Bookworm of Gensan reviews: Arlyn dela Cruz's A Lifetime of Freedom

Arlyn dela Cruz signs my copy of her book during its launch in 2012.

The Review

Before I read her book, A Lifetime of Freedom, I only knew Arlyn dela Cruz based on the news coverage she did for ABS-CBN and the news about her kidnapping (11 years ago) and subsequent release. I was also aware of the controversies surrounding her scoops on previous kidnappings like those of the Burnhams' and her own kidnapping.


Arlyn's book strikes me as a very personal one. Her book recounts her relationships with her family, former husbands, and daughters. It also focuses on her working relationships with her media colleagues, information sources, the military, the rebel and kidnap-for-ransom groups.It was also an account of her relationship with herself -- her vacillations over decisions made in life, love and work, her relationship with God and the Iglesia ni Kristo.

A Lifetime of Freedom is part memoir, part thriller, and part confessional. In a world ruled by perceptions, Arlyn's book disperses these perceptions one by one. On the perception that she was untouchable by rebels and kidnap-for-ransom groups, she offers her own eyewitness account of being held as a hostage. On the perception that she was the girlfriend/wife/lover of Khadaffy Janjalani, she gives a very plain answer: he courted and proposed marriage to me, but I said NO. On the perception that she was complicit in the rebel movement and that she earned millions from her scoops on the hostage incidents, she said, as a journalist, she cultivated and protected her information sources and that, yes, she indeed earned some money from her scoops, but not in the millions it was bruited about (she confesses she did not even have enough savings to pay her monthly electricity bill and that when held hostage, she had only P2,000 in cash).

Her book is an eye-opener: she shows the reader that the kidnapping incident she fell victim to was not a cut-and-dried situation, that it was a life and death situation from one moment to the next, that it felt like she fell into a gray limbo not knowing whom to trust anymore. Towards the end of her ordeal, Arlyn realizes that "only one could save me -- that He alone and no one else could save me, God the Father, merciful and loving." Thus, she began her journey of renewed faith in God and the Iglesia ni Kristo.

Finally, A Lifetime of Freedom is also a book filled with gratitude. Gratitude for her media colleagues and friends who offered her a lifeline; for the opportunities that came her way as a media practitioner; for the kindness of strangers and some of her captors, for her daughters who were beacons of light for her in those moments when she close to death and danger. For Arlyn, Mindanao, specially Sulu, will remain near and dear to her heart, in spite of her harrowing experience there .

Disclosure: 

The author of this review is a cousin of the husband of Ediborah Yap, a nurse, who together with Martin Burnham, a missionary, were killed during the rescue mission for the Dos Palma hostages in 2002.

Bookworm of Gensan meets Arlyn dela Cruz

A LIFETIME OF FREEDOM by Ms. Arlyn Dela Cruz will be available at the Goodwill Pavilion, September 15, 2012
SMX Convention Center, Bay Area, Pasay City

Published by Katha Publishing Co., Inc.
Distributed by: Goodwill Bookstore, Bridges Bookstore and Goodwill Bookstore the HUB

The Meeting 

The wall post above came out on August 30, 2012 in the Facebook page of Goodwill Bookstore just in time when I was finalizing my itinerary for the Manila International Book Fair (MIBF). And so on Day 2 of the MIBF I went to the Goodwill Book Store booth to look for a copy of Arlyn dela Cruz's A Lifetime of Freedom.

I asked a staff where I could find and buy a copy of it. He said: We don't carry that title here, sir.

But Goodwill and Katha published it according to the poster I saw on Facebook, I said.

No sir, Goodwill did not publish it, he answered.

I countered, how can that be? Tomorrow it will be launched here at the MIBF!

He said: I'll ask somebody about it, sir.

Somebody, presumably a supervisor, came over and when told that I was looking for Arlyn's book, he pointed to a shelf far from us containing copies of it. I told the supervisor what the staff told me and gave the staff a lecture: "If you don't know, ask. Don't give an answer to something you don't know about" and "This is an international book fair, for God's sake!"

I went to pay for my copy at the cashier's and told them I regularly visit their Davao City branch. I also related to them the  incident earlier.

On Day 3, I took the escalator to the second floor of the SMX Convention Center where the book launch was held. The entire floor was swarming with Cosplay teens in various costumes.

 Bookworm of Gensan meets The Arlyn dela Cruz. Thanks to Susan Lara for snapping this pic.

I was an early bird at the function room where the book launch was being set up, but I saw a familiar face: Susan S. Lara,  a fellow writer I met during the 50th anniversary of the National Writers Workshop at Silliman University, Dumaguete City in summer of last year and is now its director. While Susan and I were exchanging pleasantries, Arlyn dela Cruz arrived without fanfare and went straight to Susan to greet her. I introduced myself to her and she exclaimed "So you're the journalist-writer from Gensan who bought my book yesterday! The cashier downstairs told me about you." She was such a warm person that I immediately felt at ease with her.

I told Arlyn that I was also a resource person for the DepEd campus journalism program. She related to me how she started as a campus journalist in high school and competed in the National Schools Press Conference.

As I was going to meet some of my fellow Filipino Book Bloggers that day, I told Arlyn that as much as I wanted to stay for the book launch, I couldn't do so and requested her if she could sign my copy before I went to my next appointment. She graciously signed the book and told me to keep in touch on Facebook.

My copy signed by Arlyn dela Cruz

Bookworm of Gensan collects Ray Bradbury

To celebrate Ray Bradbury's first death anniversary on June 5 this year, I am sharing with you my collection of his works here.

I found my first Ray Bradbury book in high school among bargain books in a local book store. It was The October Country which I still have in my collection. i can say that this book initiated me into reading horror and science fiction.

My very first Ray Bradbury book

The short stories scared the bejesus out of me. It was a compendium that widened the range of folklore and myths I've known so far. Soon thereafter, my dreams were peopled with the dwarf, the man upstairs, the mall assassin, the jar and Uncle Einar. My copy is a Ballantine paperback edition with cover and inside illustrations by Joe Mugnaini. Noting the sorry state of my copy, I bought a tradepaper back edition which restored the original introduction by Bradbury, May I Die Before My Voices and the same Mugnaini illustrations.

The second book in my collection introduced me to yet another author, Robert Bloch whose works like Psycho became favorites too.

An anthology edited by Bradbury

A box set of Bradbury's novels which I bought in a book store along Session Road in Baguio City.

In this book, I discovered Bradbury's long prose-poems.

One of his books which I bought from my allowance while studying at UP Diliman in the mid-70s.

This book changed forever my perception of books and reading.

One of my fave Bradbury books!

A rare find in a used book store! illustrated by Dave McKean!

Volume 1 of the graphic novel of selected Bradbury short stories. I bought this from Ebay.ph.

Volume 2 of the graphic novel of selected Bradbury short stories.

Anthology edited by Bradbury in which he selected various sci-fi short stories.

A play by Bradbury.

 

Bradbury published these books towards the end of the 20th century.

Anthology of short stories inspired by Bradbury.

Non-fiction book on Bradbury.

An unauthorized biography of Bradbury.