Brian Ascalon Roley

[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.… (altro)

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.… (altro)