Two Navels?

The Woman Who Had Two Navels by Nick Joaquin...

Some inspirational, scrupulous and significant lines in the novel:

"Politics in the Philippines, Mr. Monson, is ninety percent scandal mongering" said by Macho Escobar

" She (Concha Vidal) was apparently a good wife and a devoted mother, but people regarded her as a lecherous woman and (since no one could really pin a thing on her) a sly one"

"But I don't dress up for them, I dress up for God. I'm still trying to catch his eye... But I'm a woman Father...and I'm sure God meant us to be beautiful, like roses and peacocks and diamonds. He must love that sort of thing or he wouldn't have troubled to create such a lot of them. I don't understand why you men won't honor the labors of women to make themselves lovely. Beauty is a virtue too-or, anyway, a responsibility. A rose that was ugly had disobeyed God. And I'm sure I'm just as serious in being beautiful as a rose is-or as yourself, Father, in being holy. It would be criminal of a woman, of course, to use her beauty for unholy ends-but even that isn't the great sin. The great sin would be for her to think that God didn't care whether she was beautiful or not. That would be insulting the Holy Ghost, that would be the unforgivable sin. And I have not yet committed it" - Concha Vidal

"I can't see Connie unless she comes to me first...Oh Father, can we really end up hating the people for whom we have made sacrifices?" - Concha Vidal

"There's no peace in a dream-world...because dream-worlds don't last" - Father Tony Monson

"Why should I pity you, Mother?... I'm not the fruit of your pity. I'm your vanity and your malice and your cruelty and your lust. I'm the fruit of all the evil you carry in you. That was what you bore when you bore me. And I am what you'll have to swallow until you die" - Connie Escobar

"We are two women who have only our men in common and you have set yourself up as my judge...Connie; you don't want to be saved. It's you that's the coward and the cheat and the liar and though you go around playing the poor betrayed innocent it is we who are your victims, it is we you have been betraying ever since you found our world too much for you. And you haven't missed a chance, Connie - you've never missed a chance to show us up...because you wanted all the world to know what they were saying" - Concha Vidal

"I want to be standing...I become afraid when I'm sitting down or lying down. Please let me stand here a moment with you, Father. I'm not so afraid when I'm standing up" - Concha Vidal

"Why shouldn't people delude themselves? Why shouldn't they live in dream-worlds? What's so wonderful about reality that people should be obliged to face it?" - Connie Escobar

"Well, I never knew that adultery was just another name for salvation. Remind me to try it sometime. And if adultery, why not murder-why not all the crimes there are?" - Rita Lopez

"The bigger the crime, the deeper the need for salvation, and the more heroic the repentance. Without sin there can be no repentance-and, therefore, no upheaval or transfiguration or growth of the spirit" - Father Tony Monson
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This is a story about a stubborn and relentless rich girl, Connie Escobar...
Actually, she doesn't have two navels (it's really impossible), it only portray her childishness, lies and petty insights about life.
The story's setting was in Hong Kong and the era after war (1940's or 1950's). It has a few characters.
Like Rizal's novels, Joaquin focused on the characters' personalities and stories, that's why the novel has some flashbacks.