The Manila of Nick Joaquin's time is very different from the Manila that I was born in. And yet, too often I could see myself in his sentences. There's my religious trauma, there's my adamant quest for freedom, and there is the intergenerational conflict that I grew up and still grapple with. It's true. Our generation and our parents' generation speak in different languages, literally.

My favorites from this collection:
The Order of Melkizedek - about the clash of traditional Catholic worldviews and alternative movements in a society heavily influenced by American counterculture
Cándido's Apocalypse - an ode to petit bourgeois parents and their "overacting" teenage children
The Mass of St. Sylvestre, Doña Geronima, May Day Eve - just fun tales that double as criticism of the church ( )