American Son

American Son (2001), a novel by Brian Ascalon Roley, follows two Filipino brothers who try to make a life in California but end up caught in gang life. It received a nomination for the 2001 Kiriyama Prize for Fiction and was both a Los Angeles Times Best Book and New York Times Notable Book. Roley’s work is widely taught in classrooms across the U.S. and elsewhere. He is currently an associate professor of English at Miami University in Ohio.

The story follows two brothers; the younger, Gabe, is the narrator. Gabe is quiet and doesn’t want any trouble. He hopes to stay clear of gangs, crime, and violence in California. His mother, Ika, struggles to look after her sons because she’s stuck in low-paying jobs with no other prospects. She speaks broken English and struggles to make friends. Gabe runs errands for her so she doesn’t have to leave the house much.

Their father doesn’t do much to support them, and Ika is feeling overwhelmed. Gabe’s brother, Tomas, adopts the gangster lifestyle, lashing out to hide his hurt feelings about his family and their father leaving. It’s not long before he’s expelled from high school. To make money and help his family, he breeds expensive fighting and guard dogs to sell on to celebrities at extortionate rates.



Tomas can’t understand why Gabe doesn’t want to be involved in this life. Gabe, meanwhile, ashamed of his family’s heritage, feels he doesn’t belong in America. He doesn’t want to believe that crime is the only option for him. However, he doesn’t have anywhere else to go. The boys’ uncle, Uncle Betino, wants them to go live with him in the Philippines. He believes they’ll have a better chance of a clean life there, and he doesn’t think his sister controls them well. Ika, however, doesn’t want to give up her sons. She’s well-intentioned but she struggles to keep control over them.

Tomas doesn’t get on well with Ika because she’s disappointed with the life he leads. Gabe acts as a mediator between them, which takes its toll on his grades and the effort he puts into making friends. Tomas is cruel and mean to him all the time, using Gabe as a punching bag for pent-up anger and frustration. Gabe can’t talk to Ika about it because he doesn’t want to upset her more.

With no one supporting him and concerns that his Filipino heritage is holding him back, Gabe is at a loose end. When Tomas beats him up after yet another argument, Gabe decides to run away. He’s tired of Tomas’s abuse and feeling that no one accepts him. He wants to teach Tomas a lesson. Gabe steals his car and heads north to find a new life for himself, even if he doesn’t have a clear plan. However, the car breaks down, and he’s terrified to tell anyone because he knows Tomas will find out now.



Gabe phones for a tow truck, which takes hours to reach him. He knows Ika will be worried about him by now, but he’s scared to go home. When the tow truck driver gets there, he turns out to be racist and bigoted. He makes rude remarks about Gabe’s heritage and immigrants more generally. Gabe feels worse about himself as the journey goes on and he feels overcome by so much prejudice. He’s especially hurt when the driver criticizes those who don’t learn English, as this reminds him of the troubles Ika has with learning a new language.

Worse, though, is having to admit to Tomas what he did and the fear of retribution. Tomas demands Gabe pays him back for the car and for taking one of his prized dogs. He makes Gabe join him on criminal jobs, like breaking into cars and vandalism. This is the life Gabe wanted to avoid, but now, it seems, he’ll never escape it. Ika doesn’t do anything to help and Gabe can’t help but feel she doesn’t care enough to stop his descent.

For Gabe, the truck driver is the closest thing he has to a father figure, even if only for a day, and so he believes he’s conforming to the driver’s idea of a “real” American by getting into gangs. Gabe has a very skewed idea of what being an American is, but that’s what the novel is about—a boy struggling to find his own identity when he feels powerless and alone.



There is no happy ending for the brothers. They simply get deeper and deeper into a life of crime and end up joining a proper gang. We are left with the sense that their lives will only continue to get worse, and that perhaps the best Ika can do for them is send them back to the Philippines. However, now Tomas and Gabe have settled into this life, it’s too late.