Bob Ong's Macarthur

I’ve just finished reading Bob Ong’s sixth opus, the poignant ‘Macarthur’. This is the first book by Bob Ong I’ve read, so I can’t review it within the context of his other books, although it certainly made me want to explore his earlier and more popular works.

Macarthur is a novella – Ong’s first stab at fiction, if my research is correct. It tells the story of four friends, their lost youth, and their struggles amidst the shocking world of poverty and corruption they are born into. As a work of gritty realism, Ong doesn’t mince words describing the filth and squalor of his characters' environment and the situations they find themselves in. The language is vulgar as vulgar can be, though peppered liberally with humor.

In case you don’t know, ‘macarthur’ is a street slang term that refers to feces that keeps bubbling up no matter how many times it is flushed, as if defiantly saying ‘I shall return’.

Macarthur unflinchingly reveals the ugly and sordid details of the ills of our society: poverty, drugs, corruption and abuse – and how these ills have polluted our youth. But the book also provides an intimate glimpse into the hearts and souls of the characters through the use of both humorous and tragic situations. And one can't help but empathize with them, vicariously feeling their laughter, pain, sadness, terror, remorse and hope.

No matter how society has seemingly hardened them outwardly, deep inside they are not unlike any other youth: weak, consumed with fear and uncertainty, desperately longing for anyone to care. And yet no matter how the ills of society has defiled and polluted them and molded them into 'monsters', there is still a faint glimmer of hope. Just like the proverbial ‘macarthur’, even the dregs of society can defiantly refuse to succumb to the cesspool they have been condemned into by the same society that corrupted and wasted them.

If only we start to care and try to correct our collective mistakes as a society. This seems to be a daunting task and it may be a long way before we can succeed. But like all journeys, everything begins with one small step. If we start with ourselves, with our families, with our immediate community, maybe little by little we can eventually change our society for the better. For the youth, there are a few lines in the book that underscores the importance of education. For the rest of us, the entire book reminds us of the realities that many of us choose to ignore.

Read Bob Ong's Macarthur. :-)

Photo credits: Ron Ryan Aviles and Sidney Snoeck
Thanks to my colleague Yona for lending me her copy