From Publishers Weekly
Hard-hitting and brash, this debut novel takes a cold, clear-eyed look at the American immigrant experience. Come home, urges Uncle Betino in a letter from Manila at the beginning of Roley's tale. But Betino's sister Ika, divorced from her American husband and living in the U.S. with her two sons born in the Philippines, believes even the harsh struggle to survive in California is better than living under the strict caste system of her homeland. One of her boys, Tomas, has assumed the persona of a young Mexican street thug and is helping her make ends meet by raising and selling guard dogs to rich clients. His brother, Gabe, the story's narrator and the good son, seeks to understand the mysteries of his adopted country. Roley uses the familiar Cain-and-Abel approach to illustrate the occasionally vicious tug of wills between the two youths, whose relationship is being slowly altered by the outside forces of the alien American culture. Formerly deemed a mama's boy, Gabe runs away, stealing his brother's prized Oldsmobile and best dog, trying to escape his brother's growing influence. It's not long before he is back home, ashamed and ready to submit to the will of both his brother and America. His mother looks on sadly as both of her boys are swallowed up by the American dream and the promise of the prosperous life at all costs. Despite rare lulls in the plot and an occasional glitch in the novel's overall strong structure, this is a powerhouse story of vulnerable strangers in a brutal, alien land told with stylish restraint, bare-knuckled realism and tender yet tough clarity. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
In his debut novel, Roley details the Filipino immigrant experience through the troubled relationship between two brothers and their struggle to assimilate into the culture of Southern California. Gabe, the younger of the two, serves as his family's peacemaker, struggling to maintain good grades while hiding brother Tomas' dangerous activities from his mother. Tomas has adopted the Mexican gangster style of dress and breeds attack dogs that he sells to the Hollywood celebrities who inhabit the fringes of their lives. When Gabe runs away to Northern California, he finds temporary solace in the kindness of strangers: the tow truck driver whose chatty nature belies his own hidden pain; the tart-tongued diner waitress who has family problems of her own. However, when Gabe returns home, he must face the consequences from the increasingly violent Tomas. Roley never judges his characters but rather shows the pain and anger that propel their actions. His clipped and poetic style serves the novel well, and readers will be compelled to follow this tale to its violent and ambiguous conclusion. Brendan Dowling
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Los Angeles Times, Jonathan Kirsch
Roley writes with assurance, grace and insight, and he plays expertly with our perceptions and expectations....explosive and illuminating.
Helen Zia, author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People
In bare and muscular prose, American Son deftly seduces with this emotional yet unsentimental coming-of-age journey.
Book Description
A powerful novel about ethnically fluid California, and the corrosive relationship between two Filipino brothers. Told with a hard-edged purity that brings to mind Cormac McCarthy and Denis Johnson, American Son is the story of two Filipino brothers adrift in contemporary California. The older brother, Tomas, fashions himself into a Mexican gangster and breeds pricey attack dogs, which he trains in German and sells to Hollywood celebrities. The narrator is younger brother Gabe, who tries to avoid the tar pit of Tomas's waywardness, yet moves ever closer to embracing it. Their mother, who moved to America to escape the caste system of Manila and is now divorced from their American father, struggles to keep her sons in line while working two dead-end jobs. When Gabe runs away, he brings shame and unforeseen consequences to the family. Full of the ache of being caught in a violent and alienating world, American Son is a debut novel that captures the underbelly of the modern immigrant experience.
About the Author
Brian Ascalon Roley grew up in Los Angeles and now lives in San Francisco.
American Son FROM THE PUBLISHER
Sold with a hard-edged purity that brings to mind Cormac McCarthy and Denis Johnson, American Son is the story of two Fllipiho brothers adrift in contemporary California. The older brother, Tomas, fashions himself into a Mexican gangster and breeds pricey attack dogs which he sells to Hollywood celebrities. The harrator is younger brother Gabe, who tries to avoid the tar pit of Tomas's waywardness, yet moves ever closer to embracing it. Their mother, who is now divorced from their American father, struggles to keep her sons in line while working two dead-end jobs. When Gabe runs away, he brings shame and unforeseen consequences to the family. Full of the ache of being caught in a violent and alienating world, American Son is a debut novel that captures the underbelly of the modern immigrant experience.
FROM THE CRITICS
Jonathan Kirsch - Los Angeles Times
Roley writes with assurance, grace and insight, and he plays expertly with our perceptions and expectations....explosive and illuminating.
Helen Zia
In bare and muscular prose, American Son deftly seduces with this emotional yet unsentimental coming-of-age journey.
Kirkus Reviews
An uneven debut traces the fall of two brothers growing up in Los Angeles. Gabe and Tomas are teenagers being raised by their Filipino mother. Their Anglo-American father, long-gone, has left them with little more than a mixed heritage that challenges both their sense of self and place in the world. Gabe, the good younger son, watches silently as his brother, sporting the tattoos and attire of a Mexican gang member, plummets further into a threatening world of theft and brutality. Expelled from school, Tomas turns to breeding and training attack dogs for L.A. hotshots, a profession that brings little comfort to their timid, hard-working mother. Out of the blue, both to the family and the reader, Gabe steals Tomas's car, sells his favorite dog, and runs away with the money, fleeing the kind of desperate life that seems his inevitable fate. Heading north, with no plan or destination, Gabe imagines the eyes of strangers on him in nondescript truck stops and cafés. He feels more isolated than ever. When his car breaks down just south of the Oregon border, Gabe is befriended by a tow-truck driver who shares in conversation his disdain for L.A.—overrun, as he puts it, with Asians and Mexicans. Unbeknownst to Gabe, the driver has called his mother, knowing the kid must be running away. Returned to L.A., Gabe has to pay back Tomas, who forces his younger brother into a life of crime and violence. They steal drugs from a dealer, plumbing from a fancy home, and in the disturbing conclusion beat a boy who has done nothing. Gabe's narrative succeeds in displaying the kind of cultural isolation that breeds anger, turning a smart, quiet boy into an avenging victim despite his wish to dothe right thing. The author creates a few piercing images, but, overall, the plotting is thin, leaving behind an impression rather than a fully realized story. Far from perfect, but a new voice to watch. First serial to Epoch
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