Der Junge aus Ilocos

by Blaise Campo Gacoscos, Andreas Diesel (Translator)

Die Ilocos-Region im Nordwesten der Philippinen ist voller Widersprüche. In der Kultur der Ilocanos treffen jahrhundertealte Traditionen auf die Einflüsse der modernen Hauptstadt Manila, agrarischer Pragmatismus auf christliche Gottergebenheit. Victor ist ein Kind dieser Welt. Nachdem sein Vater die Familie für eine neue Frau verlassen hat, lebt der Junge mit der Mutter, Bruder Raffy und seinen Großeltern in bescheidenen Verhältnissen in einem kleinen Haus am Quinarayan-Fluss. Die Jahre seiner Jugend sind gezeichnet von familiärer Geborgenheit, aber auch von Verunsicherungen aufgrund des niedrigen sozialen Status der Familie und dem frühen Bewusstsein für seine Homosexualität. Diese zwei Faktoren prägen Victors Leben, dem der Roman bis ins mittlere Alter folgt – in die Metropole, ins Milieu greller Schlagzeilen und des großen Geldes, in düstere Rattenlöcher, trunkene Aha-Momente, schwule Badehäuser und trügerische Episoden des Glücks. Am Ende führt der Weg jedoch zurück nach Ilocos. Wo sich ein Kreis schließt und eine Lücke füllt, aber die alten Widersprüche dennoch bestehen bleiben. Die acht konzisen Kapitel in "Der Junge aus Ilocos" beleuchten schlaglichtartig unterschiedliche Phasen in Victors Leben – von frühen Aufbrüchen über die erste Liebe bis hin zu zweifelhaften Erfolgen und der Ernüchterung danach. In Victors Erfahrungen und Begegnungen spiegeln sich teils die Spannungen der philippinischen Gegenwartsgesellschaft, teils die Biografie des Autors wider. Blaise Campo Gacoscos nahm sich jedoch bewusst Freiheiten bei der Zeichnung seiner Hauptfigur. "Ich habe mich für die Romanform entschieden, weil ich Charaktere erschaffen wollte, die mir selbst helfen, den Sinn des Lebens zu begreifen", schreibt er in seinem Nachwort. Bezeichnenderweise lässt er die Geschichte mit einem lakonischen Witz enden, in dem all das mitschwingt, was den Roman generell auszeichnet – Abgeklärtheit, Melancholie und ein kleines Augenzwinkern.

Genres: Queer

140 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2022

Reviews

[Alexx (obscure.pages) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a good glimpse into the life of a Filipino/Ilocano, from childhood to adulthood–navigating through young love, family conflicts, sexuality, friendship.

I do wish there could have been more? Like I wanted to see and feel more emotion. I also felt like it would have been good to see the story to expand more on discovering sexuality, and family themes and conflicts (specifically, the estranged father/brother). I do get that this is the author's writing style though, and of course, considering this is literary fiction, it definitely focused more on the character and his experiences.

Overall, Kites in the Night is a solid read.

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Marking this book as part of reading challenge: #ReadQueerly2023.

[jini]

Teka lang di ko siya ma-gets haha kelangan kong i-process lahat 'to

[KJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

“From distant memory, his mother’s words came rushing back to him: Accept whatever life would bring without asking any question. Whether he liked it or not, there was nothing else he could do.”

Blaise Campo Gacoscos’s Kites in the Night is a composite novel about the little joys of life, from the protagonist’s humble beginnings as a kid from a small town into a fully realized adult with multiple aspirations navigating his own sexuality. If you’re looking for a plot-heavy, character-driven queer novel and happen to stumble upon this book, I bet you’d be a little disappointed. But if you’re into the simple slice of life, where the biggest enemy known to the character is the passage of time, then you’d definitely enjoy this.

