FRONTReviews > Readers and patrons of the business journal are invited to submit reviews (along with an optional photo) to news@vbFRONT.com. We’ve expanded our reviews to include books, music, art, performances, culinary—with a preference for local productions. Reviews must be original, include the author’s name and location, and should be brief, under 350 words.
Shhh… undocumented
loving, in spite of the exclusion overshadowing their very existence.
When most young people are defining themselves, Excel knows he can’t. The Son of —Cheryl McKeon Good Fortune (Ecco; 2020), Lysley Tenorio’s second book (after Monstress), sympathetically illuminates the tenuous lives of undocumented For Woody Fans immigrants, those who are “not really here.” Chances are if you like Woody Allen movies Born on a Philippine Airlines flight to a mother and his New York sensibility – and sense of humor – you will like his autobiography, fleeing abuse in Manila, they arrive in San Francisco with no documentation, and Excel Apropos of Nothing (Arcade Publishing, identifies as “TNT”— Tagalog for “hiding and 2020). It reads in many cases like a stream hiding.” His mother, Maxima, a B-movie action of consciousness as he jumps back and forth, star in the Philippines, works menial jobs and from writing for variety shows in the 50’s, to scams men online. Excel knows their lives could his marriage and relationships – professional and personal – with the likes of Louise Lasser implode if he draws attention to himself, so he’s “the quiet kid who keeps quieter.... What (Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman), Diane Keaton, took effort and strategy became, as the years Mia Farrow etc. Allen never strived to make the commercial blockbuster and some of his went on, instinct and habit.” many, many films either didn’t make it to At 19, Excel sees no future beyond working for this part of Virginia or perhaps had one week at the Grandin. Movie buffs will enjoy Allen’s the tyrannical owner of The Pie Who Loved Me pizza shop, who requires no Social Security behind the scenes look at filmmaking and he is brutally honest at times with his descriptions number and pays him in cash. So when his of those he has worked with over the past girlfriend, Sab, invites him to move with her 50+ years. to the off-the-grid desert community of Hello City, he bids Maxima goodbye and leaves. Sab grew up bouncing among relatives, What’s a bit more uncomfortable are two longish sections where he reviews molestation and with good humor and optimism they anticipate better days. Hello City brings new charges brought against him by Mia Farrow experiences, but after nine months, multiple against one of her two children that he had crises send Excel back to Maxima. Consistently adopted as their father – despite the fact that he and Farrow lived separately and responsible and kind, he works to satisfy a never married. Then there was 22-year-old debt and hopes to reunite with Sab, while Soon-Yi, Mia’s daughter and not one of the mother and son establish a new bond. The children Allen adopted – who wound up in a Son of Good Fortune avoids sentimentality. highly public relationship with the filmmaker Tenorio’s characters are humorous and
42
t AUGUST 2020 / vbFRONT.com
