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Lysley Tenorio

The Son of Good Fortune: A Novel Hardcover – July 7, 2020

by Lysley Tenorio (Author)

63 ratings

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A Recommended Book From:
USA Today * The Chicago Tribune * Book Riot * Refinery 29 * InStyle * The Minneapolis Star-Tribune * Publishers Weekly * Baltimore Outloud * Omnivoracious * Lambda Literary * Goodreads * Lit Hub * The Millions

From award-winning author Lysley Tenorio, comes a big hearted debut novel following an undocumented Filipino son as he navigates his relationship with his mother, an uncertain future, and the place he calls home

Excel spends his days trying to seem like an unremarkable American teenager. When he’s not working at The Pie Who Loved Me (a spy-themed pizza shop) or passing the time with his girlfriend Sab (occasionally in one of their town’s seventeen cemeteries), he carefully avoids the spotlight.

But Excel knows that his family is far from normal. His mother, Maxima, was once a Filipina B-movie action star who now makes her living scamming men online. The old man they live with is not his grandfather, but Maxima’s lifelong martial arts trainer. And years ago, on Excel’s tenth birthday, Maxima revealed a secret that he must keep forever. “We are ‘TNT’—tago ng tago,” she told him, “hiding and hiding.” Excel is undocumented—and one accidental slip could uproot his entire life.

Casting aside the paranoia and secrecy of his childhood, Excel takes a leap, joining Sab on a journey south to a ramshackle desert town called Hello City. Populated by drifters, old hippies, and washed-up techies—and existing outside the normal constructs of American society—Hello City offers Excel a chance to forge his own path for the first time. But after so many years of trying to be invisible, who does he want to become? And is it possible to put down roots in a country that has always considered you an outsider?

Thrumming with energy and at once critical and hopeful, The Son of Good Fortune is a luminous story of a mother and son testing the strength of their bond to their country—and to each other.

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From the Publisher

Amazon.com Review

An Amazon Best Book of July 2020: The Son of Good Fortune is a novel about a mother, Maxima, and her son, Excel, who are undocumented Filipino immigrants living in California. They each do their best to make money, blend in, and not get caught by the authorities. But what they do is not what you might expect: Maxima seduces men on the internet, eventually cajoling them to wire her money, while Excel flees to a hippie commune with his girlfriend and begins to wonder if he could make it his home. Lysley Tenorio’s characters are vibrant and empathetic. Maxima is juiced up with the confidence of having been a Filipina action star in B-movies and is determined to do whatever it takes to be in America, while her son grapples with the invisible target on his back and what life could be like if he wasn’t TNT—tago ng tago, or “hiding and hiding.” The Son of Good Fortune is a bighearted novel that disguises poverty, displacement, and disenchantment with hearty laughs and wacky characters. But don’t let that fool you—Tenorio writes with gusto and compassion about the undocumented.—Al Woodworth, Amazon Book Review

Review

"When you don’t belong where you are, where exactly do you belong? Lysley Tenorio’s engaging and comic first novel about immigration and identity asks this question with compassion and savage humor." -- Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Tenorio’s insistence on the specificity of his characters’ dreams and longings is its own kind of argument for their right to be here…. An affecting portrayal of just how potently a parent can shape the expectations of her child…. His story is a tribute to the extreme inner strength it takes to make any life decision look like fate.” -- New York Times Book Review

"Living with this extraordinarily human undocumented family will make you laugh, weep, and think, sometimes all at once. Tenorio brilliantly makes these characters so original that they’re nearly tangible." -- James Hannaham, author of Delicious Foods

"Filled with the kind of absurdities that accompany the most difficult truths, Lysley Tenorio's brilliant, witty novel about the love of a mother and son, the immigrant experience in America, and the surreality of our current reality, is bold, ambitious, and unforgettable." -- Refinery 29

“This story is bursting with heart and wisdom, humor and hope. Tenorio's gifts as a writer are on display in this expertly constructed, gorgeously written tale of a family haunted by past mistakes, struggling toward the future. Immersive in its rich detail, it gathers momentum to its affecting and powerful conclusion. A remarkable novel by an author I plan to follow for years to come.” -- Charles Yu, author of Interior Chinatown and How To Live Safely in A Science Fictional Universe

“Lysley Tenorio’s funny and poignant second novel, The Son of Good Fortune, couldn’t come at a better time…. Tenorio skillfully wrings high comedy from his characters’ boxed-in lives in a country that doesn’t know what to do with them…. Timely.” -- San Francisco Chronicle

“[The Son of Good Fortune] sympathetically illuminates the tenuous lives of undocumented immigrants, those who are ‘not really here’.… Tenorio's characters are humorous and loving, in spite of the exclusion overshadowing their very existence.” -- Shelf Awareness (starred review)

“Tenorio, himself a Filipino immigrant, accurately and compassionately portrays the immigrant experience. Despite its universality, The Son of Good Fortune doesn’t lack for originality…. The story finds a witty voice and sets a unique tone. Despite the drudgery and harshness of immigrant life, Tenorio explores the humanity in the tribulations and creates characters who are as lovable as they are real. With his debut novel, Tenorio excavates joy from the immigrant experience.” -- BookPage

"Tenorio's The Son of Good Fortune, so propulsive, so over-the-top with life, I fell into it, deeply. This novel restored my faith in the power of a story to heal our self-inflicted wounds. We need such books, now more than ever." -- Peter Orner, author of Maggie Brown & Others: Stories

