Vicky Pinpin-FeinsteinA Thousand Little Deaths: Growing Up Under Martial Law in the Philippines

This is an incredible story that is very well told, though difficult to read in some places - not because it is not well written, which it is, but because the anguish and terror and fear that she describes is so heartrending. It could not have been easy for the author to write about the mental and physical pain that has marked her life as a result of her traumatic experience as a teenager under President Marcos' martial law regime. It is a great gift to the reader that she is able to write about her life with so much feeling - and objectivity. Reading this short book significantly reduced my level of ignorance about the Marcos regime and how much death and destruction it caused. The author's assessment of the character of her countrymen and the influences that made it what it is was also fascinating. I highly recommend this book.

Although the book is titled “A Thousand Little Deaths” what emanates from each page is a multitude of shimmering strands of hope. The author imbues her story of her unjust incarceration as an adolescent with resilience and honesty. As much as she describes the fear, anguish, and shame she felt when incarcerated as a political prisoner as a teenager, (with no charges ever being brought against her), what stays in the reader’s mind is her love of family, of learning and literature, of her grandmother’s cooking and the enjoyment of local feast days. Most of all, one senses her deep and abiding love of her homeland, her empathy with its poorest people, and her outrage at what harm is being perpetrated on the country by those who are meant to protect it.The author is skilled in drawing the reader in to taste the local delicacies, to feel the texture of the dress her mother makes for St Joseph’s Day, smell the radiant flowers and lush green vegetation of her native land. She is also adept in making the reader shiver at the darker side of her homeland --- the corpses dumped by the road, the stone-faced soldiers who regularly monitor her weekly “sign-in” at the prison camp, the brazen duplicitousness of the government of the day.In addition to these evocative descriptions, she is fearless in exposing her own psyche. She frets over being so traumatized when she was not physically tortured, until finally allowing herself to understand that the psychological terror and social condemnation she endured cut as deep as any rope or blade, which permits the road to healing to begin in earnest.One is brought to mind of Julia Alvarez’s “In the Time of the Butterflies”, although happily this young idealist lived to tell the tale. And what a tale it is. Highly recommended.

Such a courageous writing, but for the reader, a true glimpse of Philippine history from a personal perspective. Thank you Vicky Pin-Pin.

This book is riveting. It's only $6.99 as a Kindle download. Imagine being a convent schoolgirl of 15, and being taken away by military and being made a political prisoner. We cannot forget these stories. This was the dark horrible side of martial law that is too ugly to look at so people tell themselves stories about how it wasn't so bad and so forth.