The Last Story of Mina Lee
Nancy Jooyoun Kim, 2020
Park Row Books
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780778310174
Summary
A profoundly moving and unconventional mother-daughter saga, The Last Story of Mina Lee illustrates the devastating realities of being an immigrant in America.
Margot Lee’s mother, Mina, isn’t returning her calls. It’s a mystery to twenty-six-year-old Margot, until she visits her childhood apartment in Koreatown, LA, and finds that her mother has suspiciously died.
The discovery sends Margot digging through the past, unraveling the tenuous invisible strings that held together her single mother’s life as a Korean War orphan and an undocumented immigrant, only to realize how little she truly knew about her mother.
Interwoven with Margot’s present-day search is Mina’s story of her first year in Los Angeles as she navigates the promises and perils of the American myth of reinvention. While she’s barely earning a living by stocking shelves at a Korean grocery store, the last thing Mina ever expects is to fall in love.
But that love story sets in motion a series of events that have consequences for years to come, leading up to the truth of what happened the night of her death.
Told through the intimate lens of a mother and daughter who have struggled all their lives to understand each other, The Last Story of Mina Lee is a powerful and exquisitely woven debut novel that explores identity, family, secrets, and what it truly means to belong. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—N/A
• Where—Los Angeles, California
• Education—B.A., University of California, Los Angeles; M.A., University of Washington
• Currently—lives in the San Francisco Bay Area
Born and raised in Los Angeles, Nancy Jooyoun Kim is a graduate of UCLA and the University of Washington, Seattle. Her debut novel, The Last Story of Mina Lee, was released in 2020.
Her essays and short fiction have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Guernica, NPR/PRI’s Selected Shorts, The Rumpus, Electric Literature, Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s The Margins, The Offing, and elsewhere. (From the publisher .)
Book Reviews
The novel’s interior moments — in which mother and daughter think tragically past each other—work best.… Had the author kept the narrative this close, The Last Story of Mina Lee would have been a stronger book, its tangled subplots (Korean flashbacks, organized-crime figures) more of a counterbalance to the characters’ yearnings. Unfortunately, Kim succumbs to a common failing of first novels, telling too much.
Los Angeles Times
Mina’s immigration story poignantly mingles optimism with the heartbreak of exploitation. The more contemporary portions of the narrative, however, lack both emotional pull and narrative conviction.… As a personal immigration narrative Kim’s novel largely succeeds, but as a mystery novel or a mother-daughter drama it fails to connect.
Publishers Weekly
(Starred review) Haunting and heartbreaking, troubled threads between a mother and daughter blend together in a delicate and rich weave… With both sadness and beauty, [Kim] describes grief, regret, loss, and the feeling of being left behind. Fans of Amy Tan and Kristin Hannah will love Kim's brilliant debut.
Booklist
Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, use our LitLovers Book Club Resources. They can help with discussions for any book:
1. How would you describe Mina and Margot, the two characters at the heart of this novel? What about their relationship—why it is so difficult? Why do mother and daughter find it so hard to understand one another?
2.The police have ruled Mina's death accidental. Why does Margot doubt their conclusion? What, in her mind, makes it suspicious?
3. As Margot begins her investigation into her mother's death, whom does she come to suspect? What about you?
4. The Last Story of Mina Lee is about the perils and hardships of immigration. Why did Mina leave South Korea, and what were her hopes for a life in the United States? In what way did those dreams fall short?
5. Do you believe that Mina's story typical of most, or at least many, newly arrived immigrants? Does the novel offer you insights into the rationale, dreams, and hardships of those who leave their countries and families behind to come to America?
6. Talk about Margot's own journey as she explores her mother's life. How it change her? What does she come to understand about who her mother was—and, just as important, who she herself is?
7. What do you see for Margot in the coming years? Do you believe she will see her grandmother?
(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them, online and off, with attribution. Thanks.)