BOB ONG's MacArthur

BOB ONG's MacArthur {Hindi kaya 'to book review}

Posted by Matutay on Oct 31, '08 11:10 PM for everyone

I tried doing a book review on J.D. Salinger’s ‘The Catcher in the Rye’ but it felt so complicated. I was already done commenting about it like the writing style and all, but I just could not put those observations down on paper. I don’t even know how the hell Bob Ong’s name suddenly sprouted inside my coconut shell.

Anyway, it was barely a year ago when I got to know the story of these four juvenile delinquents namely Cyrus, Jim, Noel and Voltron. I read their every adventure to survive the jungles of drugs, crime, poverty and pollution. I can still remember how I almost finished the book because I wanted to skip some parts. It made want to puke a lot of times because of its content. I’m really hoping that it could be turned into a movie without sugar-coating the sense of realism that it gives us but I guess only an outrageous film maker would be able to pull it off.

It was as if Bob Ong was telling me face to face to close the goddamn book with every scene [especially the bathroom scenes]. The book was mocking me. “GO AHEAD! YOU CANNOT TAKE THIS! READ SOMETHING ELSE!” With that, I was challenged and I survived it. Months later, I finally figured out why it was so grotesque and I finally had an ample idea on what the author wants to tell. Yes, its realism and it’s not as if we don’t hear and read stories about drug addicts and robbers living in slums. It’s realism to the core. A dark core embedded with a very cynical humor. Why do you think I felt like the book was mocking me? Can you tell me? It’s because in reality lies the surreal. The truth behind the truth and the quest in finding more inwardly is Bob Ong’s challenge to us. He wants us to be able to look on the vicious cycle of decay around us that we refuse to look at because we all hide behind the ideal. Our very own privacy is also our very own desolate seclusion from the world. Come on, you cannot deny that we are ideal indeed. We always want to see things beautiful, nice and clean. Yes, on that perspective. But what do we really do to have that? We hide from the reality. We pretend it’s not there because it’s ugly. That ugliness, we must conquer it. But I know it’s hard these days when you have an ipod that muffles the sobs of those starving children around you, when you have so many parties to attend to, when you leave school anytime you please just because you would not mind paying for your tuition, when you ride on your SUV where you cannot even feel your contribution to the daily pollution, when you can shop ‘til you drop because you can afford so and what makes it even harder is because it’s not your life. It’s theirs. Why do you need to care?

Sarcasm aside, the book reveals to us what we are afraid to know and what we are afraid to see. Bob Ong is calling out to us who tends to hide behind society pages and magazines [which by the way, I think promotes low self-esteem] and worrying ourselves if we’re gonna be fashion victims. And that is not to say that it is wrong. Granted that I do some of those things too but I can firmly say that I do not shut my eyes and the rest of my senses to see the more important things around me. We can pry all we want about the lives of the celebrities and the latest fashion trends. We can complain how we cannot live without our cell phones. We must remember that while we worry about such small things, while we hold our heads high wearing our fancy shoes and clothes, there are people like Cyrus, Jim, Noel and Voltron, including all others who die weeping and in need of some serious helping.