Torn between parents and peers
Free Food for Millionaires ,by Korean-American author Min Jin Lee, was published 10 years ago, and has only now made it to Aotearoa from the US after the publication of her second book, Pachinko.
Free Food is 560 pages, with a large cast, taking place in New York City in the 1990s. The protagonist is Casey Han, a young Korean-American woman who disgusts her working-class immigrant parents with her desire to date a white man and to “find herself” after college rather than going straight to law school.
The Korean word han roughly translates to resentment, sorrow, sense of loss and hardship, stifled passion and love or the frustration of the downtrodden; Casey’s anger and spikiness make for energetic reading.
Her han is partly because of her parents’ heavy expectations and because of her struggles against multiple interlocking power structures in US society: misogyny, racism, classism, rape culture, poverty, slut-shaming. One passage, where Casey talks to a white male colleague, particularly resonates: “. . . you’re so free. Your movements, your speech, your appearance. You’re not marked as exceptional or different. You’re just a tall, good-looking white guy with solid connections. And you were born like that. What is that like? . . . It’s preposterous how much unearned power you have.”
Free Food for Millionaires treads familiar narrative ground with first-generation immigrant characters torn between the competing cultural values of their parents and their peers. But Lee provides context by including the perspective of Leah, Casey’s mother, whose own han comes from a life of drudgery in a commercial laundry and an oppressive husband.
Pachinko also tells a Korean immigrant tale but the story is set in Japan. Both novels are well worth reading for their excellent storytelling and timely insights into the immigrant experience.