Edward Said wrote that the role of the intellectual is to present altenative narratives on history other than those provided by the "combatants" who claim entitlement to official memory and national identity-who propagate " heroic anthems sung in order to sweep all before them." In this fearlessly intellectual novel, Gina Apostol takes on the keepers of official memory and creates a new, atonal anthem that defies single ownership and, in fact, can only be performed by the many- by multiple voices in multiple readings Raymundo Mata, appropriately blind, exists in a parallel universe where perception is always in question, and memory and the Filipino identity are turned inside out.-Eric Gamalinda