In this searing and frequently surprising novel, three Filipino males who have sex with males come to terms with their sexuality in different ways: one as a traditionally effeminate bakla' in a quest for a “real man,” one as an open gay man, and one as a nominally “straight” man. What is most shocking in this book is not the explicit sex (of which there is a lot!), but the representation of racialized desire, which is far more taboo a topic in contemporary America than sex (even homosex) is.
Like the narrators of Peter Jackson's The Intrinsic Quality of Skin and Badruddin Khan's Sex, Longing & Not Belonging (from the same publisher), the two main narrators in Flipping are not afraid to reveal attitudes that would be instantly condemned by the keepers of political correctness. The dominant view is 'You're not supposed to have thoughts (and desires) like that, and, if you do, you certainly shouldn't admit them!'"
To those whose internalized thought police want to shut down Flipping early on, I would say, “Read on and withhold your verdict until you see what happens. Threre are several flips of expectations and several sexually active F[i]lip[io]s ahead.” What you read may not all be pretty and comforting, but what is most troubling is all-too real, however repressed discussion (and representation) of it usually are. The totality of the book may still shock you, but I hazard to predict some surprises of structure and character growth and variety lie ahead.
The first narrator's voice is so compelling that it's hard to believe that the novel is not autobiographical. However, such a person probably wouldn’t write a book, and Felipe is closer to what the author is really like. Or maybe Bantugan? I would have liked Felipe to be developed more fully. I especially liked the fractured fairy tales, antidotes to some of the intense realities of domination and prejudices shown in the other parts. Too bad Edward Everett Horton is not alive to record the fairy tales!
If you can suspend judgement about the first narrator and deal with explicit sex, this is a very funny and ultimately moving first novel. “Shocking” in some good senses as well as in the sense of “troubling.”
P.S. An interview I conducted with author Ricardo Ramos can be read at
http://www.floatinglotus.com/enter.html?target=flipping.html
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