Letters to Montgomery Clift: A Novel / by Noeel Alumit. [Hardcover]

Living with Auntie Yuna is like a hell on earth for Bong, and all the while he holds on to hope of reuniting with his mother. It's during his stay with Yuna that he first discovers Montgomery Clift, in a film titled "The Search." Leaving a permanent impression on Bong, he writes letters to Monty, even though he knows that he's dead, asking for his guidance. These letters help him through the many tough patches to come in to his life: life with of Yuna, being thrown into the foster care system, discovering a dark secret about his foster family, learning about the fate of his family, and dealing with his own sexualtiy.

This is an engrossing story of separation, loss, love and hope, and told from a view that isn't heard to often in literature: a Filipino perspective view of the world and of sexuality. Bong Bong is a strong character, not only in dealing with his own coming out, but with the realization of what happened to his family. He is likable and you want him to succeed. At the heart of the story, though, is the bond between mother and son; that's what drives Bong to suffer through the ups and downs, hoping that in the end everything will be okay, that he will be with his mother again.

A strong first novel.

Briskly told, the novel reads more like a play in parts. Many of the characters (especially Bob's foster parents and their daughter Amada) are aptly drawn, the descriptions of torture under the Marcos regime are harrowing, and the device of using Bob/Bong`s letters to Montgomery Clift as chapter openings is artfully executed. Alumit is also adept at depicting the interplay between the various members of the foster family and the breakdown of their relations when Bob discovers a secret about Amada`s parents.

I agree with others who've said that this is a promising first novel, but that statement alone sometimes damns a book with faint praise. The prose isn't just minimal; it's often skeletal, told with abbreviated sentences and fragments. In a mature hand, this barebones style might be effective for a purely psychological novel, but this novel aspires to be more than that. For example, Alumit fails to convey the culture shock that would have greeted a boy arriving in California from the Philippines or a young man returning to his homeland almost twenty years later. The scenes abroad could have taken place in just about any country; only the references to the Marcos regime are specific to the Philippines. Likewise, the only passages unique to life in Los Angeles is a scene at Grauman's Chinese Theater and an unnecessarily detailed paragraph describing a couple of rides at Disneyland.

The biggest disappointment, however, is the last section, which relies on a series of improbable coincidences that rapidly give way to melodrama and sentimentality. I won't give anything away except to say that this novel, in spite of its title, deserved more than a Hollywood ending.

There are some very painful experiences, the kind of traumas of displacement and loss that altogether too many children have had to experience during the last seventy years in various places. Bong's innocence is heartbreaking, as is the way he channels his hopes to someone whose life showed little ability to take care of himself, let alone anyone else (Montgomery Clift). Faith has held many people's fragile psyches together through series of traumas and Mr. Clift turns out to be a beneficent spirit. Belief in him eases Bong's passage through a vale of tears.

Although the traumas of history (including Christian Right terrorism in the US) are significant in the book and Bong/Bob suffers more than little, there is a lot of absurdist humor in his relationships with foster parents and some support from people more present than Montgomery Clift, including the foster sister who becomes a close friend. The book is entertaining as well as being touching and moving in its compassion from a badly injured refugee.