when the elephants dance by tess uriza holthe

Savannah, it turns out, is catatonic, and before the suicide attempt had completely assumed the identity of a dead friend-the implication being that she couldn't stand being a Wingo anymore. When he hears that his fierce, beautiful twin sister Savannah, a well-known New York poet, has once again attempted suicide, he escapes his present emasculation by flying north to meet Savannah's comely psychiatrist, Susan Lowenstein. Tom Wingo is an unemployed South Carolinian football coach whose internist wife is having an affair with a pompous cardiac man. Domingo’s conflict between allegiance to his family and his political/military obligations gradually takes center stage, but each supporting character’s ethical battle resonates brightly, however briefly, and the author keeps the moral choices each faces too complex to second-guess.Ī well-orchestrated chorus of voices that should strike a strong chord with many.Ī flabby, fervid melodrama of a high-strung Southern family from Conroy ( The Great Santini, The Lords of Discipline), whose penchant for overwriting once again obscures a genuine talent. The Japanese eventually discover the group, which is force-marched to a warehouse prison. They all end up back in Alejandro’s parents’ basement, along with Domingo’s wife and children, Feliciano’s rich aunt, a brave young journalist, a seer, an elderly Spanish artist, and his cowardly son, among others. Meanwhile, Isabelle is imprisoned by the Japanese and raped before Feliciano, previously a Japanese sympathizer, saves her. Actually, thanks to Alejandro’s sister Isabelle, Domingo escapes and reconnoiters with his lover Nina and his band of freedom fighters. He thinks he sees the local hero and freedom fighter Domingo taken away to be shot. Thirteen-year-old Alejandro, sent out to scavenge for food, stays courageously silent when the Japanese briefly detain him. These oral fictions, often repetitive and verging on the sentimental, weave through a broader narrative of the group’s wartime trials as battle rages between American and Japanese forces (the “elephants” of the title). The final stories deal with broader issues: racism, and political commitment.

Then comes a series of tales focused on family that emphasizes human relationships and psychological nuance.

The first two, about a seller of potions and a fisherman with dark powers, have a magical-realist atmosphere. To pass the time, to ward off fear, perhaps even to offer guidance, the inhabitants take turns telling stories. In the basement of a battered house outside Manila, a group of neighbors hides from the Japanese. Romantic and patriotic heroics fill this WWII–set debut: a remarkably rich story about a disparate group of Filipinos thrown together in their struggle to survive the Japanese occupation.

When the elephants dance by tess uriza holthe