Few books have forewords that embrace its reader in an emotional chokehold, already sniffing through a mist of tears. This is such a book.

Veteran journalist Atom Araullo introduces his powerful collection of eight articles and accompanying photos as “stories that don’t shout, but linger.” These are long-term issues from all over the Philippines and Bangladesh, expertly analyzed and summarized by a journalist used to writing for busy readers with short attention spans. Written in economically brief yet hauntingly touching prose, A VIEW FROM THE GROUND is a book that explains much of the world around us today, “about who we are and what kind of country we want to be.” It is meant to shake the reader wide awake, to force our eyes open to harsh reality beyond the algorithm. And while Araullo is a most patient and kind Virgil to our Dante, the topics he has chosen make it no gentle trek through this man-made Purgatory.

A VIEW FROM THE GROUND is Atom Araullo’s first book published by his alma mater’s press, featuring true stories ranging from events reported in 2017 (the Rohingya Crisis) up to 2022 (the Online Sexual Exploitation of Children, or OSEC). By showing the human face of lapses in governance and empathy, he has made the desire for reform all the more urgent. 

The accompanying photos for each article carry as much as weight as the text that illuminates their context; without falling into the trap of poverty porn, the images show reality unvarnished, and yet always with as much light as there is shadow (Araullo chose to print them in black and white).

Whether he is dispelling misunderstanding about the unique kind of female circumcision in Basilan (something I hadn’t realized had been occurring in my country), or shedding light on the health crises in the provinces that Doctors to the Barrios try to alleviate, Araullo aims for the reader’s heart and hits a bullseye each time. By focusing on the small details in both photos and text (with my heart in my throat, I think of the photo of a four-year-old boy with an enlarged head full of cerebrospinal fluid lying down, his slim and young mother gazing tenderly at him), Araullo shatters the distance wrought by time and geography. He has brought us there, where the people he interviewed live and suffer, like we do. If reading is a kind of intimacy, Araullo brings his reader an intimate knowledge of our fellow Filipinos’ pain and frustration, hunger and yearning that our privilege may have sheltered us from knowing.

I had been reading the book while snacking, but at one point, I had to put down my coffee and merienda in shame when I read about my countrymen scavenging for food scraps or pagpag meant for animals. The performativity of book-and-coffee pairing in a nice coffee shop suddenly became an act of obscene privilege, forcing a reckoning with my own conscience.

And this is the first book that has made me do so. Because nothing in this book is nice, nor pretty. It is too raw, too important, for such first-world aesthetic concerns. 

In today’s world, where attention is the most valued commodity, where social media has everyone seeking glitz and glamour by climbing the social ladder, Araullo has warmly embraced the ground of reality. He gently takes his reader by the chin and forces us to look at what we have become inured to, leaving us forever changed. This book is a gift that allows readers to reflect on how we can help those we encounter between its pages.

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A VIEW FROM THE GROUND is available for purchase from the University of the Philippines Press for P500, as well as Shopee and Lazada for P520.00.

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ABOUT THE REVIEWER:

Gabi Francisco is a classically trained soprano who now performs in the English / Music / Drama classroom. On weekends she soaks in as much art and literature as she can, so she can pass her love for the arts on to her students. She passionately believes in the transformative role of arts education in nation-building. (IG: teacher.gabi.reads )