To be honest, I picked "My Brother, My Executioner" by F. Sionil Jose because it was one of the shorter books on the syllabus and cheaper than the rest of the books. I could have chosen Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal but then again, I wanted to read something new (but short).
             When I picked up a copy at Powerbooks, I turned to the back to get an idea on what the story was about. After reading it, I rolled my eyes and figured that it would be the usual rich versus poor thing with the poor eventually getting screwed in the end. In truth, I expected it to be nothing more than a long, boring read.
             To give the story a general description, it was all about conflict. From the title itself, I guess you could already deduce that. It was rich versus poor. Poor land owners versus rich land grabbers. The educated versus the masses. Honest poor versus the unscrupulous rich. The oppressors versus the oppressed. The corrupt government versus the rebels fighting for a cause. And finally, it boiled down to brother versus brother. All of them are conventional themes, in truth.
             But what makes this book different is that F. Sionil modified the overused theme and turned it into something unconventional. If you're going to notice something, almost all the books with this theme portrays the poor people as the good guys and all the rich and corrupt politicians as all evil. Unbending. Totally sadistic and merciless. Ruthless. The portrayals are so one-sided that it makes you just want to believe that all politicians are corrupt and evil, there's something really wrong with the government, and that all poor people are noble and martyrs and unsung heroes. And although that may reflect what we see in our current government, it's still not necessarily the case.
             Anyway, going back, what makes this story different from the rest is the main character, Luis Asperri. Sionil Jose's character is the son of a rich man, Don Vicente Asperri, a S...