Hiding and Hiding

In The Son of Good Fortune, invisibility and hiddenness are tools of self-preservation that ultimately inhibit the possibility of growth and connection. When Excel learns from Maxima that they are TNT, a Tagalog phrase translating to “hiding and hiding,” he makes it his mission to be invisible. The novel emphasizes Excel’s anxiety about invisibility with the recurring phrase, “I’m not really here.” When he first returns to Colma, he sneaks into a neighbor’s apartment to observe the sleek, luxurious interiors that contrast the Maximos’ humble living space just one floor below. When he is caught by the neighbors’ young child, he backs out of the window, whispering “I’m not here” (15). Later, when Excel pleads for his job back and prepares for Gunter to inflict upon him physical violence as retaliation, he whispers to himself, “I’m not here. I’m...