Reviews - Free food for millionaires

1.7k reviews for:

Free food for millionaires

Min Jin Lee

3.9 AVERAGE

stoykoj's review against another edition

3.25

reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

cmreadsbooks's review against another edition

4.5

emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Wonderful - not as strong writing as Panchinko but gripping character driven stories. The main character is deeply frustrating but lovable.

Content Warnings

jeruen's review against another edition

2.0

Urgh. I was expecting something better when I picked up this book. Unfortunately, after 600-something pages, it didn't really deliver. Rather, I felt like it was just a waste of my time.

The thing is, I put this book on my reading list after reading the author's second book, Pachinko. This was four years ago, and I had an enjoyable time reading that book, to the point that I decided to check out the other works of the author, such as her first book, this current one. Unfortunately, the excitement and enjoyment I experienced in her second book wasn't actually replicated. While this one began quite gripping, in medias res so to speak, it didn't really give the reader further motivation to continue. It felt like a soap opera, where you can simply tune in at any point in time in the narrative, and you'll still more or less get a fairly accurate picture of what is going on.

So what is going on here? Well, there are several themes. It is a story of Korean Americans, families who moved from Korea and settled down in New York. They are working class, and most have the desire to have money, and climb up the social ladder. So yes, there's the theme of cultural differences. There's the theme of money and social strata. And there's also the theme of perspective: every character brings their own perspective to the story, and unfortunately, this is what irritates me the most. Everyone seems to have their own point of view, and cannot see the world except through their own points of view, their own stereotypes, their own beliefs. Whether it is about money, whether it is about work ethics, whether it is about one's religious beliefs, everyone sees their world only through their own feelings and emotions. As if everyone, young and old, are all low in emotional intelligence. And as such, it was rather hard to sympathise with any character in the book.

Oh, and there are so many characters. Korean men and women with Korean and Western names. Sometimes, they even have two names, one in their regular lives and another within the church, e.g. Leah Han becomes Deaconess Cho in church. And there are also the White people around them. And yes, they pair and unpair with each other. Casey starts with Jay, then unpairs and becomes together with Unu, and then they unpair. People have affairs with one another, committing adultery (not that I mind) or pure and simple casual sex. As I said earlier, it really is just a soap opera. And if the author had a point, she delivered it already early on. Honestly, I don't need 640-something pages to get the point.

So yeah, I did not like this book. If you picked up the author's second book, please do not try reading the first book. I was disappointed, and perhaps you will be too. I give this 2 out of 5 stars.

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