When the Elephants Dance: A Novel
£8.10
Once in a great while comes a storyteller who can illuminate worlds large and small, in ways both magical and true to life. When the Elephants Dance is set in the waning days of World War II, as the Japanese and the Americans engage in a fierce battle for possession of the Philippine Islands. Through the eyes of three narrators, thirteen-year-old Alejandro Karangalan, his spirited older sister Isabelle, and Domingo, a passionate guerilla commander, we see how ordinary people find hope for survival where none seems to exist. While the Karangalan family and their neighbors huddle together for survival in the cellar of a house, they tell magical stories to one another based on Filipino myth that transport the listeners from the chaos of the war around them and give them new resolve to continue fighting. Outside the safety of their refuge the war rages on—fiery bombs torch the countryside, Japanese soldiers round up and interrogate innocent people, and from the hills guerilla fighters wage a desperate campaign against the enemy. Inside the cellar, these men, women, and children put their hopes and dreams on hold as they wait out the war.
This stunning debut novel celebrates with richness and depth the spirit of the Filipino people and their fascinating story and marks the introduction of an author who will join the ranks of writers such as Arundhati Roy, Manil Suri, and Amy Tan.
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Additional information
| Publisher | 1st edition (26 Mar. 2002), Crown |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| File size | 3803 KB |
| Text-to-Speech | Enabled |
| Screen Reader | Supported |
| Enhanced typesetting | Enabled |
| X-Ray | Not Enabled |
| Word Wise | Enabled |
| Sticky notes | On Kindle Scribe |
| Print length | 392 pages |
by Antra Anchina
Very exciting beginning of the book, I couldn’t put it away. Read first pages on my Kindle sample. It took really long time for the book to arrive and the font of text was really small for me. But it didn’t put me away. I read it through. Story written from different angles, as stories from different people surviving through the war. War scenes written in the way one can imagine them. Gave me an impression that many wonderful places in Philippines were destroyed during the war. Shows the relationships between the people during the hard moments of live, willing to live and to save the people close to you.
In some moments I just wanted to know what will follow as the story was interrupted by memories of people, to distract them from the war. Had to leave these for later.
by Kate Hopkins
I bought this book due to the comparisons to Isabel Allende’s ‘House of the Spirits’ and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s ‘One Hundred Years of Solitude’, both of which I love. Unfortunately, I found that this novel was far inferior to both. It has a promising enough synopsis: during the last days of the Japanese occupation of the Philippines, a group of Filipinos hide together waiting for the Americans to save them, and tell each other stories, while their brave leader Domingo Mataplan plans to lead a revolt against the Japanese. It’s told from three perspectives: first, we have Alejandro, a young boy who, with his family, is caught up in the conflict, then Alejandro’s older sister Isabel who helps to save Domingo from attack, then Domingo himself and finally a conclusion from Alejandro. Other voices – Alejandro’s father, a neighbour, Aling Ana the local wealthy lady – also join in, to tell stories of their pasts and the history of the Philippines.
And that, in a way, is the problem with the book – although there are some enthralling stories about Filipino culture and myth, there are just too many shifting viewpoints and too many stories told for the book to ever become really engrossing, or for any of the characters to become fully realized. Too many slid into stereotypes (like Domingo, the simple, heroic warrior) or, like Isabel, started off promisingly then disappeared from the story. Too many of the stories told were ‘improving moral tales’ such as Ana’s story of how she ill-treated her adopted sister Corazón and came to bitterly regret it (this story goes on for ever and is really depressing). Some of the interesting aspects of the book – such as Domingo’s relationship with his wife Lorna and mistress Nina – were rushed over, and one only got a very limited sense of what World War II as a whole had been like. So on the whole I felt curiously disengaged, unable to really get involved with the narrative as it kept changing tack, never very involved with any of the characters, most of whom weren’t that interesting, and aware that the language seemed a bit self-consciously poetic and rich.
On the other hand, some of the mythological stories are truly beautiful, particularly the one about the ‘fish devil’, and the mysterious soothsayer Esmeralda, some of the history of the Philippines is good and Tess Uriza Holthe does give a good sense of the fear and the danger of wartime. I just personally didn’t feel the book worked as a whole. Still, I was interested to read it and might read another novel by this author.
by Amazon Customer
I like this book. Good written, good humour, interesting insight in Philippine history and culture. Recommended for everyone who like a good story, and especially for all who want to learn more of the fantastic Philippine people.