It is indeed with wisdom and dexterity that Go intertwines the stories of three periods of Lito’s life ... He may not find the precise answer, but his quest for it, in Go’s elegant and incisive prose, is perpetually captivating.
The two narrative strands weave together to form a kind of meditation on love and redemption, personal and national grief, and fathers and sons forsaken and restored ... We are asked to believe that Lito can craft such an intricate structure with poetic, sophisticated language. For a self-educated man, he has an impressive understanding of literary tropes... and his letters often go places letters rarely do in recapturing dialogue and scene. But these are mere fillips; forgive one, forgive all. I resisted for a long time, but the charming Lito and Cory won me over ... Go writes like a redemptive angel.
There is something almost Kierkegaard-ian in the way Go weaves together fictional narrative and nuanced explorations of forgiveness, redemption, guilt, and commitment to one’s ideals. His attention to historical detail breathes life into the novel’s philosophical inquiry, which avoids didacticism while striking at the heart of some of the most pressing questions of the human condition. Despite its often dramatic subject matter, Go’s narrative burns slowly, gracing the novel with an understated yet profound power.
