Customer Reviews

Letters to Montgomery Clift: A Novel (Working Classics)

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In the Philippines during 1976, a very young Bong Bong Luwad is put safely on a plane to America by his mother Cessy to stay with her sister Yuna. She promises to come to the US as soon as she found his father.

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.

With its sparse prose style and often affecting knowingness, Alumit's first novel tells the story of Bob ("Bong Bong") Luwad, a young Filipino boy whose mother sends him to America after his father is arrested during the Marcos regime. Upon his arrival in the United States, the boy discovers the films of Montgomery Clift, whose movie persona provides much-needed emotional support that gradually becomes a psychological crutch.

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.

A series of letters to a movie star who died young but ravaged (like Judy Garland) is a risky narrative device. I am not completely convinced that an eight-year-old could have written the first letters, but they are very poignant. And what they mention is elaborated. That is, the story is not told primarily by the letters. Without commenting on the contents of the letter, the present-day narrator recalls the events around the time of the letter, so there are two chronological narrations. At first, I found it easy to read each chapter with what is presented as a letter from the past and the memories in the present and stop, though once I got further into the book (after Bob graduated from college) I no longer found it easy to put down, and read the last hundred pages straight through.

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.

A friend of mine recently gave me this book. The story sounded interesting and I decided to crack it open and give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised by this debut novel written by author Noel Alumit. It begins with Bong Bong, a young Filipino boy who is sent away from his home by his mother during the vicious Marcos regime. She promises her son that one day she and his father will join him as he is sent away to live with his Aunt Yuna in California. Once there, life for the young man becomes worse, as we learn that Yuna is an alcoholic, who resents taking care of the young boy and begins verbally and physically abusing him. As a source of comfort, the young boy begins to write to handsome Hollywood 50's idol, Montgomery Clift. Clift becomes his guardian angel and a confidant. Over time, however, the letters lead way to mental illness as the young man tries to deal with his blossoming sexual orientation and the fact that he may never see his parents again. He begins a path of self abuse and hurting those that care for him. Although the ending is a little bit too convienent, the story is good overall and worth reading. I recommend it.

This book was loaned to me by a friend who thought I might enjoy it; I doubt he'll ever see it again as I have no intention of removing it from my library. What an amazing story! I wanted to read it slowly in order to stretch out the experience, but found I could not put it down. Now I'll have to wait for Alumit's next work.

Most impressive is how perfectly the sparse and simple writing style mirrors the world of the main character, Bong Bong, a lost and lonely Filipino boy sent to America by his mother during the Marcos regime. Alumit supplies only the essential details of his existence--even the supporting characters are mostly kept at an arm's distance; lesser characters aren't even referred to by name but by childlike descriptions. But this is countered with the weight he gives to Bong Bong's love of, and later obsession with, the actor Montgomery Clift. There is very little world outside of this, which makes it so easy for the reader to become engrossed in his story.

The way in which Bong Bong (later Americanized to just "Bob") drifts through life, changes, and grows is quite moving; it is also, at times, very harrowing. I found myself both distressed by what was happening and fascinated by how vividly and realistic the author was able to capture it. Very deftly handled.

There is so much more to say, but you should experience it for yourself. While I agree with others that the ending involved a few too many convenient coincidences, this book moved me nonetheless and I plan on recommending it to all my friends, straight and [non-straight].

A great story envelopes me in its world, and makes me feel so close to its characters that I don't want it to end. This is one of those stories. As soon as I finished it, I missed Bong Bong and Amada. I wanted to continue - to grow with them as they moved into the next phase of their lives.

I had to write this review, because I returned to Amazon to buy this book as a gift for a friend, and I noticed the reviews currently posted all seem to relegate this book to the status of "a good first try." Mr. Alumit's first novel is a beautiful, engaging story, about a character whom the author (and the audience) clearly loves. It is more than "a promising first novel." This story would be impressive, moving, and captivating if it were Alumit's third book. Or his thirtieth.

Personally, I am looking forward to both.

Letters to Montgomery Clift is a moving novel of a young man's quest to find the truth of his parents' disappearance in the Marcos era Phillipines. The late great star Montgomery Clift serves as a security blanket and a surrogate fantasy figure--brother, father, lover--to the hero Bong Bong as he goes on a journey in which he must accept himself, his family's fate and the will to go on living and letting others come into his life. Filled with emotional insights, some well drawn out humor and harrowing scenes of great violence both emotional and physical Letters to Montgomery Clift is a novel I will not soon forget. Not only is the novel a lasting tribute to the artistry and aesthetic principles of Montgomery Clift but it is also an inspiring and revealing portrait of one young man's struggle to truly live his life in freedom.

Noel Alumit. Watch that name. LETTERS TO MONTGOMERY CLIFT is his first novel and a "wonder-full" debut it is. The story of a child (Bong/Bob) displaced from the horrors of Marcos' rule in the Philippines to Los Angeles and his subsequent journey through varying foster homes to recover his estranged parents is neatly and cleverly tied together with his self ruminations in the form of letters to his hero of movies, of heart and of love - Montgomery Clift. This technique could be banal in the hands of writers not as sensitive as Alumit, but in his hands these short notes serve as a means to delineate a child's fantasy world, a map of longing that accompanies his coming of age, a means to relate to a world gone mad and taking him with it.

Alumit wins us over by beginning this short, immensely readable novel in a light tone, creating the idea that we are embarkng on a comic, youthful fantasia. Once the characters are introduced in a way that they become photographically real, the book takes a turn toward the meat of the story. Characters enter (much as movie extras....), evolve, and find an indelible role in Bong/Bob's saga. Through these diverse people Bong begins to understand the world, to cope with his changing place, to discover his unique identity. What begins as a light tale becomes a discovery of the cruelty inherent in both the home and the world at war. Alumit succeeds to bringing his odyssey to a quasi-Hollywood finish which fits so well with the use of Montgomery Clift as his alter ego.

This is a first novel and shows passages and choices that will mature with further writing. But this is a superb little book that will hold you between its covers until you finish this profound and simple tale. Highly recommended.

Winner of the Stonewall Award for Literature from the American Library Association. I read this title on the basis of the award that it won and it did not disappoint. Alumit has written a story of a Filipino boy placed with his aunt in the USA after his parents are beaten and in hiding from government agents in the Philippines. Bong Bong (or Bob as he becomes known) struggles with loss, disappearance, and adjusting to growing up in America. Alumit wonderfully describes the abandonment Bong feels throughout his young life and pulled me further into the story. The letters Bong writes are the way he handles his disjointed life and provide the reader further insight into his emotions. It is a great first novel from a playwright and I hope to be able to see his one man performances now that I am aware of his quality writing.

I just finished reading Letters to Montgomery Clift, and I'm glad that I was alone for the last 40 pages, as I was crying almost nonstop and would have created a scene if I'd been in a public place.
I read a lot of fictioned... so it is with a certain authority that I can say that this beautiful, sensitive, original, thought-provoking, moving book is one of the very best you will ever read.
Letters to Montgomery Clift is a story of coming out, it is a story of finding love, it is a story of family and loss and discovery.
In addition, reading this book gave me insight into Filipino culture and recent history, and the tragic repercusions of political repression/imprisonment/torture on not only its immediate victims but on their family as well. Noel Alumit's perceptive novel, like A Beautiful Mind, shows how mental illness can affect "good" people, and how those who suffer from it can eventually triumph.
Take a journey into another man's soul, into another man's heart, into another man's life...and read this brilliant and unforgettable novel!