Stars: 5 like his other YA book Patron Saints of Nothing, this one should be in the classrooms.
My Thoughts:
Like Patron Saints, Ribay gives us another deeply complex look at family, toxic masculinity, and the Filipino iexperience in America through the Maghabol males.
With multiple narrators, we see the four Maghabol males as young men and as fathers and grandfathers in each other's stories. As narrators to their own stories, they don't understand the motives and intention of their fathers, however, this was a satisfyingly sorrowful read for me. I found myself waking up to read more because I wanted Enzo to talk to his lolo Emil and share things that Enzo's dad Chris never knew/understood, or even wanted to hear. I wanted Francisco to find some kind of happiness and success that I knew must have happened through Emil's story, but we don't see the in between times. We just know from the other stories. I love that strategy. As a reader, it helps me to stay fully engaged, which is why there is so much to do with this book in the English classroom.
From the Publisher:
Watsonville, 1930. Francisco Maghabol barely ekes out a living in the fields of California. As he spends what little money he earns at dance halls and faces increasing violence from white men in town, Francisco wonders if he should’ve never left the Philippines.
Stockton, 1965. Between school days full of prejudice from white students and teachers and night shifts working at his aunt’s restaurant, Emil refuses to follow in the footsteps of his labor organizer father, Francisco. He’s going to make it in this country no matter what or who he has to leave behind.
Denver, 1983. Chris is determined to prove that his overbearing father, Emil, can’t control him. However, when a missed assignment on “ancestral history” sends Chris off the football team and into the library, he discovers a desire to know more about Filipino history―even if his father dismisses his interest as unamerican and unimportant.
Philadelphia, 2020. Enzo struggles to keep his anxiety in check as a global pandemic breaks out and his abrasive grandfather moves in. While tensions are high between his dad and his lolo, Enzo’s daily walks with Lolo Emil have him wondering if maybe he can help bridge their decades-long rift.
Told in multiple perspectives, Everything We Never Had unfolds like a beautifully crafted nesting doll, where each Maghabol boy forges his own path amid heavy family and societal expectations, passing down his flaws, values, and virtues to the next generation, until it’s up to Enzo to see how he can braid all these strands and men together.
Stockton, 1965. Between school days full of prejudice from white students and teachers and night shifts working at his aunt’s restaurant, Emil refuses to follow in the footsteps of his labor organizer father, Francisco. He’s going to make it in this country no matter what or who he has to leave behind.
Denver, 1983. Chris is determined to prove that his overbearing father, Emil, can’t control him. However, when a missed assignment on “ancestral history” sends Chris off the football team and into the library, he discovers a desire to know more about Filipino history―even if his father dismisses his interest as unamerican and unimportant.
Philadelphia, 2020. Enzo struggles to keep his anxiety in check as a global pandemic breaks out and his abrasive grandfather moves in. While tensions are high between his dad and his lolo, Enzo’s daily walks with Lolo Emil have him wondering if maybe he can help bridge their decades-long rift.
Told in multiple perspectives, Everything We Never Had unfolds like a beautifully crafted nesting doll, where each Maghabol boy forges his own path amid heavy family and societal expectations, passing down his flaws, values, and virtues to the next generation, until it’s up to Enzo to see how he can braid all these strands and men together.
Publication Information:
Author: Randy Ribay
Publisher: Kokila (August 27, 2024)
Hardcover: 288 pages
ISBN-13: 978-0593461419
Grade level: 7-9
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