Fil-Am author's debut novel gets props from NY Times

The debut novel of a Filipino-American author garnered ample space in the venerable New York Times for its quirky plot satirizing ethnic profiling in the age of terrorism paranoia. It's rare global exposure for a first-time novelist whose book hadn't even hit bookstores yet. Set to be released on January 5 (United States time), Alex Gilvarry's novel "From the Memoirs of a Non-Enemy Combatant" tells of a rising young Pinoy designer named Boyet Hernandez—or Boy—who was arrested and sent to the Guantanamo prison for terrorists, where "he pens a memoir about the Williamsburg fashion scene, from 2002 too 2006, as well as the Philippines," the New York Times said.     Gilvarry, a native of Staten Island in New York, told the New York Times that his trip to the Philippines in his mid-20s "inspired him to write about someone from there."   One of his mentors, best-selling author Colum McCann, said the half-Filipino's novel is "poetic, incisive, and inordinately funny."   McCann, author of the 2009 National Book Award recipient "Let the Great World Spin," told the New York Times that Gilvarry "has an enormous desire" and "thankfully... equal amounts of humility."   His other mentor, Gary Shteyngart, who called him "a young talent on the rise," said: "It's rare for a novel to tread so fearlessly into the political and yet to emerge so deeply funny and humane."  Some of the reviews posted on Gilvarry's website said: “Gilvarry’s debut gracefully tackles politically charged subject matter, acknowledging the validity of the terrorist threat as well as the danger of stereotyping and fear-mongering . . . Recounting the years leading up to his imprisonment with wit and compassion . . . Boyet is thrust into a public spectacle of good and evil. An engaging victim of uncertain times, he’s a protagonist who will appeal to readers of all political persuasions.” (Publishers Weekly)

Artist lost in political world In the article, Gilvarry said he wanted to write about "an artist from a superficial world thrown into a political world."  The book, to be released by Viking/Penguin on Thursday (US time), tells of Boy, "a small man with a big American dream," who comes to New York in 2002, "fresh out of design school in Manila."   However, only weeks later, Boy "is brought to Gitmo, handed a Koran, and locked away indefinitely on suspicion of being linked to a terrorist plot." Excerpts of the novel, available at the Penguin Group (USA)'s site, describe the lead character's love for America and how "New York City was a utopia."  In the novel, Boy, who finds himself in an unfashionable 6 feet by 8 feet prison cell, attempts "to stay fashionably attired" by removing the sleeves of "his orange prison-issued jumpsuit" and "tapering his pant legs"— a stint that "won him friends in New York" but made him the subject of mockery among the other prisoners and guards.   "My story is one of unrequited love. Love for a country so great that it has me welling up inside knowing it could never love me back. And even after the torment they've put me through -- tossing me into this little cell in No Man's Land -- would you believe that I still hold America close to my heart? Stupid me, Boy Hernandez. Filipino by birth, fashion designer by trade, and terrorist by association." By contrast, there was Manila, my hometown. I grew up on the north end in a wealthy suburb. Tobacco Gardens, corner of Marlboro and Kools (no kidding). Though I didn't come from tobacco money. My parents had a private practice, which made us middle-class at best.   "I left the suburbs to attend fashion school at FIM. It was there that I began to choke in my city's own mistakes—the crowded motorways, barrios, dirt, and smog gave me a bad case of acne and an all-consuming desire to get the hell out of there. And Manila was no place for a serious designer of women's wear."