“I have a new favorite novel on my shelf.... A field study of the glamorous allure of the American dream and the eternal ache of its exclusion. Tenorio’s great talent lies in underpinning every moment of flash and humor with love, longing and the ever-forlorn question of identity. This novel is like a stone skipped across the Pacific, all the way to Manila. Visualize it, that series of rings lingering on the ocean’s surface, expanding, intersecting, intermingling to form a chain that anchors these characters, connects them, and after years of binding them, sets them free.” -- Adam Johnson, author of The Orphan Master’s Son

Publisher : Ecco (July 7, 2020)
Language: : English
Hardcover : 304 pages
ISBN-10 : 0062059572
ISBN-13 : 978-0062059574
Item Weight : 1 pounds
Dimensions : 6 x 1.01 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #517,400 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #746 in Asian American Literature & Fiction
- #6,433 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books)
- #31,176 in Literary Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
63 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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oldschool

Tenorio's voice is authentic and straight to the heart

Reviewed in the United States on August 31, 2020

Verified Purchase

I am not a Pinoy, but am fortunate to have family members from the Philippines. Tenorio's voice, his dialogue, his description of walking in two worlds are all accurate and poignant. This book helped me understand the culture that people dear to me come from - and they became even more dear. He also described the Mojave Desert not as "there's nothing out there", but as a place rich in people, hardship and beauty. Salamat po.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Erin

Excellent story of an undocumented immigrant's plight

Reviewed in the United States on September 15, 2020

Verified Purchase

This was a quick, very good read. It excellently captures the struggles of being "TNT" (undocumented) in the United States and the lengths families will go to stay together. Captivating writing and an engrossing story. Will read Tenorio's other works.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

KCT

People good to know.

Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

A view is not the lives of those in the Filipino American community in the SFBay area. Their hopes, fears and struggles. With quite a lot of humor.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Amazon Customer

Insight into the lives of the undocumented.

Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2020

Verified Purchase

A translation of the Tagalog exchanges would’ve been nice. The ending was inconclusive.

Helpful

terrific!

Reviewed in the United States on July 7, 2020

Wonderful! This is the story of Maxima and her 19 year old son Excel, undocumented Fillipinos resident in the US. The story moves back and forth in time- from when Maxima arrived in the US pregnant to today when Excel returns from a year away from her. Maxima was a star back in the Philippines but in the US, she lives in the ghost world of rotten jobs and no health insurance. She's a con artist but she's raised a son with a strong moral core. Excel is in love with Sab and follows her to Hello City, a community in the desert where no one pays attention to his status but things don't go well (no spoilers). The back and forth between Maxima and Excel will seem familiar to many who have challenging relationships with their mothers- there's tension but there's love. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC. Tenorio has crafted two realistic, relatable, sympathetic characters who will linger in your mind.

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

amgrassi

Son of Good Fortune - He is not!

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2020

Son of Good Fortune, he certainly is not! I understand the struggle happening in our country with un-documentation, I understand that people come to America for better lives, and I understand that it isn't easy for everyone that comes to our country. This book really sheds a lot of light on the hardships that people endure and what they go through when they are not documented in the United States as are the characters in this book. Jobs, money, abuse, friendships, scamming and lying.
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This book runs you through many different emotions, hurt, anger, love, embarrassment, and it is like a train wreck that you cannot look away from. Excel just wants to find a normal life, unlike the one his mom provided him. When he runs away from it all after high school to live in a small city in the desert, will he find the life he is looking for?

I was really expecting a bit more out of this book with all the rave reviews but for me, it was just so-so. It wasn't bad but it wasn't great either. There is so much potential here and the message is clear and I would have liked it to go a little bit deeper (it only spans a year of Excel's life with some flashbacks). If you have some time it may be worth the read just for the perspective on living your life constantly looking over your shoulder and what undocumented people really go through.
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I received this book as an ARC in a Goodreads Giveaway. Thank you, Goodreads and Harper Collins Publishers for the opportunity to read and review it.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Nurse_bookie

An amazing Filipino Immigrant Story

Reviewed in the United States on August 29, 2020

The Son of Good Fortune

The Son of Good Fortune is an immersive and character driven story about the harsh realities of being an undocumented immigrant in the US. Tenorio brilliantly narrates how the paranoia of being discovered for fear of deportation affects families and the children of these immigrants, while struggling to survive.

This story is centered in Maxima, a B actress from the Philippines who came to America to escape exploitation and a dwindling acting career. While on the plane, from Manila to San Francisco, a very pregnant Maxima delivers a baby boy Excel. At 10 years old, Excel learns from her mother that they are both undocumented immigrants hiding in plain sight a TNT, which is a mnemonic for the Tagalog term for ‘Tago Nang Tago’ or Hiding and Hiding.

This harsh realization of their status affects Excel in so many ways where “I am not really here” affects his identity and the relationships he has had throughout since. Keeping such a secret that had been ingrained by her mother for fear of discovery and their lives being uprooted only to be sent away when discovered.

This stunning story touched my heart being a first generation immigrant myself. As I read the passages, this story resonated with the sacrifices my parents had to go through for their children to have a better life and future.

Living in Los Angeles , I knew of neighbors and friends who were undocumented, and how they lived in fear everyday, have menial jobs, suffer through injustice and abuse, unable to report or say anything in fear of being reported, only to survive another day. This book touched upon the all so real experiences of these families through Maxima and Excel’s stories. This truly was an incredibly well written immigrant story.

I was able to listen to this book in audio as wonderfully narrated by Reuben Uy. The voices were so distinct for each character, and the accents were amazing and done so well. It definitely added to my reading experience listening to this in audio. There were many parts I became quite emotional, and I highly recommend this in audio!

Helpful