A review by njlanzetta
The Son of Good Fortune by Lysley Tenorio

3.0

3.5 stars rounded down. The Son of Good Fortune tells the story of Excel, an undocumented Filipino teenager trying to make sense of his life with his stoic mother Maxima. It jumps back and forth in time from when Excel left home with his girlfriend Sab to live off the grid in the desert and when he comes back home to his mother. I loved the perspective of Excel dealing with his identity of being undocumented and having to "hide" his whole life. Maxima was an interesting character. She used to be a B-movie action star in the Philippines before moving to the US where she now scams men online for money. The ending was really disappointing to me, which was why this got 3 stars. I liked Excel's journey of trying to figure out his role in life and what to do and I love stories about immigrant experiences in America, but the ending fell completely flat for me.

Spoiler

Excel finds out everything Maxima has done is to provide a good life for him, but then at the end, she is going to leave him to go back to the Philippines? I feel like all of the progress their relationship made was undone by her planning to leave her 19 year old undocumented son alone in the US. That made me so mad.