Letters to Montgomery Clift

by Noel Alumit

Book Overview

This haunting and compelling novel of a Filipino boy sent to America by his parents to escape the brutal Marcos regime is a story of hope set against a backdrop of abuse and alienation. Following the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1555838154
• ISBN13: 9781555838157
• Release Date: January 2003
• Publisher: Alyson Books
• Length: 288 Pages
• Weight: 2.90 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

A strong first novel about the bond between mother and son

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.

A most promising debut

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.

Can a book be both heartbreaking and hopeful?

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.

Profound in its simplicity

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.