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A review by stephaniereads
Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Apologies to this exquisite novel for letting it languish on my shelf for an embarrassing number of months! It was only when the library was like, "yeah you've renewed this book 10 times, give it back you're clearly not reading it" that I said "no no of course I'm reading it!"
First print book of the year and it's an easy five stars. I loved it. Min Jin Lee writes about a Korean family in 1990s New York City. The central character is Casey, the youngest daughter in the family and a fresh graduate of Princeton, who is suddenly cast out of the family at the beginning of the story.
What really struck me about this book was how it felt like a classic novel. It's roomy length (600+ pages) leaves plenty of space for characters to make lots of questionable decisions. Just the pacing, the themes of success and failure and love and betrayal, the omniscient narrator reminded me of reading something like Middlemarch or Edith Wharton (later learned Min Jin Lee is a student of the classics so this makes sense!). The characters' lives form a web that also reminds me of classic storytelling - it's firmly set in time but also felt very timeless in it's emotion.
I found all these character so compelling. Casey and her hunger for expensive things despite her debts; her white boyfriend Jay, who is baffled by her Korean family and circumstances; Ella, a childhood friend whose naivety serves as a foil for the other characters; Ted, Ella's husband whose desire brings him to the top of society and then leaves him questioning what comes next. It's a long book but I was so sad to leave these characters behind! I woud have read another 500 pages. It's a journey that wraps up beautifully.
First print book of the year and it's an easy five stars. I loved it. Min Jin Lee writes about a Korean family in 1990s New York City. The central character is Casey, the youngest daughter in the family and a fresh graduate of Princeton, who is suddenly cast out of the family at the beginning of the story.
What really struck me about this book was how it felt like a classic novel. It's roomy length (600+ pages) leaves plenty of space for characters to make lots of questionable decisions. Just the pacing, the themes of success and failure and love and betrayal, the omniscient narrator reminded me of reading something like Middlemarch or Edith Wharton (later learned Min Jin Lee is a student of the classics so this makes sense!). The characters' lives form a web that also reminds me of classic storytelling - it's firmly set in time but also felt very timeless in it's emotion.
I found all these character so compelling. Casey and her hunger for expensive things despite her debts; her white boyfriend Jay, who is baffled by her Korean family and circumstances; Ella, a childhood friend whose naivety serves as a foil for the other characters; Ted, Ella's husband whose desire brings him to the top of society and then leaves him questioning what comes next. It's a long book but I was so sad to leave these characters behind! I woud have read another 500 pages. It's a journey that wraps up beautifully.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Domestic abuse, and Miscarriage