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Review: The Human Zoo by Sabina Murray
Jun. 12th, 2021 07:37 pmThe Human Zoo by Sabina Murray is being release by Grove Atlantic, an independent publisher of literary fiction. It will be available on August 10 in the US.
(I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
The Human Zoo is not a tidy book- it's about a Fil-Am woman who travels back to the Philippines and avoids responsibility, while messy personal and societal politics play out around her. It reads as both a love letter to and criticism of the Philippines, specifically Manila, and even more specifically, the elite of Manila.
I'm not sure how to review this book, but here are my thoughts anyway, as best as I can put them together- Even though it felt, at times, that nothing actually happened in the story, it was nevertheless a compelling read, and full of complexity. Ting is simultaneously aware of her privilege and willingly blind to it. She's Fil-Am and has a lot of complicated feelings about it, especially as she considers staying in the Philippines while everyone assumes she will go back the the US. There is the whole Chet situation, which turns out to be even more complicated than it seemed. And through it all are scenes of everyday life for the well-off of Manila- drivers and trips and family and social cues.
Sabina Murray translates a few Tagalog words and concepts, but she doesn't translate everything, and she doesn't exoticize the Philippines. It's all presented as very normal, which seems to be becoming more popular in non-Western fiction, and I'm glad. I looked up what I wasn't familiar with, and I learned some new things.
Ting is not a proactive protagonist. I went back and forth as to whether I liked that, and I'm still not sure, but it needs to be said. She doesn't so much make things happen as have things happen around her. In the context of The Human Zoo, I think that worked, although I'm struggling to put together why I think it worked. It wasn't about her, even though it centered on her. It was more about Filipino society, and people who want to change it, and the system. She was the proxy by which those things could be explored, and her Fil-Am identity a way of making her simultaneously an outsider and insider. I worry this comes across as a criticism, but I think it was well done. However, I can see a lot of people getting frustrated with Ting, and the book in general, for that.
Gumboc seemed to be fairly transparently a Duterte expy. I can't speak for the accuracy of that, but the brashness and war on drugs and extrajudicial killings all seemed to point there.
Laird. I guessed part of where that storyline was going, but not the whole thing, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending in general.
As I said, this was not a tidy book, and for all its strong points, I feel somewhat unsatisfied. I don't need stories to be neatly tied up in a bow, but it feels like there was too much going on, and too much left open-ended. It was like real life, full of things that don't go anywhere and questions that are never answered. I'm sure some people will love it, but I wasn't the biggest fan of that element. That said, I'm interested in seeing what else Murray has written.
(I received an ARC of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.)
The Human Zoo is not a tidy book- it's about a Fil-Am woman who travels back to the Philippines and avoids responsibility, while messy personal and societal politics play out around her. It reads as both a love letter to and criticism of the Philippines, specifically Manila, and even more specifically, the elite of Manila.
I'm not sure how to review this book, but here are my thoughts anyway, as best as I can put them together- Even though it felt, at times, that nothing actually happened in the story, it was nevertheless a compelling read, and full of complexity. Ting is simultaneously aware of her privilege and willingly blind to it. She's Fil-Am and has a lot of complicated feelings about it, especially as she considers staying in the Philippines while everyone assumes she will go back the the US. There is the whole Chet situation, which turns out to be even more complicated than it seemed. And through it all are scenes of everyday life for the well-off of Manila- drivers and trips and family and social cues.
Sabina Murray translates a few Tagalog words and concepts, but she doesn't translate everything, and she doesn't exoticize the Philippines. It's all presented as very normal, which seems to be becoming more popular in non-Western fiction, and I'm glad. I looked up what I wasn't familiar with, and I learned some new things.
Ting is not a proactive protagonist. I went back and forth as to whether I liked that, and I'm still not sure, but it needs to be said. She doesn't so much make things happen as have things happen around her. In the context of The Human Zoo, I think that worked, although I'm struggling to put together why I think it worked. It wasn't about her, even though it centered on her. It was more about Filipino society, and people who want to change it, and the system. She was the proxy by which those things could be explored, and her Fil-Am identity a way of making her simultaneously an outsider and insider. I worry this comes across as a criticism, but I think it was well done. However, I can see a lot of people getting frustrated with Ting, and the book in general, for that.
Gumboc seemed to be fairly transparently a Duterte expy. I can't speak for the accuracy of that, but the brashness and war on drugs and extrajudicial killings all seemed to point there.
Laird. I guessed part of where that storyline was going, but not the whole thing, and I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'm not sure how I feel about the ending in general.
As I said, this was not a tidy book, and for all its strong points, I feel somewhat unsatisfied. I don't need stories to be neatly tied up in a bow, but it feels like there was too much going on, and too much left open-ended. It was like real life, full of things that don't go anywhere and questions that are never answered. I'm sure some people will love it, but I wasn't the biggest fan of that element. That said, I'm interested in seeing what else Murray has written.
