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thequeenreads's review
3.0
First read of the year!
1/111
Candido's Apocalypse by Nick Joaquin
3/5
Read January 6, 2017
I have to admit it was quite a good read but the translation was just not that good for me. It was like a twisted The Bell Jar but in a more confusing way. I didn't love it but I didn't hate it. I need to read something beautiful to cancel this out 😂😁
1/111
Candido's Apocalypse by Nick Joaquin
3/5
Read January 6, 2017
I have to admit it was quite a good read but the translation was just not that good for me. It was like a twisted The Bell Jar but in a more confusing way. I didn't love it but I didn't hate it. I need to read something beautiful to cancel this out 😂😁
reislibrary's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
journeyingjo's review
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
readutation's review
3.0
Score: 80/100 (or 3 stars)
Check out my full review here: https://nightmaredressedasareader.home.blog/2018/10/22/candidos-apocalypse-it-may-be-short-but-it-aint-shallow/
If you’re a fellow Filipino studying literature or Creative Writing in college, then chances are you will hear the name “Nick Joaquin” a lot. Like, a lot a lot. He’s like the Filipino equivalent of William Shakespeare in terms of popularity in the academe.
Since he’s a classic figure for Philippine Literature, at least in one point of your life, you will have to read his works and discuss it in class. And you will also feel the pressure of liking them because everyone in the academe just gushes about him, so if you dislike them, then something is wrong with you, as a literature student.
(Okay, that’s totally an exaggeration, but hey, admit it, that’s how we feel with books we have to read for classes. Our professors will not stop exalting these books, so you will feel like trash once you read them and realize that they’re…not that good — at least in your own opinion.)
That is exactly my case with Nick Joaquin — particularly with this novella, Candido’s Apocalypse. I’m sorry to say it, but I have to, okay? Honesty is what I’m going for in this blog.
If you guys don’t know what Candido’s Apocalypse is all about, it’s simply about this boy named Bobby Heredias who develops an ability to see through people. First, it starts with him being able to see through their clothes (so he sees everyone naked), but then he starts seeing through the skin, and soon through the muscles until all he can see are skeletons. The story, once you’ve read it, is truly as weird as it originally sounds.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I totally get the appeal of this book, or any of his books for that matter (I read another novel of his, Cave and Shadows, about 3 years ago). I personally think that depth is something that Candido’s Apocalypse is able to ace (just like every other classic novel in the world). This book may only be less than a hundred pages long, but don’t be fooled — this ain’t an easy read. A lot of things are going on in this text, and once you try to analyze it, you’ll realize just how much layered this story is, and once you think you’ve finally analyzed it completely, you’ll see that the analysis still hasn’t stopped.
Like seriously, this novella can be interpreted in so many ways. I read this for my literary theory class, and one of our requirements is to apply a particular reading to it. For my group, we applied the New Critical way of reading, and then the others used structuralist, Marxist, feminist, deconstruction, and post-colonial reading. And let me tell you: everything works. No matter how much we tore this novella down, it still stands, unbothered, and still offers more room for interpretation.
And I don’t know about you, but when a story actually survives numerous rounds of analyzing, of deconstructing, it actually shows how much deep it truly is. And that’s frikkin fantastic.
So, yes, Candido’s Apocalypse is deep, layered, and thought-provoking. But it pains me to say that for me, that’s where the positive things I could say end.
One of the things that hinder me from liking Nick Joaquin and his craft is his writing style. Now, his writing style isn’t the worst — actually, there’s a sort of deliberate quality to his style — but I just can’t stand it. He has this tendency to use really, really long sentences (and I don’t mean a one-sentence paragraph; I mean, MULTIPLE PAGES THAT CONSIST OF ONLY ONE FUCKING SENTENCE), and it just really takes him forever to get to his point that sometimes, I get lost before he finally gets there. Sometimes, I feel like his quirky writing style stumps the pacing a little bit; with his super long sentences, of course the reader will feel like the pace has slowed down even though it should pick up because we’re nearing the climax of the story already.
I also didn’t care much about the characters. Now, the characters aren’t supposed to be liked in this novells. All of them are not-so-good characters that you aren’t supposed to root for. And it’s perfectly all right for books to feature unlikeable characters. But if a book is to feature unlikeable characters, it might as well make them truly interesting. It should give us a reason to continue following along with their story. Sadly, I felt like that’s what’s missing in Candido’s Apocalypse. I mean, I get their unlikeability, but now, a few months after reading the story, I didn’t think anyone was that interesting enough to be memorable.
So, yeah, as you can see, I don’t really have much else to say about this novella. It’s actually pretty funny because when I read this back in January, I really thought I liked it. But then right now, I just realized that I liked it, simply because I forced myself to. I mean, I already disliked a lot books I read for class that even my own classmates loved. I didn’t want to feel like the black sheep of my literary family who has “terrible” reading tastes. I just wanted to fit in, okay?
But despite my dedication to like this book, I have to admit that at some point, the pretending has to stop. And that time is right now. Maybe because it’s just now that I truly realize how much I didn’t like it. Or maybe because I’m not anymore in college, so my professors can’t touch me anymore (*cue evil laugh*). Either way, the truth still stands: I think this book has great depth, but it’s not really something that one reads for entertainment.
That being said though, I still recommend this to those people who are interested in Philippine Literature. Nick Joaquin is always a good place to start because he’s a classic figure in this field, and he was also a prolific writer — writing in all sorts of genres, from fiction to literary journalism. So, his works really offer a lot of material in studying Philippine Literature. If you want to study Philippine Literature but don’t know where to start, I suggest reading Nick Joaquin.
