The Last Story of Mina Lee

The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim 384 pages

First-time novelist Nancy Jooyoum Kim tackles some tough subjects in this novel: the power of language, immigration, death and the meanings of family and home.

Margot Lee has lived in Portland, Oregon, for the last few years while her mother, Mina, lives in Los Angeles. Her friend, Miguel, is moving to LA and Margot offers to drive him.  She plans to surprise her mother, but in reality, she is going to check up on her. Mina hasn’t answered the phone in two weeks.  Upon their arrival, Margot and Miguel find Mina dead in her Koreantown apartment.

Margot feel guilty that she didn’t follow up sooner, but the two weren’t close, yet they weren’t estranged. Margot hated talking to her mother as her mother spoke mostly Korean, but Margot barely speaks that language so phone communication is strained at best. Although Mina appears to have died from natural causes and the police do not suspect foul play, Margot has an intuition that murder is more likely and begins to look into her mother’s life.

The story alternates between 1987, when Mina came into the United States as an illegal immigrant, and 2014, the time of Mina’s death.  The 1987 version is told from Mina’s point of view, while the 2014 is from Margot’s.

The plot is rather slow-moving, but I enjoyed it. As Margot digs, she learns Mina’s secrets, rather shocking secrets that were the highlights of the novel.  I believe that Author Kim did this on purpose---while the secrets are nothing that hasn’t happened to others before, the slowness of the plot makes them stand out.

There were lots of mentions of Korean food and other words that I could never really figure out what exactly Author Kim meant. That also slowed the plot a bit. Every time I thought this would be a 3-star book, a secret was revealed elevating it to a 5-star read.  Therefore, The Last Story of Mina Lee receives 4 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

 

Emergency Contact

Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi     391 pages

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn't actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it's seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can't wait to leave behind.

Sam's stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for when he's a famous movie director but right this second the seventeen bucks in his checking account and his dying laptop are really testing him.

When Sam and Penny cross paths it's less meet-cute and more a collision of unbearable awkwardness. Still, they swap numbers and stay in touch--via text--and soon become digitally inseparable, sharing their deepest anxieties and secret dreams without the humiliating weirdness of having to see each other.

This was a really fun read! I enjoyed the premise of the two main characters forming a relationship over the concept of being eachother's "emergency contact." Their text conversations are funny, relatable, and cute and it made this romance a very contemporary, unique one. 

I will say that this book will become dated very quickly because of how niche the lingo can be at times. There are references to YouTube, Instagram, emojiis, and iphones galore. This story is very grounded in the early 21st century, not just with the technology, but also the slang and the references to apps. However, I still find it an enjoyable read. Only time will tell how the content holds up for the future.

I think both Penny and Sam are well written characters - they are unique in their observations and very human in their reactions. I'm glad the author was able to give them distinct voices, despite how similar they were in many ways. All the side characters were interesting and brought some lightness to the angst of the main characters - I would loved to have seen more of Jude and Mallory, but I understand that the focus was not on college-life, per say, and more on the intimate workings of Penny's and Sam's thoughts and feelings and how they processed the world.

Overall, I'd recommend it to those who are looking for a slightly less "juvenile" YA - and by that, I mean, the young adult period of college/almost adulthood, rather than high school drama. Sam is 21, so we're dealing with a more mature young adult (if you can call him mature), with more adult problems. This would be a great read for teens transitioning from reading YA to Adult Fiction. I'd still recommend it to anyone looking for a cute, young romance book.

Love and Other Consolation Prizes

Love and Other Consolation Prizes by Jamie Ford     320 pages

It’s been eight and four years, respectively, since author Jamie Ford released his first two novels. I must say, that the wait for “Love and Other Consolation Prizes,” has been worth it.

With his “never ending appetite for lost history,” Ford stumbled upon the story of a healthy boy who was raffled off during the Alaskan-Yukon-Pacific Exposition (AKY) of 1909. The five-year-old, half-Chines/half white boy was won by the madam of one of Seattle’s most notorious brothels, The Tenderloin.

The novel is Ernest’s story. It is framed with the AKY of 1909 and the Century 21 Exposition of 1962. I love the dualing timelines, and no one does them better than Jamie Ford.

The book follows Ernest from 1902, when his mother sends him to America because they are near death from starvation. The journey by ship is harrowing and frightening, but Ernest makes a few friends in the cargo hold stuffed with other children. He arrives safely in American where he spends a year at the Holy Ward School, paid for by his sponsor. When he asks to attend another school, his sponsor, Mrs. Irvine, takes him to the AYP and donates him to be raffled off.

Ernest is won by Madam Flo and taken to her brothel. There he becomes a houseboy and begins to find the family that he longed for. As fate would have it, Ernest meets up with one of the girls from the ship, but she is so healthy now, he hardly recognizes her. The period details are remarkable, proving that Ford has done is homework.   

Then the story flashes forward fifty years. It’s now 1962. Ernest lives live a flea bag hotel so that he can afford hospital care for his dementia-suffering wife, Gracie. Their daughter, Judy, is a reporter and has stumbled upon what she believes is the biggest story of her career: the little boy raffled away like a set of cheap dishes. When she learns that the boy is her father, she tries her best to convince him to tell his story.

I loved this story, this search for family, love and belonging that Ford does so well.  “Love and Other Consolation Prizes” receives 6 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.