Free Food for Millionaires

Competence can be a curse. So begins Min Jin Lees epic novel about class, society, and identity. Casey Hans four years at Princeton have given her many things: a refined diction, an enviable golf handicap, a popular white boyfriend, an agnostics closeted passion for reading the Bible, and a magna cum laude degree in economics. But no job and a number of bad habits. Caseys parents, who live in Queens, are Korean immigrants working in a dry cleaner, desperately trying to hold onto their culture and identity. Their daughter, on the other hand, has entered into the upper echelon of rarified American society via scholarships. But after graduation, Caseys trust-fund friends see only opportunity and choices while Casey sees the reality of having expensive habits without the means to sustain them. As Casey navigates Manhattan, we see her life and the lives of those around her: her sheltered mother, scarred father, her friend Ella whos always been the good Korean girl, Ellas ambitious Korean husband and his Caucasian mistress, Caseys white fianc??, and then her Korean boyfriend, all culminating in a portrait of New York City and its world of haves and have-nots. FREE FOOD FOR MILLIONAIRES offers up a fresh exploration of the complex layers we inhabit both in society and within ourselves. Inspired by 19th century novels such as Vanity Fair and Middlemarch , Min Jin Lee examines maintaining identity within changing communities. This is a remarkably assured debut from a writer to watch.

Author: Min Jin Lee

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

Pages: 592

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Publication Date: 2008-04-09