Boy Wander: A Coming of Age Memoir

Abueva explores in this intriguing if cumbersome debut the dual roles he played in his adolescence as the golden boy of a prominent Filipino family and a sex worker. The first son of a renowned academic and a political scientist, Abueva was aware of his charmed status early on: “I was a boy being groomed to expectations and destined to land somewhere good in life.” Creative and personable, he became a child TV star in the Philippines. Beneath his outward joviality, though, he was roiled by major struggles, including being the victim of childhood sexual abuse. He was also terrified to come out as gay in his Catholic community, fearing he’d be rendered “unrecognizable, if not diabolic, for having these yearnings society didn’t tolerate.” At 15, he started performing sex work for foreign businessmen at Tokyo’s upscale Imperial Hotel while pursuing his goal of getting into an American college. Abueva’s story is most successful when the subject matter is transgressive, particularly when he examines the eroticism and shame driving his sexual desires. Too often, though, this feels like a lopsided collection of anecdotes in need of a central focus. Still, its complicated take on third-culture queerness will resonate with many readers. (May)