The book is written in a loose chronology, and moves back and forth between Doming Aquinaldo’s story and Rue Caldwell’s, occasionally overlapping or retracing one moment in time from the other’s perspective or repeating a line that was referred to earlier in order to retell that event in greater detail later on. But, it does not feel disjointed. Rather, the story unfolds organically, as if told from the depths of people’s memories, which in fact, is a leitmotif running through Baby Jesus Pawn Shop. Orth begins her novel with two epigraphs. One from Akiro Kurosawa: “We all want to forget something, and so we create stories.” The other from Milan Kundera that says, “Forgetting: absolute solace and absolute injustice.” The two are fitting because Orth has created a story about finding solace in a world that is absolutely unjust.

While the tone at times seems to be in a similar vein to an investigative journalist, it is also intimate and engaging enough to capture a person’s desire for love, despair at discovering the torture, murder, and corruption going on every single day outside one’s home, and a vengeful anger so powerful that it struggles against one’s higher ideals for country and humanity. Orth has the ability to weave history, myth, politics, religion, class consciousness, and respect for nature and the natural order together while never losing sight of the fact that she is writing a fictitious novel, which is meant to entertain the reader. Her style is unique and captivating – I read the entire 381-page book in one sitting because I absolutely could not put it down…

For the full review, see: http://community.livejournal.com/asianamlitfans/63090.html