Ninotchka Rosca's second novel is much overlooked and often dismissed as an allegory of the rise to power of the Marcoses of the Philippines. But embedded in this compact quick read is the descent into the madness and grimness that is Filipino politics: how it binds a severed nation, and how this binding force causes more alienation and severing among the people in the land. To read it as a magical realist story based on the Marcoses is to do a shallow reading. The more engaging read is to view it as the story of Teresa Tikluptuhod, the Basbas Twins' aide, who later becomes the unwilling observer of the consequences of Hector and Katrina's actions, but is powerless against them.