The Man in the McIntosh Suit

A Filipino-American take on Depression-era noir featuring mistaken identities, speakeasies, and lost love.

The year is 1929 and Bobot is just another migrant worker in rural California. Or rather, a migrant worker with a law degree from the Philippines reduced to manual labor in America. Bobot, like so many other young Filipinos, finds himself bunking in the fields, picking fruit by day. When his cousin writes claiming to have spotted his estranged wife in nearby San Francisco, he swipes a co-worker's favorite nightclub suit and heads to the big city to find her. What follows is classic noir with seedy dives, mouthy pool sharks, and obsession.

Rina Ayuyang indulges her passion for old Hollywood and elaborate movie musicals while exploring her immigrant roots in a playful and mysterious drama, creating something she never saw but always had hoped for--a classic tale about people who looked just like her. The Man in the McIntosh Suit is a gripping, romantic, and psychological exploration of a fledgling community chasing the American dream in an unwelcoming society heightened by racial hostility and the bubbling undercurrent of the coming Great Depression.

Publisher: Drawn & Quarterly
Published: 05/02/2023
Pages: 212
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 8.20h x 6.10w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781770466661


Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 05/08/2023
Booklist 05/15/2023 pg. 37
Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2023
Library Journal 06/01/2023 pg. 104

About the Author
Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Rina Ayuyang was always inspired by the Sunday newspaper funnies and slice-of-life tales. Her short stories have been nominated for the Ignatz and Eisner Awards, and she has been honored with a MoCCA Arts Festival Award of Excellence silver medal. Her comics have appeared in Mutha Magazine and The Comics Journal. She is also the publisher of the micro-comics imprint Yam Books. Her first book was Whirlwind Wonderland. Ayuyang lives in Oakland, California, with her husband and son.