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(Yonhap Interview) Witty and insightful, Lee's novel gains following in S. Korea
By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, March 8 (Yonhap) -- She was once cast in with that sea of would-be authors, struggling to find a publisher for her debut novel: a lengthy, dense work full of complex characters that might intimidate even the most voracious reader. | | Photo Credit Richard Corman |
Now, people call her the "21st century Jane Austen," and Lee Min-jin has become one of the few Korean-American writers to have their book translated into the language of their parents.
"Free Food for Millionaires" -- a U.S. national best seller selected as a New York Times Editor's Choice and for the Wall Street Journal Juggle Book Club -- has been among the top 10 bestsellers in South Korea's "foreign fiction" list for several months.
"The responses from my readers regardless of race or culture have been very affirming," Lee said in an email interview with Yonhap News Agency. "I am profoundly grateful to all of my readers."
Backed by the growing popularity and recognition in her motherland, Lee will be giving a lecture at Seoul's prestigious Ewha Womans University in June on "Women, Displacement and Culture Identity."
A fan of Insadong, a central Seoul neighborhood populated by art galleries and independent shops, Lee said she visits South Korea frequently. She currently lives in Tokyo with her husband and son and is working on her second novel, "Pachinko," about the Zainichi Korean population in Japan.
Lee began writing "Free Food" in 2001 and finished it five years later -- and appears to have had a lot to say. The English version of "Free Food" is 560 pages-long and the Korean version has been divided into two volumes.
The catchy title, she said, came from a friend's story.
"One day, a friend told me a story about free lunches given at investment banks after a deal ends and sometimes the wealthiest employees were the first in line to grab a lot of free food. I thought this was ironic and funny: free food for millionaires," she said. "But as I wrote the story, I also wanted to make the point that I believe that we are all millionaires because each of us has been given original and invaluable gifts."
The book is certainly not just about investment bankers or free lunches. It is a coming-of-age story that follows the intermingling lives of a handful of characters from various racial and class backgrounds, set against the churning background of New York City.
Although Lee uses a large portion of the book to depict the lives of Korean immigrants in the United States -- led by her protagonist Casey Han -- the book has drawn fans across a spectrum of readers.
"The book's main themes are identity, love, and community," Lee said. "I wanted to write about many characters, not just one, and I wanted to follow all of their stories. It was crucial to me that their stories were related to one another's, much in the way our lives are interconnected in real life."
Lee says the novel is somewhat autobiographical, but describes Casey -- a lanky Princeton-educated 20-something in search for love and stability -- as "much more interesting" than herself.
The eldest daughter of blue collar immigrant Korean parents running a laundromat in Queens, Casey struggles to find the path that "seems fit for her" regardless of the options her expensive education provides.
In many ways, she is a conflicted character, too proud to take charity from wealthier friends while addicted to expensive habits like designer clothes and posh restaurants. The concept of "free food for millionaires" represents the perfect irony describing much of what she faces.
Through the eyes of Casey and her friends and colleagues, Lee explores classism and Western prejudices against Asian women.
In one scene, Casey is invited to her male colleague's apartment and is shocked to find pornography featuring an Asian woman and a white man.
"I find it troubling that Asian women are viewed routinely as mail-order brides, prostitutes, porn stars and dragon ladies in the western literature and media," Lee said. "I question the possibility of racial neutrality and objectiveness in interracial sexual relationships which have been affected by one lover's use of racialist pornography. This scene was a way for me to explore these questions."
Lee, 39, went to Yale University where she was awarded both the Henry Wright Prize for Nonfiction and the James Ashmun Veech Prize for Fiction. She attended law school at Georgetown University and worked as a lawyer for several years in New York prior to writing full time.
Lee said she never regretted giving up the high-powered job to become a full-time writer and mother.
"I quit being a lawyer in 1995 when I was working 7 days a week for one straight month," she said. "I think being a writer is very tough and challenging, and being a mom is the hardest and most rewarding job in the world."
Because she did not know of any Korean writers writing in English growing up, Lee said she felt it wasn't possible to be a writer.
"But if you are going to be a writer, you write anyway. It's hard to be a writer in any country, but it is also an enormous privilege, too."
hayney@yna.co.kr
(END)
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