Personally, Kites in the Night is not memorable or anything new to me. As it appears to be, yearning and retrospection are two major elements of contemporary queer literature, and it seems that this novel is full of those. However, that’s not to say that this novel has nothing new to offer or to say. The protagonist, named Victor Molina, is easily one of the most confident queer characters I’ve had the opportunity to read. He is strong-willed and very emotional, two characteristics that are often stark contrasts, but he is a character where compassion and self-worth are notable parts of himself.

One of my biggest worries as I began the novel would be how possible trauma and pain could befall the young Victor, a route most novelists and authors find themselves writing about, especially among contemporary Filipino authors where being Filipino and queer are often synonymous with discrimination and oppression. However, Gacoscos writes with vivid details of a childhood full of happy memories, a tumultuous adulthood with cutthroat drama, and complex familial and romantic relationships without the use of homophobia and sexual abuse as plot devices.

Kites in the Night presents Victor’s life in vignettes, a literary style I don’t often enjoy but for this instance, I do believe it works. He lives a life where there is no overarching problem that needs to be solved, where every challenge from his family, friends, and career does not come from an evil big bad. Rather, Victor lives the way most of us do: with a stiff lip or with gleeful determination. There’s no bigger message to us than to lead our lives where we want it to be.

And just like the titular kites at night (which, admittedly, might mean something beyond the imagery as I could not understand its symbolism yet), this novel sweeps you away and could easily be finished in one sitting. The coastal winds of Ilocos, the sultry weather of Manila, and the awful scent of the contemporary gay social scene (pun intended!) are all packed inside this tiny novel. I do believe that it’s a wasted opportunity to further scrutinize Filipino queerness with the existing social realities local gay people face, and I do think that the writing could use more help in anchoring us with Victor’s adventures and relationships, but I find Kites in the Night’s strength to be its willingness to make itself larger than life.

Because admittedly, that’s how living our lives is: every single phase of it feels like the end of something, every problem seems like the end of our happiness, and every broken thing is ours to live with.

Still, as what Gacoscos tries to convey with his novel, continuing to live in the moment rather than thinking about the passage of time would stray us away from an unhappy life. What is a life without happiness and heartache? Victor Molina would never know.

[Mark John Trinidad · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to choose this book for Pride Month primarily because it is a queer story set in the Ilocos region. I wasn’t sure what to expect from it at first since I wasn’t able to read the vignette or the summary of what the book is all about. Nonetheless, I definitely liked my reading experience with it.

The book introduces us to the main character, Victor Molina, as a young boy who is still trying to figure out his identity. It also takes us to his complex psychological journey to adulthood. We also get to be acquainted with some of the characters in this novel, both major and minor ones. Some of the characters who stood out for me, aside from Victor, are his mother, his lolo, Kenneth, Raffy, Father Abe, Angelo, Greg, Frank, among others. These characters greatly influenced the development of Victor, in one way or another. What I love about Victor’s character is how vivid and genuine he was described and depicted through the author’s insightful and imaginative words.

Despite the complexity of his character throughout the novel, Victor felt like a reflection of what it looks like to grow up queer in the countryside (well minus the understanding people that surround you).

“Kites in the Night” is a composite novel that navigates through the main character’s psychological journey from childhood to adulthood. Reading through the book, I was a little bit taken aback because of its structure—how the chapters end mostly with cliffhangers. As I read through it I got pretty used to it and found the beauty of this writing style. It mostly gave me the freedom to critically think and analyze what could possibly have happened during or after each chapter. Reading the stages of Victor’s life certainly gave me a wider perspective of what it is like to grow up and navigate life queer. I really liked how the author highlighted scenes of when Victor was still young and conflicted trying to figure out who he was, as well some of the heart-warming scenes of romance that definitely carried me away.

The social commentaries and interpretations of societal issues in this novel are quite accurate. Reading through them was probably among the highlights of this marvelous literary piece as I was enjoying while also learning through the MCs perspective. The author’s depiction on the issues in education, entertainment industry, politics, family dynamics, queer life, and relationships are commendable and well-written.

