Kate's Reviews > Tiempo Muerto

Tiempo Muerto succeeds at what many gothic novels fail to do: tackle multiple issues and give each one its fair due. In less than 300 pages, Caroline Hau manages to weave a compelling tale that feature land-grabbing and the abuse perpetuated by the landed class, how the rich maintain their power and wealth over generations, how the Philippines is bled dry of its skilled workforce who are forced to go abroad by economic circumstances, the desaparecidos, the blend of superstition and colonization that colors our past and influences our future, and how natural disasters regularly batter our country and yet somehow the government is never prepared for them.

The synopsis is misleading. Yes, on its surface, this is indeed the story of an OFW domestic worker and an Ilongga heiress searching for the same woman—the OFW's mother, who was once the heiress's yaya—after she has gone missing in a typhoon. (Funnily enough, as I write this review, Tropical Storm Enteng batters the northern half of the Philippines, with PAGASA predicting that it'll strengthen into a typhoon by Wednesday or Thursday.) But as you continue reading about their journey, you begin to realize that this microcosm of a story is reflective of the modern day Filipino experience as a whole. The Philippines is a nation that can never be truly free of its past, both colonial and otherwise, and that can mean both good and bad things. In the end, the one thing all Filipinos of all backgrounds can do is to never, ever forget where they come from, and what it took to get us here.

"The gifts of other people's stories become my gifts in turn, stories I will pass on to others, so that we may never forget."