{"id":47117,"date":"2020-07-07T11:12:51","date_gmt":"2020-07-07T15:12:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/?p=47117"},"modified":"2020-07-06T22:50:37","modified_gmt":"2020-07-07T02:50:37","slug":"the-son-of-good-fortune-by-lysley-tenorio-in-christian-science-monitor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-son-of-good-fortune-by-lysley-tenorio-in-christian-science-monitor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Son of Good Fortune by Lysley Tenorio [in Christian Science Monitor]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"His name was chosen to bring good fortune. So far, it isn\u2019t working.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lysley Tenorio\u2019s novel <\/em>The Son of Good Fortune explores the sorely tested bonds of a Filipino mother and her son living in the shadows in America.<\/em><\/p>\n

Eight years have passed since award-winning writer and professor Lysley Tenorio<\/a> debuted his stupendous collection, Monstress<\/a><\/em>. Born in the Philippines, Tenorio now lives in San Francisco, where he completed his highly anticipated first novel, The Son of Good Fortune<\/em>, which was published July 7. Like his earlier work, it offers another fierce, revelatory literary experience.<\/p>\n

The titular son is Filipino American Excel Maxino. His name, chosen by his mother Maxima, is part of his family\u2019s \u201clong tradition of giving children names that suggested good fortunes to come.\u201d Far-flung relatives held such hopeful monikers as \u201cGuggenheim, Beethoven, even … Harvard and MIT.\u201d At 19, Excel\u2019s good fortune hasn\u2019t yet arrived. His birth father is absent and dissolute and he\u2019s lost the only other paternal figure he\u2019s ever had. His mother constantly struggles to avoid sinking into poverty. He\u2019s spent his childhood virtually alone. H\u2019s lost his pregnant girlfriend, and, well … now he owes $10,000 for causing a careless accident.<\/p>\n

Excel\u2019s troubles began almost two decades earlier, when a pregnant Maxima realized that she couldn\u2019t rely on his father. So she abandoned her action-film career in Manila \u2013 \u201cI could have been the Michelle Yeoh of the Philippines,\u201d she insists \u2013 to give her unborn child a better life in the United States. Her former martial arts teacher and mentor, Joker, sponsors her escape to America. While in transit to San Francisco, the plane\u2019s turbulence induces Maxima\u2019s labor and she gives birth in flight. Excel\u2019s sky-high arrival, however, doesn\u2019t warrant him U.S. citizenship. In a riff on the conventional immigrant novel \u2013 which features bicultural protagonists tied to two countries, departed and arrived \u2013 Tenorio adds a clever twist by creating a citizen of nowhere: Excel is always in limbo, both legally and figuratively.<\/p>\n

On Excel\u2019s 10th birthday, Maxima finally reveals the truth: \u201c\u2018We\u2019re not supposed to be here,\u2019\u201d she explains. \u201c\u2018You and me … are TNT. … It stands for \u201ctago ng tago,\u201d which means \u201chiding and hiding.\u201d For Maxima, being TNT means no driver\u2019s license, no decent-paying job, no mobility. Instead, she scams lonely men online, who are desperate to pay for any sort of connection with \u201cGood Catholic Filipinas.\u201d \u201c\u2018I only take what I need,\u2019\u201d she eventually confesses to Excel. \u201c\u2018Enough to make rent, pay the bills.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

But for Excel, being TNT relegates him to near invisibility. He\u2019s unable to get medical care for a bad fall, he\u2019s wary of lasting friendships, he can\u2019t go to college, and, worst of all, he\u2019s forced to let Joker die alone after a sudden heart attack. Stuck in an abusive, under-the-table job, Excel decides he needs to start his own life away from his mother. After falling in love with peripatetic Sab, he accompanies her to Hello City, a desert commune hundreds of miles from home. The lovers stay in a refurbished school bus; while Sab makes organic soap with her cousin, Excel finds odd jobs here and there. Excel is surprisingly content … but nine months later, his new life literally goes up in flames, sending him away from Sab and back to Maxima. Faced with substantial debt, not to mention potential fatherhood, Excel confronts a daunting future with limited resources. Hiding is no longer an option \u2013 and his situation may push him to reach an understanding with his mother.<\/p>\n

Tenorio has written a resonant story about what one family is willing to do to \u201cprotect the child.\u201d It\u2019s seamlessly interwoven with cogent explorations of hybrid identity, racism, immigration history, shifting familial bonds, parental sacrifice, socioeconomic disparity, and even alternative social models.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that the Trump administration could not rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy on an accelerated schedule, bringing DREAMers back into headlines. That attention should give Tenorio\u2019s affecting novel a well-deserved boost; he humanizes the lives imperiled by shifting immigration policies. \u201c\u2018You know how to survive,\u2019\u201d Maxima reminds Excel. \u201c\u2018I learned it from you,\u2019\u201d he acknowledges. \u201cYou\u2019ll be strong … you\u2019ll be good, be the best,\u201d she insists, as she wills him to become The Son of Good Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Review<\/strong>: “His name was chosen to bring good fortune. So far, it isn\u2019t working,” Christian Science Monitor<\/em>, July 6, 2020<\/a><\/p>\n

Readers<\/strong>: Adult<\/p>\n

Published<\/strong>: 2020<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

His name was chosen to bring good fortune. So far, it isn\u2019t working. Lysley Tenorio\u2019s novel The Son of Good Fortune explores the sorely tested bonds of a Filipino mother and her son living in the shadows in America. Eight years have passed since award-winning…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46922,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6,1326,6535],"tags":[6608,148,22,58,75,10,149,51,25,13,1327,39,9187],"class_list":["post-47117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adult-readers","category-fiction","category-filipinao-american","category-repost","tag-bookdragon","tag-christian-science-monitor","tag-civil-rights","tag-coming-of-age","tag-death","tag-family","tag-gender-inequality","tag-identity","tag-immigration","tag-love","tag-lysley-tenorio","tag-parent-child-relationship","tag-son-of-good-fortune"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Son of Good Fortune by Lysley Tenorio [in Christian Science Monitor] - BookDragon<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/apa.si.edu\/bookdragon\/the-son-of-good-fortune-by-lysley-tenorio-in-christian-science-monitor\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Son of Good Fortune by Lysley Tenorio [in Christian Science Monitor] - BookDragon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"His name was chosen to bring good fortune. 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