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A review by donfoolery
American Son by Brian Ascalon Roley
3.0
This gets a three out of five, mostly because what Roley did with the narrative structure didn't work for me. Everything else seemed to work, especially the characterizations. Yes, I've heard the criticisms of Roley and other writers who "dare" to show Filipinos in a "bad light." That just isn't the case here. One may not particularly like the picture Roley paints of the Filpinos in the novel, but that's the key. He's writing about these particular Filipinos, characters with a specific backstory that causes them to act in certain ways--three-dimensional ways.
Still, were I not so familiar with the Young Fil-Am Search for Identity (TM), I might have spent the last third of the novel going, "WTH?" The mildly-shocking ending was disconnected from the story arc Roley set up for the protagonist Gabe in the first two-thirds.
Yet the ending did have the ring of truth because sometimes in life, and especially in the Filipino family dynamic, the consequences one faces for their actions aren't always physical and direct. Sometimes, they're deeply emotional and self-imposed, becoming a part of one's psychic landscape, which in turn shapes future behavior, for good or for ill.
Still, were I not so familiar with the Young Fil-Am Search for Identity (TM), I might have spent the last third of the novel going, "WTH?" The mildly-shocking ending was disconnected from the story arc Roley set up for the protagonist Gabe in the first two-thirds.
Yet the ending did have the ring of truth because sometimes in life, and especially in the Filipino family dynamic, the consequences one faces for their actions aren't always physical and direct. Sometimes, they're deeply emotional and self-imposed, becoming a part of one's psychic landscape, which in turn shapes future behavior, for good or for ill.