 30, 2026English (UK)
I pretty much agree with most of what is said here, but I had a bit of a hard time reading this. A friend told me that Engels's Principles of Communism is a much better read and is more approachable than the manifesto. I'll take a read of it after this review.
Actual rating: 3.8-3.9.5
Actual rating: 3.8-3.9.5
Mar 28, 2026English (UK)
Favorite poems: "Hasa", "Bicycles Have Ruined Civilization", "LSS", "Bleeder", "Pagpag", "Opening the Third Eye"
Actual rating: 4.1/5
Actual rating: 4.1/5
TG: 4.1-4.2/5
DJ: 4.4-4.5/5
TLDW:3.8-3.9/5
MDE: 4.8-4.9/5 [read before]
GdH: 4.3-4.4/5
Actual rating: 4.2-4.3/5
DJ: 4.4-4.5/5
TLDW:3.8-3.9/5
MDE: 4.8-4.9/5 [read before]
GdH: 4.3-4.4/5
Actual rating: 4.2-4.3/5
[original review from Goodreads]
The title of the book gave me such hope of this being a really good novel, but I was left quite disappointed as some aspects of it, especially the chapters nearing the end, were quite meh. I am also admittedly not a big fan of the type of writing that Cruz had done here (this being serialized in Liwayway from 1959 to 1960), but it was probably because it was the style of writing at the time—flowery language that beat around the bush a lot of the time and the kilometric dialogue which would inspire cheesy telenovelas.
However, despite these criticisms I have for the novel, Cruz manages to insert some pretty good commentary on the state of the country (which unfortunately is still the same to this day, ugh).
Other than that, it was pretty much meh for me.
Actual Rating: 3/5
(will probably write a full review later if I'm not lazy)
The title of the book gave me such hope of this being a really good novel, but I was left quite disappointed as some aspects of it, especially the chapters nearing the end, were quite meh. I am also admittedly not a big fan of the type of writing that Cruz had done here (this being serialized in Liwayway from 1959 to 1960), but it was probably because it was the style of writing at the time—flowery language that beat around the bush a lot of the time and the kilometric dialogue which would inspire cheesy telenovelas.
However, despite these criticisms I have for the novel, Cruz manages to insert some pretty good commentary on the state of the country (which unfortunately is still the same to this day, ugh).
Other than that, it was pretty much meh for me.
Actual Rating: 3/5
(will probably write a full review later if I'm not lazy)