I was definitely awestruck while reading this novel and I am kind of wondering why I never bothered to look through indie-published books. This deserves to be mainstreamed as it is even better than some of the books I often encounter under this genre. This book just opened my heart for Filipino-written novels. So, if you are looking for a queer book to read this month, I would highly recommend this novel. Happy Pride Month!

[ΦΑΙΗ ΔΕΛΗΓΙΩΡΓΗ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Το μυθιστόρημα Χαρταετοί μέσα στη νύχτα, είναι η ζωή του ίδιου του Φιλιππινέζου συγγραφέα Blaise Campo Gacoscos, που μας την παρουσιάζει μέσα από την ιστορία του Βίκτορ Μολίνα, ενός άντρα στα 40 του που ζει στη Μανίλα. Κάθε ένα από τα κεφάλαια του είναι και ένα μέρος από τη ζωή του,που ο συγγραφέας αφηγείται μέσα από οκτώ αυτόνομες αλλά αλληλένδετες μεταξύ τους στορίες,την παιδική του ηλικία στο Ιλόκος των Φιλιππίνων μέχρι την ενηλικίωση του στη Μανίλα ,την εμπειρίες του στην εφηβεία, την πρώτη του δουλειά, τον θάνατο της μητέρας του, την επιστροφή του φευγάτου πατέρα του. Οι ιστορίες παρουσιάζονται με χρονολογική σειρά και είναι γραμμένες σε αυτοβιογραφικό ύφος, δίνοντας ιδιαίτερη έμφαση σε κάθε σημαντικό γεγονός που σημάδεψε τη ζωή του πρωταγωνιστή. Ο Γκακόσκος απεικόνιζει την εξερεύνηση της σεξουαλικότητάς του μέσα από τον χαρακτήρα τον Βίκτορ, και μέσα από μια σειρά γεγονότων που ξεκινούν και καταλήγουν στην ανακάλυψη του εαυτού του και στην αναζήτηση της προσωπικής του ταυτότητας.Το βιβλίο ειναι ένα ενδιαφέρον ανάγνωσμα κοινωνικής χροιάς που κινείται συγγραφικά ανάμεσα στα προσωπικά βιώματα και τη λογοτεχνία, και που ο ίδιος ο συγγραφέας μοιράζεται μαζί μας μέσα από μία εξαιρετική εξιστόρηση, και με μια αυτοαναλυτική διάθεση στο κείμενο του.Μια όμορφα γραμμένη ιστορία, που εκτιμάς για την αμεσότητα και την πολυχρωμία του λογού της,που προσφέρει στον αναγνώστη ένα πολυεπίπεδο και συγκινητικό κάποιες φορές ταξίδι, ικανό να κρατήσει γόνιμο το ενδιαφέρον του μέχρι και την τελευταία του σελίδα .

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

a quick and easy read; the prose was barebones (which is the author's intention, to make it sound like Filipino). stylistically i am not the biggest fan but the scenes were described well. i especially liked how one scene was written where the mother chokes on a fishbone from sinigang. as a work of art and fiction, it made me feel for the main character Victor. we never get an overarching problem to be resolved, with the plot being divided into several events across Victor's life. but that's the point, there is no problem to be solved, just a life to be lived. emotions to be felt from yearning, to fear, to contempt, to loneliness, to acceptance, to contentment. the thought of this endears me to Victor. his life is a glimpse into Philippine life; the writing uses Philippine English and some Filipino words which may seem unfamiliar to the culturally unassimilated. funnily, the author kept on using random French words and phrases in some of the passages and dialogues which kind of didn't make sense to me, other than the author wanting to sprinkle in some random French.

[yna · Rating 2 out of 5]

the fruity plot was getting interesting but it couldve been more :/

[Patrick Miguel · Rating 2 out of 5]

It could have been great, but execution was lackluster. It's an okay read. Read it in 3 hours. Helped me pass time. But I wish there could have been more.

[trisha · Rating 4 out of 5]

there is a specific chapter here that almost gave me a panic attack. it was nothing explicit nor overt but Gacoscos wrote it so effectively that I couldn't breathe because of fear.

You'll know it when you read it.