Book Review: The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim
Margot Lee is a 30 something Korean American woman helping a friend relocate from Settle, Washington to Los Angeles, California. After multiple attempts at reaching her mother to no avail, Margot decides to visit her at her home. After a tragic discovery, Margot sets out to decipher what happened to her mother.
Through her search, so begins the unfolding of a life Margot knew little about through alternating points of view by way of Margot and her mother’s. The book’s themes include motherhood, immigration realities, family tragedies, Korean history and practices, small business ownership, and the judgement of single women in religious institutes.
I was particularly drawn to the story because my family lived in South Korea in the early eighties for three and half years. It's where my middle brother was born and where my family had the opportunity to submerge themselves into a culture in which they were unfamiliar, testing their own resilience and resourcefulness. My parents befriended and met Korean natives and recall some of their stories shared about their desires to immigrate to America for opportunities and a new start.
Nancy Jooyoun Kim’s writing is gentle and gripping through her development of this mother-daughter tale. Where the story beautifully expands the idea of the American dream, it boldly highlights the hardships associated with attaining and maintaining it.
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-MLW-
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