F.

Sionil José or in full Francisco Sionil José (born December 3, 1924) is one of the most
widely-read Filipino writers in the English language. His novels and short stories depict the
social underpinnings of class struggles and colonialism in Filipino society. José's works - written
in English - have been translated into 22 languages,
including Korean, Indonesian, Russian, Latvian, Ukrainian and Dutch

Childhood

José was born in Rosales, Pangasinan, the setting of many of his stories. He spent his childhood
in Barrio Cabugawan, Rosales, where he first began to write. José was of Ilocano descent whose
family had migrated to Pangasinan before his birth. Fleeing poverty, his forefathers traveled
from Ilocos towards Cagayan Valley through the Santa Fe Trail. Like many migrant families,
they brought their lifetime possessions with them, including uprooted molave posts of their old
houses and their alsong, a stone mortar for pounding rice.

One of the greatest influences to José was his industrious mother who went out of her way to get
him the books he loved to read, while making sure her family did not go hungry despite of
poverty and landlessness. José started writing in grade school, at the time he started reading. In
the fifth grade, one of José’s teachers opened the school library to her students, which is how
José managed to read the novels of José Rizal, Willa Cather’s My
Antonia, Faulkner and Steinbeck. Reading about Basilio and Crispin in Rizal’s Noli Me
Tangere made the young José cry, because injustice was not an alien thing to him. When José
was five years old, his grandfather who was a soldier during the Philippine revolution, had once
tearfully showed him the land their family had once tilled but was taken away by
rich mestizo landlords who knew how to work the system against illiterates like his grandfather

Life as a writer

José attended the University of Santo Tomas after World War II, but dropped out and plunged
into writing and journalism in Manila. In subsequent years, he edited various literary and
journalistic publications, started a publishing house, and founded the Philippine branch of PEN,
an international organization for writers. José received numerous awards for his work. The
Pretenders is his most popular novel, which is the story of one man's alienation from his poor
background and the decadence of his wife's wealthy family.

Jose Rizal's life and writings profoundly influenced José's work. The five volume Rosales Saga,
in particular, employs and interrogates themes and characters from Rizal's work.

Throughout his career, José's writings espouse social justice and change to better the lives of
average Filipino families. He is one of the most critically acclaimed Filipino authors
internationally, although much underrated in his own country because of his authentic Filipino
English and his anti-elite views.

"Authors like myself choose the city as a setting for their fiction because the city itself
illustrates the progress or the sophistication that a particular country has achieved. Or,
 on the other hand, it might also reflect the kind of decay, both social and perhaps moral,
that has come upon a particular people."-F. Sionil José, BBC.com, July 30, 2003

Sionil José also owns Solidaridad Bookshop, which is on Padre Faura Street in Ermita, Manila.
The bookshop offers mostly hard-to-find books and Filipiniana reading materials. It is said to be
one of the favorite haunts of many local writers

Works

Rosales Saga novels

A five-novel series that spans three centuries of Philippine history, widely read around the world
and translated into 22 languages

Po-on (Dusk) (1984) ISBN 9718845100

The Pretenders (1962) ISBN 9718845003

My Brother, My Executioner (1973) ISBN 971884516X

Mass (December 31, 1974) ISBN 0868615722

Tree (1978) ISBN 9718845143

[edit] Original novels containing the Rosales Saga

Dusk (Po-on) (1993) ISBN 0375751440

Don Vicente (1980) ISBN 0375752439 - Tree and My Brother, My

Executioner combined in one book

The Samsons ISBN 0375752447- The Pretenders and Mass combined in one book

Other novels

Gagamba (The Spider Man) (1991) ISBN 971536105645

Viajero (1993) ISBN 971884504689

Sin (1994) ISBN 0517284464

Ben Singkol (2001) ISBN 9718845321

Ermita ISBN 9718845127

Vibora! (2007)
 Sherds (2008)

Muse and Balikbayan: Two Plays (2008)

Short Stories (with Introduction and Teaching Guide by Thelma B.

Kintanar) (2008)

Short story collection

The God Stealer and Other Short Stories (2001) ISBN 9718845356

Puppy Love and Other Short Stories (March 15, 1998) ISBN
9718845267 and ISBN 978-9718845264

Olvidon and Other Stories (1988) ISBN 9718845186

Platinum: Ten Filipino Stories (1983) ISBN 9718845224 (now out of print, its
stories are added to the new version of Olvidon and Other Stories)

Waywaya: Eleven Filipino Short Stories (1980) ISBN 999228840X

Asian PEN Anthology (as editor) (1966)

Short Story International (SSI): Tales by the World's Great Contemporary

Writers (Unabridged, Volume 13, Number 75) (co-author, 1989) ISBN
1555730426

Children's books

The Molave and The Orchid (November 2004)

Verses

Questions (1988)

Essays and non-fiction

In Search of the Word (De La Salle University Press, March 15, 1998) ISBN
9715552641 and ISBN 978-9715552646

We Filipinos: Our Moral Malaise, Our Heroic Heritage

Soba, Senbei and Shibuya: A Memoir of Post-War Japan ISBN

9718845313 and ISBN 978-9718845318

Heroes in the Attic, Termites in the Sala: Why We are Poor (2005)
 This I Believe: Gleanings from a Life in Literature (2006)

Literature and Liberation (co-author) (1988)

In translation

Po-on (Tagalog language, De La Salle University Press, 1998) ISBN

9715552676 and ISBN 978-9715552677

Anochecer (Littera) (Spanish language, Maeva, October 2003) ISBN

8495354950 and ISBN 978-8495354952

In anthologies

Tong (a short story from Brown River, White Ocean: An Anthology of Twentieth-
Century Philippine Literature in English by Luis Francia, Rutgers University
Press, August 1993) ISBN 0813519993 and ISBN 978-0813519999

In film documentaries

Francisco Sionil José - A Filipino Odyssey by Art Makosinski, 1996

Awards

Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature, and Creative

Communication Arts (1980)

National Artist Award for Literature (2001)

Pablo Neruda Centennial Award (2004)

Palanca Awards

Books and excerpts about F. Sionil José

Titles

Frankie Sionil José: A Tribute by Edwin Thuboo (editor) (Times Academic Press,
Singapore, January 2005) ISBN 9812104259 and ISBN 978-9812104250

Conversations with F. Sionil José by Miguel A. Bernard (editor) (Vera-Reyes

Publishing Inc., Philippines, 304 pages, 1991

The Ilocos: A Philippine Discovery by James Fallows, The Atlantic Monthly

magazine, Volume 267, No. 5, May 1991
 F. Sionil José and His Fiction by Alfredo T. Morales (Vera-Reyes Publishing
Inc., Philippines, 129 pages)

See also

Philippine literature in English

Literature of the Philippines

Philippine English

The Thomasites

Philinda Rand

Source:

Wikipedia

http://filipino-heritage-matters.tripod.com/id58.html