What do you think?
Notes from a Wayward Son: A Memoir
A beautifully crafted, achingly honest memoir about the fraught relationship between Adrian De Leon and his father—a former captain in the Philippines military, a martial arts master and an archbishop—set in 1990s and early 2000s Scarborough.
The first memory Adrian De Leon has of his father is when he is four years old. He is sitting in front of his family home in Manila, Philippines, when he sees a man with a military haircut and a collared shirt ascend the stairs before him. In the aftermath of the Marcos dictatorship in the early 1990s, Tatay—Father—had moved halfway across the world to live in a compound in the Arabian Desert. Despite his pedigree as a military officer and a religious scholarship to study in Manila, the best possible place of employment for a Filipino man who needed sufficient wages to support a family was abroad.
A year later, Tatay uproots his family to Canada, where they start a new life in Scarborough. While Tatay struggles to find steady full-time work, Adrian endeavours to learn English, make friends at his local Catholic school, and assimilate into this new-world neighbourhood made up of Asian, African, and Caribbean immigrant families. Eventually, Adrian’s father opens a dojo, where he teaches a little-known Filipino martial art called kuntaw. The dojo becomes a community hub, and the place where Tatay teaches and trains his son. As the family grows with the arrival of his grandmother from the Philippines and a new baby brother, and Adrian becomes a rebellious teenager and young adult, so too does the conflict and tension between father and son.
Acclaimed poet and historian Adrian De Leon has crafted a vivid and visceral journey into the fraught relationship between immigrant fathers and sons set against the backdrop of imperialism and revolution. But, above all, Notes from a Wayward Son is a homage to the fierce love of family and the search for forgiveness.
The first memory Adrian De Leon has of his father is when he is four years old. He is sitting in front of his family home in Manila, Philippines, when he sees a man with a military haircut and a collared shirt ascend the stairs before him. In the aftermath of the Marcos dictatorship in the early 1990s, Tatay—Father—had moved halfway across the world to live in a compound in the Arabian Desert. Despite his pedigree as a military officer and a religious scholarship to study in Manila, the best possible place of employment for a Filipino man who needed sufficient wages to support a family was abroad.
A year later, Tatay uproots his family to Canada, where they start a new life in Scarborough. While Tatay struggles to find steady full-time work, Adrian endeavours to learn English, make friends at his local Catholic school, and assimilate into this new-world neighbourhood made up of Asian, African, and Caribbean immigrant families. Eventually, Adrian’s father opens a dojo, where he teaches a little-known Filipino martial art called kuntaw. The dojo becomes a community hub, and the place where Tatay teaches and trains his son. As the family grows with the arrival of his grandmother from the Philippines and a new baby brother, and Adrian becomes a rebellious teenager and young adult, so too does the conflict and tension between father and son.
Acclaimed poet and historian Adrian De Leon has crafted a vivid and visceral journey into the fraught relationship between immigrant fathers and sons set against the backdrop of imperialism and revolution. But, above all, Notes from a Wayward Son is a homage to the fierce love of family and the search for forgiveness.
- GenresNonfiction
341 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 19, 2026
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 24, 2026
i enjoyed the purposefully subtle, honest storytelling and richly detailed memories that the author reconstructed via what is essentially a letter to his father, tenderly enveloped in the 300+ pages of this novel.
Want to Read
filipino memoir set in scarborough w a focus on a father-son relationship...*immediately marks as to-read* really looking forward to reading this once it releases
i'd recommend this for readers who want a glimpse at the beauty and imperfections and struggles of living and growing up as a kid in scarborough + of growing up with (Asian) immigrant fathers and families, for those who want to learn about filipino martial arts, the language of anger and violence, trauma, sexuality, healing, Catholicism and filipino community, what it's like to fall in love with music, Jeremy Passion and filipino masculinity in the digital age, what it means to truly appreciate your own culture and then to fall in love with language/linguistics + speaking and learning Ilokano....! there is much more in this book and i enjoyed the explorations of topics.
i learned a lot from this author's story. and as the daughter of filipino immigrants (especially as a gen z girl who grew up in southern ontario) i related to many sentiments and came away feeling inspired.
the father character was a very interesting, complex and layered portrayal of a filipino man that i appreciated, i dont think portrayals like this are common so i found it refreshing.////
Want to Read
filipino memoir set in scarborough w a focus on a father-son relationship...*immediately marks as to-read* really looking forward to reading this once it releases
July 9, 2026
I did not enjoy the second person narration, it did not flow for me at all. However I picked up this book because I recognized the location on the cover, I live near it. This book does a good job capturing being a kid in Scarborough, brings up a lot of very genuine, recognizable locations and paths in the community and gives a straightforward representation of life here.
August 27, 2026
Fathers are complicated. There is hope in the thought they were doing what they thought was best at the time. There is hope my boys will view me the same way.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews