TRIGGER WARNING: The book contains thoughts of su|c!de. Please proceed with caution or skip this altogether if you feel that this will trigger your current or past condition.
Two people and two timelines - forever intertwined by blood, separated by the very culture they share.
Mina is an immigrant Korean mother who speaks very little English and fully embodies her home country's culture raised Margot, her all-American daughter who can barely speak let alone understand Korean and dreads every single bit of her culture.
The Story
Margot comes back home to Los Angeles when her mother did not pick up the phone after a few days. She comes home to her mother's dead body. Doubting that her mother's death was just an accident and after the police's indifference, she sets out to find the truth on her own.
In an alternate timeline, we are taken back to the first time Mina lands in the United States as an illegal immigrant. She just lost her own family and was alone in a foreign country. Just a few months in her job in the United States, she meets a gentleman named Mr. Kim and quickly fell in love with him. The good days went almost as fast as it came and Mr. Kim had to leave her, not knowing Mina was already pregnant.
Growing up, Margot never learned how to properly speak Korean and worse, she grew to dread it. She hated her mother's culture, she hated that she didn't speak English, she hated her poverty and she hated who she was. With all this, as a consolation she immersed herself in the American culture. She only loved American food, wore American clothing and even moved out of Los Angeles to live an opposite life from her job down to her home decor.
Margot's investigation of her mother's death unearth not only the struggles of her immigrant mother, but also her identity.
Will this understanding and eventually an admittance of her love for her mother help her finally heal her?
What I think...
For being a light read and even just revolving around two characters, this book has many facets that I think would speak to a lot of people most especially to immigrants and even their friends or families.
Mina and Margot are two polar opposites. Mina did not have an easy life in Korea and though moving to the United States was her escape, it only led to more problems. I saw a lot of immigrants in Mina - she came to a strange land alone, tried to make a life for herself despite being different. I honestly truly felt sorry for her and even up until now, I thought that Margot has always treated her unfairly.
However, Margot was only a child. I also couldn't let her take all the blame because she didn't know any better. She had no connection to her mother's roots and identity and it was not her responsibility to figure it all out. She was so lost and in many ways, she was also very much a victim of circumstance.
Although the book did drag on for far longer than expected, it still was not painful to finish. I also did not expect Mina's cause of death - it was a very sharp left to be honest. I expected more intensity than what was given but again, still not too bad because the book did have a good closure at the end.
☆☆☆ | Young Adults and Adults | Newbie-Friendly: Yes | Fast Read: Not really
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