Book Club Pick: January 2021
Title: Patron Saints of Nothing
Authors: Randy Ribay
Series: Stand alone novel
Country: United States of America
Publisher: Kokila, imprint of Penguin Random House
First Published: 2019
Pages: 366
Publisher Description:
Jay Reguero plans to spend the summer playing video games before heading to university. But then he discovers that his Filipino cousin Jun was murdered as part of President Duterte’s war on drugs. No one in the family wants to talk about what happened, so Jay travels to the Philippines to find out the real story. As he uncovers more about Jun, he is forced to face some uncomfortable truths about his cousin’s death – and the part he played in it.
Review:
17-year-old Filipino-American Jay Reguero is a high school senior living in suburban Michigan, who is looking forward to a summer of playing video games before he heads off to university.
His plans are turned on their head when Jay’s parents tell him that his Filipino cousin Jun is dead. Jay and Jun had only meet a few times when Jay’s family returned to the Philippines to visit. The two cousins were pen pals when they were younger. Although in recent years this had stopped after Jay got distracted by life and stopped writing.
Jun was murdered as part of President Duterte’s war on drugs. Jun’s father Manning, who is also a Police Chief, won’t even hold a funeral for his son. The family do not want to talk about what happened. Jay does not believe that Jun was a drug user and this was the reason he was killed, so he returns to his homeland to uncover the truth.
The story is told from Jay’s first person perspective but Jun’s letters to Jay are also interspersed throughout the story giving it another layer. The novel is also positive in its LGBTQ representation featuring several characters that are queer.
While Jun’s story is fictional it is based on true events. In an author note Ribay writes that at the time of writing ‘the Philippine National Police reports that approximately 4,300 Filipinos have died as a result of the campaign since Roderigo Duterte was elected president in 2016. However, the Human Rights watch estimates that more than 12,000 people have been killed, and other data suggests that the number might be over 20,000. It is likely that we will never know the exact number.’
This coming-of-age novel is also an exploration of dual identities – being American and being Filipino.
Links:
Source: I borrowed this book from my public library.
