Well, here I go again, disturbing you with my usual "book review". I have to put the two words in quotes because I never follow standards. But I tried posting this review on the FLIPS and requested other reviews. I got one good response. If only I'd be permitted to post that review here. It's so difficult nawadays to post articles from the web. Copyright must always be respected. So - this web site remains a one-man show. I judge books based on my personal feelings, not really looking at structure and language. I simply react to them.
As I am now thinking more about "American Son", I am realizing that I don't really know Fil-Am culture and thinking.
Also, my review is based on my feelings as a native Filipino who never experienced what bi-racial kids experienced. Their struggles are different from mine. Their perception of things is different from mine.
I therefore ask you dear readers not to pre-judge this book based on "my feelings". It is a good book, make no mistake about that, it enables us to enter the mind of our Fil-Am (bi-racial) kids, (at least some of them). I would really appreciate it if you could also share your reactions to it.
I never believe in making a "correct" book review. Just like art, it does not have a specific measure.
Read the book.
My Personal Take on "American Son" by Brian Ascalon Roley
Christmas is coming. And I don't know about you all but this Christmas season for me is getting to be fun. In middle-age I have learned to be more pliable with many idiosyncracies; I also feel more confident with myself and firmer with my decisions. I know when to plow the field of writing if inspired and to stop from it all when exhausted. The good thing is, I write more and more nowadays without care whether readers would read me or not. And, I finally learned to say no, leave things behind, ignore, be intense with my freedom and individuality - I guess I am becoming more and more Americanized. But freedom and individualism are not purely American. These are Filipino as well and universal.
Nowadays, I switch from web designing and reading fiction books. I am currently immersed in Anne Rice's "Blackwood Farm". I recently finished "American Son" by Roley and I'm half-way Holthe's "When The Elephants Dance". "American Son" is a book that is simple and direct but it doesn't sit well with me because the Filipino mother is made to be so stupid. I haven't met a Filipino mother like that anywhere in my American life. I wish Fil-Am writers would try to understand their Filipino roots and the character of the Filipino better before attributing their own "general and stereotypical" attributes to Filipinos. It is more terrible when these are written just to satisfy American taste and expectations. I'm sure some Fil-Am children are ashamed of their Philippine heritage but that doesn't authorize them to rationalize their shame by damning their heritage. I have written about the garbage and dirty linen of the Philippines and the Filipino myself but I have a Filipino truth to back me up. When some Fil-Am child writes about a Filipino mother who is so stupid she would just bow her head while being screamed at by an American woman - honey - that's not the case with the Filipino mothers in America I know. The Filipino mothers I know (at least where I live) certainly do not act stupid and frightened when confronted. They don't stand-by passively while their kids turn into criminals and robbers.
And for a Filipino mother who's supposed to have a wealthy background such as Forbes Park...hello. I would expect a more sophisticated woman than a woman being introduced as a maid. If this is the way Fil-Am kids view their Filipino mothers, woe to them! They certainly don't know the Filipina caliber.
I don't know how others read this book but I felt quite uncomfortable reading it. Is it because I am 'native' Filipino? I had many moments where I just shook my head and said, "This ain't possible." Or "Ow???" Or "Really???" I guess, fiction is fiction. But good fiction can be more real than truth.
In the end I need to understand what this book is all about - I need to do this, to read this book as if I were an American. With this view, I see that it's all about an American kid finding himself in the American culture - though, unfortunately, it ends in violence reflective of Mr Equalizer-Dirty Harry kind'a way. I certainly don't want our Fil-Am kids discover themselves this way, but the mere existence of this story already supports its possibility.
This novel is a Fil-Am novel and I am beginning to see the germination of Fil-Am stories in America. Another Fil-Am 'story via way of film' that sorts of explains the Fil-Am culture is The Debut. Which also centers around a Fil-Am character ashamed of his heritage and culture. I am just hoping this 'shame' is not a recurring theme. I hope it's not at the "heart" of Fil-Am culture.
Because there is nothing shameful about us Filipinos and our culture.
Next book for my review: Holthe's "When The Elephants Dance"
