[Review written by my high school self]
Brian Ascalon Roley’s novel, American Son, is a gritty and disturbing picture of what amounts to failed assimilations of different extremes, with sons Gabe and Tomas struggling with their identities as much as their mother did in her generation.

Published in 2001, the story centers around a struggling Filipino immigrant family in California. The two brothers and their mother do not often get along, and their various conflicts and difficult attempts to understand each other and their actions is a sad and sometimes frustrating endeavor. It is a realistically rendered portrayal of coming of age and inner city life in the 1990s.

Gabe and Tomas's mother, Ika, reacts differently than her sons to the American world outside, secluding herself and hiding in her fears, whereas Tomas reacts destructively, wielding tire irons, fists, and pure hatred in his reaction to the outside world. In the middle of these poles is the narrator, Gabe, who appears to vacillate between his mother’s passivity and his brother’s aggression in a confusing, often haphazard way. Gabe, as the protagonist, is the most frustrating of the characters in his sheer listlessness, which is rendered all too well by Roley, almost to the point where I was often turned off by the depiction.

What saves the characterization is Gabe’s understandable confusion - regarding his family, his racial identity, and his self-identity as a whole. He is often shrouded in silence, a complex character while at the same time somewhat blank. Unwilling or maybe even unable to break through his shell, he endures the alienation of his mother and the bullying of his brother without attempting to confront either.

Gabe clearly tries to give himself an identity as the good son and the good brother. However, with Tomas and his mother at odds, Gabe’s identification with one is often at the exclusion of the other; he breaks into cars with Tomas while fearing what their mother would say if she finds out, and then he stands beside his mother in her purple sunglasses worrying about how the other kids at school perceive him. His betrayal of himself and his mother with the truck driver was enough to make me cringe; I almost had to put the book down.

It is this vacillating protectiveness of their mother, however, that unites Gabe with his brother Tomas and hints at some small hope for both to acquire some of the gifts of paternity that America has to offer them as American sons. It, in fact, seems to be the only hope offered. Whether this is deliberate or not cannot be confirmed. This diasporic postcolonial immigrant tale is probably best read the second time around, when the various travails of the characters can be understood in hindsight. Roley has created characters that I felt sorry for, but with whom I did not necessarily enjoy sharing company. ( )

A depressing story about a younger brother trying to avoid the sway of his older brother's gang lifestyle. Their timid mother is unable to confront her boys about their changing ways.

Brian Ascalon Roley’s novel, American Son, is a gritty and disturbing picture of what amounts to failed assimilations of different extremes, with sons Gabe and Tomas struggling with their identities as much as their mother did in her generation. Published in 2001, the story centers around a struggling Filipino immigrant family in California. The two brothers and their mother do not often get along, and their various conflicts and difficult attempts to understand each other and their actions is a sad and sometimes frustrating endeavor. It is a realistically rendered portrayal of coming of age and inner city life in the 1990s. Gabe and Tomas's mother, Ika, reacts differently than her sons to the American world outside, secluding herself and hiding in her fears, whereas Tomas reacts destructively, wielding tire irons, fists, and pure hatred in his reaction to the outside world. In the middle of these poles is the narrator, Gabe, who appears to vacillate between his mother’s passivity and his brother’s aggression in a confusing, often haphazard way. Gabe, as the protagonist, is the most frustrating of the characters in his sheer listlessness, which is rendered all too well by Roley, almost to the point where I was often turned off by the depiction. What saves the characterization is Gabe’s understandable confusion - regarding his family, his racial identity, and his self-identity as a whole. He is often shrouded in silence, a complex character while at the same time somewhat blank. Unwilling or maybe even unable to break through his shell, he endures the alienation of his mother and the bullying of his brother without attempting to confront either. Gabe clearly tries to give himself an identity as the good son and the good brother. However, with Tomas and his mother at odds, Gabe’s identification with one is often at the exclusion of the other; he breaks into cars with Tomas while fearing what their mother would say if she finds out, and then he stands beside his mother in her purple sunglasses worrying about how the other kids at school perceive him. His betrayal of himself and his mother with the truck driver was enough to make me cringe; I almost had to put the book down. It is this vacillating protectiveness of their mother, however, that unites Gabe with his brother Tomas and hints at some small hope for both to acquire some of the gifts of paternity that America has to offer them as American sons. It, in fact, seems to be the only hope offered. Whether this is deliberate or not cannot be confirmed. This diasporic postcolonial immigrant tale is probably best read the second time around, when the various travails of the characters can be understood in hindsight. Roley has created characters that I felt sorry for, but with whom I did not necessarily enjoy sharing company. ( )

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. ( )

10