Atty. Frank Chavez will officially launch on October 26, 2009 his first novel, a work of fiction woven around verified and verifiable facts, entitled “Blighted”. The book consists of 40 chapters and 330 pages.About the Book
Amidst the confounding social malaise that grips a country beset by inequity and an inordinate tolerance for corruption, the lives of three young Filipinos intersect in a twist of fate.
Their divergent backgrounds and class associations provoke nagging questions on morality, with the core narrative embroiling a spectrum of Philippine society.From unimaginable conditions of squalor to swank villas that define the matrix of greed, political patronage, and quid pro quo accommodation, the conflict rages between noble conviction and metastasized greed, ultimately between good and evil.
Stripped to the bone, this account of a high-profile crime and consequent legal action is interspersed with the novel's didactic form, with the moral instruction serving as the ulterior authorial motive. It is also a scathing report on the sordid downfall of the current administration, making this book as topical as today's troubling headlines.
Despite the present-day morass, the courage of a few good men spells a nation's true birthright: to transform a blighted culture to one of brimming hope for the future.
What They say about the Book
This is a riveting account of the Filipino nation’s dysfunctional institutions. Frank Chavez draws from his long experience as a trial lawyer and former Solicitor General to produce a compelling portrait of decadence in our time. In measured prose, he weaves strands of real events into the filter of satirical fiction. The composite corrupt characters he depicts are all recognizable. We can smell their rot on every page. But heroes come forward when we least expect them. And so, rather than endorse an attitude of knowing cynicism, the author ends his story on a note of sheer faith in new beginnings: This blighted nation can be made whole again.
—Randy David
Professor of Sociology, University of the Philippines
Like one of his characters, described as “Iron Man, Superman and Batman packaged into one,” Frank Chavez is legal eagle, social gadfly, and now newbie litterateur rolled into one. His first novel is a literary cocktail of documentary realism, investigative journalism, political satire, activist teach-in, law-school lecture, travelogue trivia, historical tidbits, and courtroom drama, mixing memory and desire, desperation and dreams. It is at the same time (if one may be allowed to mix metaphors) an indictment penned by a justice leaguer contemplating a landscape perpetually blighted by corruption and injustice.
* Pete Lacaba
Writer, editor, poet, screenwriter, journalist and translator
It is at a blighted hotel that we are introduced to the book’s first blighted characters, a judge and a lawyer who transact their corrupt deal in the toilet. The author Frank Chavez sure gets right to where the dirt is. And he digs up dirt again and again to chronicle the pervasive culture of corruption in all departments of the national and local governments, the corporate world down to the grassroots and the family.
Chavez minces no words to denounce scandal after scandal under the Arroyo administration. This is a monumental reference book for a detailed summary of alleged massive corruption under the present dispensation.
Only in the Philippines !
Using story-telling tools and Socratic, didactic devices, the narrative is as timely as today’s headlines and as timeless as the values of clean, disciplined honest government for, by and of the people.
—Letty Jimenez Magsanoc
Editor-in-Chief, Philippine Daily Inquirer
Where to Buy the Book?
After the book launching, copies of Blighted will be made available nationwide, at National Book Store, Power Books, Fully Booked, Filipinas Heritage Library and Chavez Miranda Aseoche Law Offices.
Proceeds will go to the UP-PGH and the Rotary Club of Makati’s projects (Bantay Bata and Gawad Kalinga)
For more information, log on to website: FRANK CHAVEZ - Associates Law Office | CMA-Law.net
I was able to buy the book and the book was very nice..... I love the way how Mr. Chavez told the story... It was very meaningful. this is the kind of book that every Filipino must read.... Kudos to Mr. Chavez
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