The Blue Afternoon

Plot introduction

It is Los Angeles 1936. Kay Fischer is a young, ambitious architect who is shadowed by a mysterious stranger claiming to be her father. Within weeks of their first encounter, Kay will join him for an extraordinary journey into the old man's past, initially in search of a murderer, but finally in celebration of a glorious, undying love.

Plot summary

Los Angeles, 1936

Kay Fischer is an architect who has recently been defrauded by her ex-partner, Eric Meyersen. As such, she is trying to start her architectural practice again on her own. She still keeps in contact with Philip, her ex-husband and an unsuccessful Hollywood script writer, from whom she got divorced after the death of their baby son who had a hole in his heart. Kay learns that an old man has been enquiring about her and she is confronted by a Dr Salvador Carriscant who tells her that he is her father. Thinking him a crank, she asks her mother, Annaliese Leys, more questions about her real father, Hugh Paget, an Englishman, missionary and teacher who died in a fire in German New Guinea in 1903.

Carriscant tells his daughter that he wants her to find a man called Paton Bobby in connection with a murder that happened in the distant past. Through a contact of Philip's, they track him down at his ranch south of Santa Fe. They take a journey together to visit him and Kay is astounded by the reaction of both men when they are re-united but Carriscant tells her very little about what is discussed. However, he does show her an old photograph taken at the Aishlie Tennis Cup, and says that he needs to find the woman in it – the wife of an embassy official - who is now living in Lisbon, Portugal and states that he would like her to go with him to try to locate her. Kay, in the meantime, is distracted by the sale of the house she has finished building; it was to be hers but she has to sell it to help keep her company afloat. She shows a Mrs Luard Turner around it and the sale is completed. She also takes her mother to Carriscant's boarding house, telling her she believes him to be a private detective hired by Meynard, and her mother states she has never seen him before although Kay can tell she is lying by her apparent lack of interest in who he is. She then visits a new site she is planning to develop with her foreman, Larry Rugola, and on the way back they drop in on 2265 Micheltorreno, only to find it being knocked down by Eric Meyersen, who tells Kay that they are going to build a very similar house there but with a different architect.

Feeling down in the dumps, Kay decides to take up her 'father's' offer of the trip to Lisbon - vital for him as he does not have the finances to pay for the trip. However, in return her father has to tell her all about his family and the next part of the book is about his life in Manila in the Philippines. Carriscant is the son of Archibald Carriscant, a Scotsman and railway engineer, who married Juliana, the daughter of a local mestizo landowner. After studying medicine at Glasgow University, during which time Archibald died, their son Salvador returned to Manila to set up his practice in 1897.

Manila, 1902

Dr Salvador Carriscant becomes the most celebrated surgeon in the Philippines, working at the San Jeronimo Hospital in Manila. However, he is in a strong rivalry with the hospital's director, Dr Cruz, who is totally against the new surgical methods of Listerism introduced by Salvador, preferring to work in Salvador's eyes as 'an antediluvian sawbones cum sinister circus performer'. Salvador's work is made easier because of his highly trained Filipino anesthetist, Pantaleon Quiroga, who assists him in every operation at San Jeronimo. Quiroga is also an aeroplane enthusiast; he has built and housed one in his newly built 'nipa' barn and shows it one day to Carriscant. The surgeon is paid a surprise visit by Paton Bobby, Chief of Constabulary and asked to accompany him to examine the dead body of a young American marine called Ephraim Ward. The corpse is taken by them to the hospital mortuary and put on ice. In the meantime, Salvador returns home to his wife, Annaliese, with whom he has fallen out of love and not had sex with for a whole year. The next day, he discovers that the 'peninsularo' Dr Isidro Cruz has removed the body and so he and Bobby visit the Dr's house near the small village of Flores to recover. He tells them he has it owing to lack of room in the hospital morgue and both men are disgusted by the unhygienic conditions of the Spaniard's domestic operating theatre.

