Confessions of a Volcano

"Confessions is an important text because it explores a different psycho-social landscape, it works within a Buddhist sensibility, a Japanese aesthetic, and places the Filipino novel on unfamiliar grounds: an Asian tradition. Philippine tradition as a mixture of folk belief, Roman Catholicism, and Spanish and American influences seems to have developed apart from major Asian religious and philosophical traditions. It is this other Asian tradition that Daniel, the novel's protagonist, encounters in his visit to Japan. During his visit, he learns about Filipino contract workers, the Japayuki, the pleasure girls imported from other Asian countries. He witnesses the exploitation of these workers. At the same time and quite at odds with social reality, Daniel has an aesthetic pursuit: he is fascinated by the life and work of Osamu Dazai, an early twentieth-century Japanese writer. His fascination with Dazai, who committed suicide by throwing himself into the Tokyo River, leads him to recreate a Japanese writer's sensibility."--Tomas N. Santos in Philippine Studies