Friday, March 13, 2009
Filipinos view serial killing as a Western phenomenon. The careful execution of a series of murders through a formulaic modus operandi and the intricate selection of victims is something that our people won’t care about and have time to do. But the book “Smaller and Smaller Circles” of F. H. Batacan suggests that maybe Filipinos are capable of doing it, and it may be happening right under our noses because nobody did care when persons go missing and bodies turn up as if in a cycle.
The book is about two Jesuit priests who were in search of the culprit behind the serial killings in the community of the Payatas dump site. Augusto Saenz, a forensic pathologist, and Jerome Lucero, a clinical psychologist, worked with the National Bureau of Investigations in order to stop the bodies of teen-aged boys from turning up in the mountains of trash in the said community every first Saturday of the month.
In order to find out who the murderer is, they have to go through the scrutiny and mocking of Atty. Benjamin Arcinas, the head of NBI’s investigating team, and ask the help of Joanna Bonifacio, a sassy investigative journalist who knows how to work her way to tap for information in the bureaucracy.
The book tried its best in being a suspense detective mystery. It reminds the reader of Jerry Bruckheimer’s television series “CSI.” Both are about a group of people trying to solve crimes through the scrutiny of evidences. The book has precisely described this science of crime scene investigation and has an added local flavor too. The author has not romanticized crime investigation set in the Philippines. He was able to illustrate the scarce merits and numerous flaws of our investigating system. At the same time, the author suggested to us the capabilities of a Filipino mind – whether in elimination or creation of crime.
The book built suspense with ease, making it easy for one to want to read from page to page quickly. However, Latin phrases, French conversations, and Italian musings hinder readers from completely liking the book. The task of reading becomes more difficult because of the presence of these foreign words whose meanings are not known by ordinary readers. Instead of drawing the readers into the book, it pushes them away because it creates a feeling of exclusion.
There are also scenes that seemed unnecessary and could have been just deleted. The writer could have spared the readers from scenes that dwelt too much on the personal lives of secondary characters. Knowing them and having a fair enough background on them was enough, but discussing their illicit affairs was too much. Unnecessary details are sprinkled in some parts the book thus cluttering the significant parts of the story.
The book, with little alterations, can pass as a manuscript for a telenovela because of its false climax and the stretching of the story. The one-time appearance of some characters in the book is very similar to the appearances of some stars in a telenovela just for the heck of it.
Nevertheless, to the book’s merit, the scenes come alive clearly inside the reader’s head. The elaborate descriptions of people places and situations sharply draw the story in the reader’s mind. Once can feel a tingle in the spine as one pictures out the grotesque states of the bodies that turned up in the dump site as narrated in the book.
The writer chose the right words to vividly depict the struggles faced in trying to solve a crime in the Philippine context. However, some references to certain bands and performers show a leaning to an older audience, while some of the quotations used before some chapters show that an intellectual audience is addressed.
With this information in mind, “Smaller and Smaller Circles” is recommended to book lovers who have a flair for language. It may give thrill to other readers, but this thrill would not be enough for adventurous youngsters. It can only hook you enough for so long, but it is not something that you would not want to put down.
