This is a deceptively simple novel, written with no "SAT words" on the well-worn "a year in the life/coming of age" theme using the familiar structure of following a different character per chapter with Dae Joon's POV providng the centering viewpoint**. It settles down into a comfortable groove and Dae Joon's first year in the US unfolds with a sense of melancholy doom punctuated by fleeting moments of situational humor, the kindness of near-strangers, and the understanding of those who are experiencing the same (or similar) problems as you. It's the little connections that matter in this novel, and the chapters that seamlessly blend the stories are wonderfully done. I think my favorite connection may be one of the more trivial ones, but in the first chapter In Sook reminds Dae Joon of the first time she took him to lunch, so when that lunch actually happens 80 pages later, I'm thrilled.
Mini-disclaimer: I knew the author 20 years ago in high school, when Sung burst upon my consciousness in Miss Flynn's 11th grade honors English course. He had a discerning ear for beautiful language and a keen eye for ferreting out the few finer points of whatever we were reading that everyone else missed. Out of a large class of really sharp kids (self, ahem, included) you knew this guy could have a bright future in literary analysis and perhaps writing fiction.
** Sung mentions Faulkner in his acknowledgements, and it makes me wonder how much As I Lay Dying, which we read senior year in Mr. Ripley's AP English class along with Absalom! Absalom!, figured in his subconscious when writing this novel.
*** Hey! I actually read a book the year it was published!
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