Flipping

by Ricardo Ramos, Stephen O. Murray (Editor)

In this searing and frequently surprising novel, three Filipino males who have sex with males come to terms with their sexuality in different ways: one as a traditionally effeminate bakla' in a quest for a “real man,” one as an open gay man, and one as a nominally “straight” man. What is most shocking in this book is not the explicit sex (of which there is a lot!), but the representation of racialized desire, which is far more taboo a topic in contemporary America than sex (even homosex) is.

To those whose internalized thought police want to shut down Flipping early on, I would say, “Read on and withhold your verdict until you see what happens. Threre are several flips of expectations and several sexually active F[i]lip[io]s ahead.” What you read may not all be pretty and comforting, but what is most troubling is all-too real, however repressed discussion of it usually is. The totality of the book may still shock you, but I hazard to predict some surprises of structure and character growth and variety lie ahead. If you can suspend judgment about the first narrator’s political incorrectness and deal with explicit sex, this is a very funny and ultimately moving first novel. It is “shocking” in some good senses as well as in the sense of “troubling.”

—Stephen O. Murray

182 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Ricardo Ramos ou Ricardo Medeiros Ramos foi um escritor (romancista e ensaísta), advogado e jornalista brasileiro. Ganhou, por três vezes, o Prêmio Jabuti com as respectivas obras Os caminhantes de Santa Luzia (1960), Os desertos (1962) e Matar um homem (1971).

Reviews

[Vampire Who Baked · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not everyday that a publisher has to include a note justifying their decision to publish the book. Having said that, apart from the (often bewildering) racist diatribes, the book isn't really all that transgressive if you can handle incest and graphic descriptions of sex and some violence. Really great perspective on growing up femme and gay in the Pinoy American community. The "white-aspiration" is in particular very honestly done, or feels like it's honest at any rate. Pretty much every story and anecdote (basically the entire book reads like a memoir) is amazing to read, alternating between laugh-out-loud dark humour pretty much everywhere, and intense bitterness and grief while describing the violence and racial injustice that is often unseen and left unexplored.

The first half of the book is by itself worth getting a copy of it-- recommended!