Smaller and Smaller Circles (2002) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit

Write a ridiculously simplified synopsis.

Characters/People edit see section history

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• Father Agusto Saenz: Forensic anthropologist and member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Mentor to Father Jerome Lucero. Likes rock music.
• Father Jerome Lucero: Forensic anthropologist and member of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits). Mentee to Father Jerome Lucero. THrows up a lot.
• Joanna Bonifacio: A broadcast journalist and one-woman investigator. Sleeps with a married man.
• Atty. Benjamin Arcinas: Lawyer and head of the NBI team investigating the murders
• Father Emil: Parish priest of Payatas, Quezon City, site of the murders.
• Ading Rustia: SOCO lower-level supervisor; having worked with Father Saenz before, the priest considers him one of the finest crime scene investigators in the country.
• Alex Carlos: Mild-mannered and paranoid dentist.
• Doc. Alice Panganiban: community health officer, head of the community health center that services the Payatas area
• Manang Delia: The Saenz family housekeeper.
• Wally Soler: He is Joanna's boss. He is the executive producer for First Person. He is a tall chunky man with salt-and-pepper hair, square face lined in all directions, small, shrewd eyes.
• Leo: He is the gap-toothed camera man of Joanna.
• Carding: He is a boy in his early twenties. He is the suspect Arcinas think that did all the killings in Payatas.
• Dodong: He has a throbbing toothache removed the day he was killed. He is the seventh victim.
• Malou: She is the secretary of Atty. Arcinas.
• Cesar Mariano: He is the councilor. He is a small man, an architect by profession, fairly well-to-do. His short coarse hair stands stiffly like the bristles of a much-used toothbrush, and his round, deeply cupped ears seem to billow out at the sides of his head like tiny sails.
• Tato Ampil: He is Saenz's young autopsy assistant, a med-school dropout who decided in his fourth year that he really wanted to be a musician of some sort, although after nearly two years he hasn't quite figured out what sort yet.
• Edith Solis: She is the mother of Noel who have given birth to him at the age of fifteen. She was working for a carinderia and fell in love with a neespaper boy named Joel.
• Noel Solis: He is one of the victims of the Payatas killings.
• Binang: She is the mother of six children including his youngest, Lino, whom she conceived at the age of fifty-four.
• Edong: He is Binang's husband who works as a plumber only when he is sober.
• Lino Alcaraz: He is one of the victims of the Payatas killings.
• Lolita Bansuy: She washes clothes and sells food for a living. She is a short, chubby, jovial woman who has a constant smile on her face, and although she is widely acknowledged to be a busybody few people can resist her good-natured jibes and infectious laugh. She is the mother of Enteng.
• Enteng Bansuy: He is a thirteen-year-old boy who went around with a bad, glue-sniffing crowd of mostly older boys, often acted as their lookout during burglaries. He is one of the victims of the Payatas killings.
• Toyang Bailon: She is the Clerk II at human resources in the Quezon City Hall.
• Flora Carlos: She is the mother of Alex.
• Mr. Carlos: He is the father of Alex.
• Emong Ricafrente: He has a vulcanizing shop along Don Mariano Marcus Avenue. He is a small man wiyh large, callused hands.
• Dennis: He is the last victim of the Payatas killer.

Quotes edit see section history

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• “I can feel so many eyes watching me, watching me.”

• “…serial killing is a far more prevalent phenomenon in the country than the police have the capability or the inclination to detect.”

• “I can feel them. Scurrying in circles around me, smaller and smaller circles like rats around a crust of bread...waiting for the right moment.”

• “I. Didn't. Want. It.”

• “A man who has depths in his shame meets his destiny and his delicate decisions upon paths which few ever reach, and with regard to the existence of which his nearest and most intimate friends may be ignorant; his mortal danger conceals itself from their eyes, and equally so his regained security. Such a hidden nature, which instinctively employs speech for silence and concealment, and is inexhaustible in evasion of communication, desires and insists that a mask of himself shall occupy his place in the hearts and heads of his friends; and supposing he does not desire it, his eyes will some day be opened to the fact that there is nevertheless a mask of him there--and that it is well to be so.”

  Friedrich Nietzsche

• “But Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart.”

  Luke 2:19

• “I and the public knowWhat all schoolchildren learn,Those to whom evil is doneDo evil in return.”

  W.H. Auden

• “Death arrives among all the soundlike a shoe with no foot in it, like a suit with no man it,comes and shouts with no mouth, with no tongue, with no throat.Nevertheless its step can be heardand its clothing makes a hushed sound, like a tree.”

  Pablo Neruda

• “He felt himself facing something ungraspable.”

  William Golding, Lord of the Flies

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Payatas: Not as much a barangay (district) in Quezon City as it is a large landfill teeming with scavengers. Infamous for epic landslides, it has been immortalized in the book as a place where serial killings take place.

Organizations edit see section history

• National Bureau of Investigation: Add a description of this organization.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Errata edit see section history

1. Error at P.27: As you can see, Ben, we believe the killing take place at the end of the first weekof every month. ..."

*Correction: "As you can see, Ben, we believe the killing take place at the end of the first weekof every month. ..."

2. Error at P.101: Of Alejandro Benitez-Carlos, Jr., the clinic's dentist, SHE had almost nothing to say, apart from the fact that he was thirty-four, a good worker, single and living alone in an apartment of Quezon City.

*Correction: Of Alejandro Benitez-Carlos, Jr., the clinic's dentist, HE had almost nothing to say, apart from the fact that he was thirty-four, a good worker, single and living alone in an apartment of Quezon City.

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. F. H. Batacan (Author)

Other Contributors:

1. Tony D. Igcalinos (Designer) - Cover designer
2. Migs Villanueva (Artist) - Cover artwork
3. University of the Philippines Press (Publisher)
4. Veni L. Ilowa (Designer) - Book designer

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature (1999: English Novel)
• Manila Critics Circle National Book Award (2002: Fiction)
• Madrigal-Gonzales Best First Book Award (2003)

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Mystery & Thrillers › Mystery
• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › Asian