With these two passionate, vividly realistic novels, The Pretenders and Mass, F. Sionil José concludes his epochal Rosales Saga. The five volumes span much of the turbulent modern history of the Philippines, a beautiful and embattled nation once occupied by the Spanish, overrun by the Japanese, and dominated by the United States. The portraits painted in The Samsons, and in the previously published Modern Library paperback editions of Dusk and Don Vicente (containing Tree and My Brother, My Executioner), are vivid renderings of one family from the village of Rosales who contend with the forces of oppression and human nature. Antonio Samson of The Pretenders is ambitious, educated, and torn by conflicting ideas of revolution. He marries well, which leads to his eventual downfall. In Mass, Pepe Samson, the bastard son of Antonio, is also ambitious, but in different ways. He comes to Manila mainly to satisfy his appetites, and after adventures erotic and economic, finds his life taking a surprising turn. Together, these novels form a portrait of a village and a nation, and conclude one of the masterpieces of Southeast Asian literature.

The Samsons: Two Novels The Pretenders and Mass

José, F. Sionil

Literature & Fiction

Modern Library

Sins

Random House Value Publishing

Three novellas--including Obsession, Platinum, and Cadena de Amor--examine the Philippine experience through the lives of three female characters, a prostitute, a student activist, and a politician. 10,000 first printing.

Three Filipino Women

British & Irish

Random House]

Don Carlos lies on his deathbed, determined to tell all. Don Carlos lies, as they say, through his teeth. in this slim, powerful novel, F. Sionil Jose, one of the leading literary voices of Asia and the Pacific, tells all. Don Carlos Cobello, a worldly man, has been a diplomat, entrepreneur, gourmand, and sinner. Like other memoirists, he reveals more than he intends. Born to wealth, he was determined to increase it. Born to corruption, he sees no reason to give up too much of a good thing. Born of woman, he sets about seducing -- or simply taking -- every woman he sees, starting with his sister. He is a prince of accommodation; his family has drawn close to power no matter who dominated their islands, be it the Spanish, the Japanese, or the Americans. (A woman shared with a Japanese colonel in a family-owned brothel returns their favors by passing on to one the disease of the other.) The colorful cast includes a "hero of the Revolution" who purchased land with revolutionary funds, a close poker-playing friend of General Douglas MacArthur, and the illegitimate son of a maid who later becomes a lawyer destined for greatness. Cobello's wealth, incest, and casual infidelities are no hindrance to an upwardly mobile career. In the "incredible reality that is the Philippines," says Jose, "the higher one goes, the whiter one becomes." For, as Cobello puts it, "here, sin is a social definition, not a moral one." Sins will add to the stature of F. Sionil Jose and to his growing reputation in the United States.

In writing this novel, F. Sionil Jose completed his masterpiece- the Rosales saga. Po-on is the start of all of this. It was in Ilokos during the decade of 1880-1889 when one family left their barrio to go to the plains of Pangasinan. Aside from the story of escaping the cruelty of the Spaniards, this is also a story about a poor person who was looking for someone who truly believe at the deep meaning of life, a search that led him to the plains and the chaotic surroundings of Ilocos in Cordillera.

Po-on: Isang nobela

De La Salle University Press

Three novellas--including Obsession, Platinum, and Cadena de Amor--examine the Philippine experience through the lives of three female characters, a prostitute, a student activist, and a politician. 10,000 first printing.

Contemporary

Philippine American Literary House

A reluctant and accidental hero. "He is supot. Scared, he ran away from the ritual of manhood. He ran away again from his foxhole in Bataan when the Japanese were closing in. And through much of his life even when he had become comfortable, he still ran away, haunted by the poverty of his boyhood, of the treachery that he may have committed. This is Benjamin Singkol -- perhaps the most interesting character ever created by F. Sionil Jose. After World War II, Sionil Jose enrolled at the University of Santo Tomas and came under the wing of Paz Latorena, one of the country's foremost writers and literature teachers and the Dominican writer, Juan Labrador. He worked in journalism and developed his distinctly direct narrative style. Sionil Jose is best know for his epic work, the Rosales saga -- five novels which encompass a hundred years of Philippine history, from 1872 when th three Filipino priests -- Gomez, Burgos, and Zamora were martyred , to 1972 when Marcos declared Martial Law.

Ben Singkol: A novel

Solidaridad Pub. House

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by José, F. Sionil. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by José, F. Sionil

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by José, F. Sionil. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Samsons: Two Novels The Pretenders and Mass

Sins

Three Filipino Women

Sins

Po-on: Isang nobela

Three Filipino Women

Ben Singkol: A novel