Siblinghood is an intriguing thing: there could hardly be anyone in the world closer to a person than their sibling, but at the same time, the same world and circumstances can look so differently from each sibling’s perspective. The winner of the 2019 National Book Award for fiction, The Betrayed by Filipina-American writer and translator Reine Arcache Melvin, explores this complex relationship with heart, following two sisters as they navigate life in the Philippines through a turbulent dictatorship.
The Betrayed is narrated from three points of view: the sisters, Lali and Pilar, and Lali’s partner, Arturo. The story opens with Lali and Pilar’s father, a Filipino politician who has been exiled to America due to his opposition to the incumbent dictator, is assassinated. Lali happens to be dating Arturo, the godson of the very same dictator, much to the anger of Pilar. However, Arturo’s connection with the government in power becomes crucial to the sisters’ and their mother’s survival, as they return to the Philippines and rebuild a life for themselves. More than that, Lali and Arturo’s marriage also proves to be a wise political move, appeasing those who once supported Lali’s father and giving Arturo a chance to make his debut in the political scene. Meanwhile, despite her disdain towards Lali’s strategic marriage to the enemy, Pilar grows attracted to Arturo.
Between the three points of view of the story, readers see how this love triangle is not purely a romantic one. Using distinctive and introspective voices for each of the main characters, Melvin fleshes out the moral conundrums that the sisters face in their personal pursuits for satisfaction in a world that has continuously denied them of it. Arturo is also battling his own ghosts, trying to make a name for himself and defending his family’s legacy, while also trying to be happy with the new family he has built. Each decision that the characters make is the result of a confluence of love, desire, envy, as well as the ghosts from each of their past.
At the same time, the world outside their homes is a violent and brutal one, with a precarious status quo and blurry definitions of right and wrong. When society continuously rewrites its verdicts, when one day a man can be exiled and the next day he can be a martyr, when the armed men who provide you with protection can swiftly turn around and behead another man in front of your eyes—you start to lose faith in humanity. Lali, Pilar, and Arturo are lost in their romance, but they are also lost in the turbulence of their society, in which it seems the only person they could trust is themself.
This complicates Lali and Pilar’s rivalry for Arturo even more as each sister struggles against the confines of their sisterhood and their conscience in their pursuit for personal happiness. But as troubled as this romantic rivalry is, Melvin’s poetic, reflective writing allows readers to delve into the heart of the matter: that love, not limited to but especially familial love, can be hurtful and confusing, but it is there. Pondering upon her actions, Lali comes to this conclusion: “Sometimes she thought there were underground rivers between people, flowing from one to another, and everything people felt and understood about each other, everything that mattered, came from these rivers.” Sometimes, a person’s loved ones do unthinkable things, and sometimes, it’s hard to see eye to eye with them. But to love them is perhaps to trust in that invisible, unspoken connection—to trust that you will see each other eventually, even though it may take time.
Melvin’s novel is an ambitious book that not only portrays the uncertain, heart-breaking experiences living in an unstable and violent society, but also explores a nuanced sisterhood tainted by romantic rivalry. As dramatic as it is, at the end of the day, The Betrayed is a story about human connection–its messiness as well as its beauty.
The Betrayed
by Reine Arcache Melvin
Europa Editions, $28.00
Thao To writes short stories, peruses newspaper archives in her free time, and is always between time zones. You can find her work in (mac)ro(mic), The Augment Review, and on Twitter @thao__to.
