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In this One Book, One New York 2019 nominee from the author of National Book Award Finalist Pachinko, the Korean-American daughter of first-generation immigrants strives to join Manhattan's inner circle. Meet Casey Han: a strong-willed, Queens-bred daughter of Korean immigrants immersed in a glamorous Manhattan lifestyle she can't afford. Casey is eager to make it on her own, away from the judgements of her parents' tight-knit community, but she soon finds that her Princeton economics degree isn't enough to rid her of ever-growing credit card debt and a toxic boyfriend. When a chance encounter with an old friend lands her a new opportunity, she's determined to carve a space for herself in a glittering world of privilege, power, and wealth-but at what cost? Set in a city where millionaires scramble for the free lunches the poor are too proud to accept, this sharp-eyed epic of love, greed, and ambition is a compelling portrait of intergenerational strife, immigrant struggle, and social and economic mobility. Addictively readable, Min Jin Lee's bestselling debut Free Food for Millionaires exposes the intricate layers of a community clinging to its old ways in a city packed with haves and have-nots.… (more)
fiction - young Korean-American women and their friends and family experiencing love and various kinds of heartbreaks in 1990s New York City
it didn't take long for me to get hooked in to the complexities of these characters' lives -- I loved that there was so much depth to each of them, beyond their ethnic cultural identity and food, and their stories were fascinating (the millinery details were fun too). Still have not read Pachinko as there is still a long waiting list, but looking forward to that eventually. ( )
One star off because I have only so much tolerance for Wall Street scenes but Min Jin Lee is once again masterful at handling generational trauma with a light touch ( )
The main character (Casey) is so unlikeable that I could not finish the first chapter. I much preferred Pachinko and thought I'd like this just as much. ( )
The main character (Casey) is so unlikeable that I could not finish the first chapter. I much preferred Pachinko and thought I'd like this just as much. ( )
I had to keep reminding myself that this book was written in 1998-ish. In 1998, I myself was an undegrad enlightening myself on the issues in race, class, and gender in the United States. "Deconstruction" was a word frequently used. So, for 1998, this novel touches on many of the race/class/gender issues of Asian American women. But looking at it from today, in 2009, it was almost like the book was such a device to discuss these issues--in as many pairings of variables as possible. Like something assigned for a Sociology or American Studies course, in 1999. The story itself got lost in there. I think it was a good one, the story. But I kept losing it. Also, this story was told from the perspective of an East Coast APA woman. I myself am of the West Coast variety. Maybe these two experiences are vastly different. But it just didn't seem "real" enough to me, but instead cliched and assumptive.
That said, again, the story itself was good. I relate to the characters and they have real human emotions. I didn't really care for the protagonist, but her story was unique. ( )
In this One Book, One New York 2019 nominee from the author of National Book Award Finalist Pachinko, the Korean-American daughter of first-generation immigrants strives to join Manhattan's inner circle. Meet Casey Han: a strong-willed, Queens-bred daughter of Korean immigrants immersed in a glamorous Manhattan lifestyle she can't afford. Casey is eager to make it on her own, away from the judgements of her parents' tight-knit community, but she soon finds that her Princeton economics degree isn't enough to rid her of ever-growing credit card debt and a toxic boyfriend. When a chance encounter with an old friend lands her a new opportunity, she's determined to carve a space for herself in a glittering world of privilege, power, and wealth-but at what cost? Set in a city where millionaires scramble for the free lunches the poor are too proud to accept, this sharp-eyed epic of love, greed, and ambition is a compelling portrait of intergenerational strife, immigrant struggle, and social and economic mobility. Addictively readable, Min Jin Lee's bestselling debut Free Food for Millionaires exposes the intricate layers of a community clinging to its old ways in a city packed with haves and have-nots.
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"Competence can be a curse."
So begins Min Jin Lee's epic novel about class, society, and identity. Casey Han's four years at Princeton have given her many things-"a refined diction, an enviable golf handicap, a popular white boyfriend, an agnostic's closeted passion for reading the Bible, and a magna cum laude degree in economics, but no job and a number of bad habits.
Casey's parents, who live in Queens, are Korean immigrants working at a dry cleaner, desperately trying to hold on to their culture and identity. Their daughter, on the other hand,m has entered into the upper echelon of rarefied American society via scholarships. But after graduation, while Casey's trust-fund friends see only opportunity and choices, Casey sees the reality of having expensive habits without the means to sustain them. As Casey navigates Manhattan, we see her life and the lives of those around her-her sheltered mother and scarred father, her friend Ella's ambitious Korean husband and his Causcasian mistress, Casey's white fiance, and then her Korean boyfriend-culminate in a portrait of NYC and its worlds of haves and have nots.
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it didn't take long for me to get hooked in to the complexities of these characters' lives -- I loved that there was so much depth to each of them, beyond their ethnic cultural identity and food, and their stories were fascinating (the millinery details were fun too). Still have not read Pachinko as there is still a long waiting list, but looking forward to that eventually. (