The Biblio Blogazine

Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee (2007)
Fiction, 592 pages
Grand Central Publishing
Hachette Book Group, USA

I generally place a synopsis here taken from the cover of the novel. Instead, I offer you the author’s own words as I feel they are more descriptive and pertinent:

This book features first- and second-generation immigrant characters, and therefore, I believe that it satisfies the definition of an American story because unlike any other country in the world, America has this generative quality due to its immigration policies and early colonial history.

I handed my characters all sorts of gifts: education, good appearances, talents, strong family structures . . . and I wanted to see what they would do with their ambitions. They also received trials and caused some troubles of their own. Would race, class, immigration, and gender politics affect them? Or you might ask, how could they not? I wanted to know very much what would happen too.

This novel focuses primarily on Casey Han, the daughter of Korean immigrants and who, in the beginning of the book, has just graduated from Princeton, but has yet to make a decision regarding what she is going to do with her hard earned degree in economics.

We also get to know her family and friends: Korean and white, Christian and non-Christian. Everyone has place in Casey’s life – as well as a say in it, even though in many instances, she ignores them. Her pride insists she make her own way and this story is about how, why, and with whom.

In looking at the surface of Lin’s story, it’s just like every other about relationships. But there is much more depth than initially perceived:

The heart seemed to her fickle or forgetful, or perhaps, in an uglier way, it was hidden with possible betrayals.

This sentence is one of the best insights to a character I have ever read.

After finishing the book, I would answer the author’s question that yes, race, class, immigration, and gender politics do affect how one makes a decision. They also affect how those decisions are perceived and accepted by others.

In addition, the reactions which lead to the ultimate consequences are impacted in some way by one’s background which is shaped by how one is raised and taught. A person’s education comes from many sources: family, friends, and school. All of these together form a person’s character, and it is in this that Lin excels when developing her characters..

Education and talent are two of the strongest themes running through this book. That which is learned, and that which is innate; both coming into conflict constantly.

In making a living, in making a life, which is more important? Following your heart, understanding you may never achieve the success you think you want or what others expect of you? Or, do you go for the brass ring, never feeling fully satisfied or happy?

Many of the characters make choices based on whether or not it is a “winning” solution, or a “losing” one. By the end of the novel, many of them learn that sometimes losing is the way to win:

It seemed to Casey that despite Ella’s bountiful generosity, she was almost greedy in wanting her approval . . . How was it possible to give affirmation to the winner when you were so clearly the loser?

Now, you may be wondering, so . . . about this culture thing . . .

Race, gender, class, etc. It does affect the characters subtly, sometimes significantly. However, as much as I agree that this is true, there is still a universality to Lin’s story. That being everyone struggles with identity and pride. I don’t think it’s any surprise that Casey’s favorite book she reads and re-reads throughout the novel is Middlemarch.

As the author notes when discussing this story:

If an Asian American, or anyone for that matter, is not given a voice and language with clear expression and evidence of feeling, his humanity is denied . . . In my attempt at the community novel, I wanted very much to reveal the complicated individuals who make up the Korean Americans I know. As a writer, I wanted to place the same demands on my non-Korean-American characters as well.

In this endeavor, Lin succeeds.

The only negative for me with this book is it’s length. However, because of the strength of characterizations, and the strong dialogue, I never doubted I would make it to the end. I only felt that she could have gotten there with less. I can honestly say that every time I felt I was bogging down, I would get pulled forward again and sent on my way content and happy that I’d stuck it out.

I am giving this novel 4 out of 5 stars. Again, the length for me was an issue, but not a huge one. The narrative and especially many of the conversations between characters are just too powerful to give it any less.

Min Jin Lee went to Yale College where she was awarded both the Henry Wright Prize for Nonfiction and the James Ashmun Veech Prize for Fiction.

She has received the NYFA Fellowship for Fiction, the Peden Prize from The Missouri Review for Best Story, and the Narrative Prize for New and Emerging Writer.

She lives in Tokyo with her husband and son where she is working on her second novel Pachinko.