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This book shouldn't be any good at all.
But somehow, it is really quite good.
Full disclosure: I picked it up because of the line on the front cover that read "The great Filipino novel ... with chickens!" Which, yeah, it had a sort of wonderful and intense energy to it that, at the very least, the awesome Filipinos I have known, have possessed. Not to generalize! It was subtle! As for the chickens, some of the allegorical hatred, UN stuff, bird flu (AIDS?), etc etc, was totally awkward, required suspension of disbelief, tons of it. Also, the framing device (son chicken reading father chickens diary) wasn't the best. But so what? The emotional core of this -- finding and fighting for one's family, and the excellent, expressive illustration, made this story really intriguing and engrossing. Probably it's a three star story, but the fact that Alanguilan was able to do so much with such a weird awkward premise bumped it up. Yeah!