The Gangster of Love (1996)

The Gangster of Love is a novel written by Jessica Hagedorn and published by Houghton Mifflin in 1996.

Plot

"Jimi Hendrix died the year that ship that brought us from Manila docked in San Francisco..." So begins The Gangster of Love, with the arrival of Rocky Rivera, her brother Voltaire and their mother Milagros at San Francisco. Barely just teenagers upon their arrival, the years pass as Rocky and Voltaire begin growing up, finishing school and discovering San Francisco of the 1970s while their mother brings money into the house through several ways from flirtations with several different men, including Zeke, their landlord to the beginning of her catering business, Lumpia X-Press. Rocky has grown into a quiet young woman more comfortable with listening to music and writing in her journals (of which she has several, kept under her mattress) than socializing. One night, Voltaire brings home Elvis Chang, a Chinese-American guitarist, with whom Rocky falls in love and moves in with one week later. Wandering around San Francisco, Rocky meets Keiko Van Heller, an artist who becomes Rocky's friend for life. Soon, Rocky, Elvis and Keiko decide to move to New York City.

The journey begins with a side trip to Los Angeles however, where they encounter Sly and Marlon, Rocky's uncle. Eventually, they make it to New York City where the band grows and through the years they gain more experience in matters of fame, sex, drugs, and life in general, while Rocky's family on the West Coast remains a constant presence over the phone. Rocky's failed pregnancy (she miscarries) acts as the beginning of the end for Rocky and Elvis, a situation exacerbated when Keiko sleeps Elvis. Rocky then moves on to Jake, a Cuban-American sound engineer with whom she has a baby: Venus Rivera Montano. At this time on the West Coast, Voltaire has returned to the Philippines after several stints in the hospital while Milagros, her sister and her brother-in-law have decided to pay New York City a visit, in time for Imelda Marcos's hearing. Soon after however, Milagros's health begins deteriorating and Rocky spends months commuting between her family in New York and at her mother's bedside in San Francisco. When her mother dies, Rocky decides to take a trip to the motherland where she is reunited with her family, including her brother, her sister and her dying father.

The plot is cyclical: the story begins with Rocky and her family leaving Manila and arriving in San Francisco, the narration interspersed with various memories of her life in the Philippines. Upon moving to New York City, Rocky reminisces about her life in San Francisco throughout her daily life. Her recollections increase until she returns to San Francisco to take care of her mother. Her decision to go back to the Philippines is made once in San Francisco, a rather natural choice considering her mother's recent death and the fact that her long-suffering father was finally dying.

Narration and Hagedorn's prose style

"The Gangster of Love" refers to the name of the band formed by several characters in the novel, including Rocky. The name was inspired by a dream Rocky had after taking acid: "A choir of fat, menacing angels wearing yellow satin robes sang this song by Johnny Guitar Watson called 'Gangster of Love'." While written in English, Hagedorn includes some Tagalog (Filipino words), particularly in the dialogue and goes so far as to use the Filipino as a distinctive characteristic that sets the more Filipino characters apart from the Filipino-Americans.

Though Rocky acts as the first-person narrator for most of the novel, Hagedorn, writes certain portions omniscient narration, once in a while giving the points of view of other characters without the use of first person narration. There are moments in which she even uses the mention of a certain character to introduce said-character's own narration, for instance, when Rocky and Elvis visit her uncle in Los Angeles:

"Marlon studied Elvis Chang – his niece's lover, boyfriend, whatever. Tall and maybe a little too skinny, but pretty enough with that gold hoop in his ear. Elvis Chang, Marlon thought to himself, amused. Elvis Chang in the home of Marlon Rivera. Fucking ridiculous."

Ever the avant-garde, Hagedorn explores the use of poetry, music and playwriting throughout the novel. Once in a while, she makes use of poetry to depict the life, the surroundings of her characters, for example, a description of a ride on the B Train and playwriting; there are two dream-like scenes featuring Rocky, Elvis and Jimi Hendrix.

Characters

Major characters

Rocky Rivera: the main character and narrator for most of the novel, is a quiet woman forever caught in the "in-betweens". From the very beginning, she is caught between her mother's whimsical move to the Philippines and the father she doesn't really know but still cares for; between Elvis and Keiko, Elvis and the band, the band and the events of daily life; eventually between Jake and Elvis; and most of all, the overwhelming "between" of being an Asian-American. As she grows up, she moves from San Francisco to New York, and finally returns to Manila at the end of the novel.

Voltaire Rivera: Rocky's older brother and the veritable black sheep of the family, dressing and acting the part of the hippie (controversial especially amongst conservative Filipinos). As stated by Rocky herself: "My father once threatened to have Voltaire arrested by the Marcos secret police for looking like an effeminate bakla." (Bakla is Filipino for "homosexual.") Voltaire is a supportive older brother who is also plagued by sumpungs, dark mood swings that end in tantrums and violence, landing him in the hospital on several occasions. Despite Jimi Hendrix as his idol and his bumbling but charming personality, he struggles to adapt to America and is the first of his family to return to the Philippines.