Carriscant decides to take a whore in one of the brothels in Gardenia Street in the Sampaloc district. However, he meets the drunk American military doctor, Wieland, in the Ice-Cream Parlor and has to tell a lie about visiting his cook’s mother for her hernia. He tries to leave but is trapped in the backyard of the whorehouse. Eventually, he scrambles over the wall and on his way back home in the early hours of the morning is nearly killed by a stray arrow. He remonstrates with the American woman doing target practice and finds he is bowled over by her looks. He asks Bobby who she might be, saying his wife met her at a church function, and the policeman thinks it is the Headmistress of the Gerlinger School. Carriscant goes to the school and is told by the nuns she is walking at the Luneta where the islanders parade in the evening. He spots her and finds an opportunity to speak to her but she rebuffs him, stating that her name is not Rudolfa as he presumes – one of the men calls her Delphine and, seeing that there might be some trouble, Carriscant is obliged to leave.

Paton Bobby comes to see Carriscant as another body has been found – this time a soldier called Corporal Maximilian Braun, and Carriscant also meets a young American Colonel called Sieverance. Salvador examines the body and notes that the heart has been removed. They then visit Governor Taft’s office in the Malacanan Palace to update him on the situation and Carriscant gives him his negative opinion about Dr Wieland’s abilities. Carriscant is hauled before Cruz and Wieland for a dressing down and a fight ensues between the three men whose enmity has now spilled over. The doctor is then summoned by a note to Jepson Sieverance’s house and here he re-encounters Delphine, the Colonel’s wife who is suffering from acute appendicitis. Cruz and Wieland appear to examine her but Carriscant persuades her to ignore their misinformed medical opinions and she is taken to San Jeronimo where he successfully performs an operation on her, also thrilled to be able to see and touch her naked body whilst she is under an anaesthetic.

Lisbon, 1936

The ending consists of Carriscant and Kay arriving in Lisbon and the reader will have to read the story to find out if their search for the mystery woman is successful and why Carriscant is looking for her.

Historical background to the novel

U.S. troops invaded Manila in 1898 and waged war with the Spaniards and Filipinos in the Spanish–American War and the Philippine–American War. Following the defeat of Spain, U.S. forces took control of the city and the islands in one of the most brutal and forgotten chapters of Philippine American history. The United States Navy, under Admiral George Dewey, defeated the Spanish squadron in the Battle of Manila Bay on May 1, 1898. Admiral Dewey testified that, after the battle, the Spanish Governor wished to surrender to the Americans rather than the Filipinos, whom he feared.

Having just won their independence from Spain, the Filipinos were fiercely opposed to once again being occupied. Emilio Aguinaldo proclaimed the First Philippine Republic at the Malolos Congress and had begun to build the foundations for an independent nation. Admiral Dewey, however, claimed he never recognized the Philippine Republic, as he did not have the authority to do so and did not consider it an organized government. War broke out between the Filipinos and the Americans on February 4, 1899, when an American soldier shot and killed a Filipino in Manila. The Americans pursued the retreating Filipino forces province by province, until General Emilio Aguinaldo (then president of the Republic) surrendered in Palanan, Isabela, on March 23, 1901.

The American high command at that time was headed by Elwell Stephen Otis who ordered invasion and occupation. By that time the Filipino troops had taken classic defensive positions around Manila to attempt to keep them out. However, the poorly armed, ill-trained soldiers could not compete with the superior firepower of the Americans. They were severely beaten; so much so that it has been reported that the dead were used as breastworks. Under the command of Aguinaldo, the Filipinos began a guerrilla campaign to resist the new occupiers. This campaign had limited success in the early days following the initial occupation of the Americans although any successes were short-lived. The replacement of Otis by General Arthur MacArthur Jr. began an extensive campaign to suppress the local population. This campaign by the United States has been reported as being a particularly bloody suppression with wild reports of commanders ordering the murder of everyone over 10-years-old. Specific mention of these reprisals is made in The Blue Afternoon.

In the Treaty of Paris (1898), Spain handed over the Philippines to the United States of America for US$20,000,000. This ended 333 years of Spanish rule in the islands. Manila continued under an American military government until civil government was established for the city on July 31, 1901. The Philippine–American War continued through 1903 at the cost of many lives both in Manila and elsewhere in the Islands. In 1935, the United States government committed itself to granting the Philippines independence after a ten-year transition, a period that was extended by one year due to World War II.