Check out my full review here: https://nightmaredressedasareader.home.blog/2018/10/22/candidos-apocalypse-it-may-be-short-but-it-aint-shallow/
If you’re a fellow Filipino studying literature or Creative Writing in college, then chances are you will hear the name “Nick Joaquin” a lot. Like, a lot a lot. He’s like the Filipino equivalent of William Shakespeare in terms of popularity in the academe.
Since he’s a classic figure for Philippine Literature, at least in one point of your life, you will have to read his works and discuss it in class. And you will also feel the pressure of liking them because everyone in the academe just gushes about him, so if you dislike them, then something is wrong with you, as a literature student.
(Okay, that’s totally an exaggeration, but hey, admit it, that’s how we feel with books we have to read for classes. Our professors will not stop exalting these books, so you will feel like trash once you read them and realize that they’re…not that good — at least in your own opinion.)
That is exactly my case with Nick Joaquin — particularly with this novella, Candido’s Apocalypse. I’m sorry to say it, but I have to, okay? Honesty is what I’m going for in this blog.
If you guys don’t know what Candido’s Apocalypse is all about, it’s simply about this boy named Bobby Heredias who develops an ability to see through people. First, it starts with him being able to see through their clothes (so he sees everyone naked), but then he starts seeing through the skin, and soon through the muscles until all he can see are skeletons. The story, once you’ve read it, is truly as weird as it originally sounds.
Now, don’t get me wrong: I totally get the appeal of this book, or any of his books for that matter (I read another novel of his, Cave and Shadows, about 3 years ago). I personally think that depth is something that Candido’s Apocalypse is able to ace (just like every other classic novel in the world). This book may only be less than a hundred pages long, but don’t be fooled — this ain’t an easy read. A lot of things are going on in this text, and once you try to analyze it, you’ll realize just how much layered this story is, and once you think you’ve finally analyzed it completely, you’ll see that the analysis still hasn’t stopped.
Like seriously, this novella can be interpreted in so many ways. I read this for my literary theory class, and one of our requirements is to apply a particular reading to it. For my group, we applied the New Critical way of reading, and then the others used structuralist, Marxist, feminist, deconstruction, and post-colonial reading. And let me tell you: everything works. No matter how much we tore this novella down, it still stands, unbothered, and still offers more room for interpretation.
And I don’t know about you, but when a story actually survives numerous rounds of analyzing, of deconstructing, it actually shows how much deep it truly is. And that’s frikkin fantastic.
So, yes, Candido’s Apocalypse is deep, layered, and thought-provoking. But it pains me to say that for me, that’s where the positive things I could say end.
One of the things that hinder me from liking Nick Joaquin and his craft is his writing style. Now, his writing style isn’t the worst — actually, there’s a sort of deliberate quality to his style — but I just can’t stand it. He has this tendency to use really, really long sentences (and I don’t mean a one-sentence paragraph; I mean, MULTIPLE PAGES THAT CONSIST OF ONLY ONE FUCKING SENTENCE), and it just really takes him forever to get to his point that sometimes, I get lost before he finally gets there. Sometimes, I feel like his quirky writing style stumps the pacing a little bit; with his super long sentences, of course the reader will feel like the pace has slowed down even though it should pick up because we’re nearing the climax of the story already.
I also didn’t care much about the characters. Now, the characters aren’t supposed to be liked in this novells. All of them are not-so-good characters that you aren’t supposed to root for. And it’s perfectly all right for books to feature unlikeable characters. But if a book is to feature unlikeable characters, it might as well make them truly interesting. It should give us a reason to continue following along with their story. Sadly, I felt like that’s what’s missing in Candido’s Apocalypse. I mean, I get their unlikeability, but now, a few months after reading the story, I didn’t think anyone was that interesting enough to be memorable.
So, yeah, as you can see, I don’t really have much else to say about this novella. It’s actually pretty funny because when I read this back in January, I really thought I liked it. But then right now, I just realized that I liked it, simply because I forced myself to. I mean, I already disliked a lot books I read for class that even my own classmates loved. I didn’t want to feel like the black sheep of my literary family who has “terrible” reading tastes. I just wanted to fit in, okay?
But despite my dedication to like this book, I have to admit that at some point, the pretending has to stop. And that time is right now. Maybe because it’s just now that I truly realize how much I didn’t like it. Or maybe because I’m not anymore in college, so my professors can’t touch me anymore (*cue evil laugh*). Either way, the truth still stands: I think this book has great depth, but it’s not really something that one reads for entertainment.
That being said though, I still recommend this to those people who are interested in Philippine Literature. Nick Joaquin is always a good place to start because he’s a classic figure in this field, and he was also a prolific writer — writing in all sorts of genres, from fiction to literary journalism. So, his works really offer a lot of material in studying Philippine Literature. If you want to study Philippine Literature but don’t know where to start, I suggest reading Nick Joaquin.
kriziaannacastro's review
3.0
The book was a quick and easy read. It was a "nice" social commentary at first. The main character Bobby or Candido believes that he is better than other people like his parents, who are pretentious and as he would say "overacting". He sees these persons for who they really are or rather he sees what they really are (he sees them naked). Later it becomes about God, about finding God. I love how Nick Joaquin stressed the importance of people, love and God. No man is truly an island.
However, I believe that the story would be conveyed better in Filipino. Some words are lost in translation. If i misunderstood how a word is used I would translate the word in Filipino to truly understand what Nick Joaquin really wants to convey. He also likes run-on sentences thus sometimes I get so confused.
However, I believe that the story would be conveyed better in Filipino. Some words are lost in translation. If i misunderstood how a word is used I would translate the word in Filipino to truly understand what Nick Joaquin really wants to convey. He also likes run-on sentences thus sometimes I get so confused.
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