What Now, Ricky?

by Rosario de Guzman-Lingat, Soledad S. Reyes (Translator)

Contextualized against the early 1970s, during the First Quarter Storm, What Now, Ricky? offers a thought-provoking analysis of the interrelated sociopolitical forces that shaped the nation's history during this bloody period. Taking center stage is Ricky, a university student from Tondo who sees how iniquitous social forces have shaped the lives not only of his family, community, but of society, spinning out of control, as well. Ricky traces the blighted life of the people to powerful institutions—politics, the law, the military, among others—and the far-reaching and ultimately disastrous consequences of their baleful influence.

The novel's depiction of the tumult and bloodbath, rendered through the consciousness of a young, idealistic student leader, is Lingat's own version of the bildungsroman, with distinctly political underpinnings.

148 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Rosario de Guzman-Lingat (1924–1997) wrote a large number of novels and short stories for the country's most popular magazines in the 1960s and 1970s. Working within the limitations of popular fiction, Lingat nonetheless succeeded in constructing narratives that shed light on the experiences of the postwar generation: family discord, psychological breakdowns due to both personal and societal traumas, the impact of the Pacific War, a deeply divided nation, and the difficulties of being a woman in a male-dominated world.

Reviews

[Rise]

Lingat's novel proposed electoral reforms, not bloody revolution, as a viable solution to the ills of society. The novel's epigraph said as much about how a nation's leaders were only a reflection of the greater society that elected them in the first place. The novel's backdrop was the First Quarter Storm in 1970, a period of unrest where students and laborers were violently dispersed by the police during demonstrations.

Full review: http://booktrek.blogspot.com/2014/02/...