I read Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko earlier this year and found it brilliant. I picked up her earlier debut novel, Free Food for Millionaires, because I had liked Pachinko so much. As was the case with Pachinko, I loved Lee’s style and this book lured me right in.
Set in New York City of the 1990s, the book opens as the story of Casey Han, a second generation Korean immigrant who has made good and pleased her parents by graduating from an Ivy League university and now needs to find her way forward. With a younger sister studying science at MIT, Casey’s economics degree doesn’t seem practical to her parents. Caught between her desire to make money and demonstrate the success her parents expect and the reality of being a freshly-minted college grad with realms of confidence but no life plan, Casey is struggling.
The novel navigates the life of Korean immigrants finding their way in the United States and shows us the high stakes that Casey and her sister experience in the world. In that sense, it’s a timeless American novel.
It’s well-written, with an honest and acerbic narrative style that is right up my alley. The characters are well-developed and the third person omniscient narrative style ensues that we have the chance to view the world for their point of view. Even though there were characters I did not like or respect, the style of the narrative ensured that I still found a way to sympathize with them.
Lee has become must-read for me and it’s nice to know that she’s got a few more novels in her.
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