Review of The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim

 The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim 

Mama Drama's are always so interesting and this one was no different! Now be prepared because this one is a slow burn but boy does it pay off. As I write this in my apartment in Koreatown I'm desperate to go out and get my favorite Korean dishes. Kim does such a fantastic job in narrating the culture and life and food of Koreans and Koreatown. This is a story that makes you want to run over and give your mom a big hug and then drill her with so many questions to know everything about her life (which I always do any aways.) This is a story about family, motherhood, the immigrant experience, secrets, and grief. It deals with sadness and grief in such heartbreaking ways but what I really loved was how Kim was able to capture all the different facets of the experience of an immigrate (and even adding in the experience of someone, not Korea as well as both genders). I feel like this story is very important. 

You'll meet Mina Lee and her Daughter Margot Lee, we get both accounts from different time periods all conveying down to the truth. Mina is riddled with hurt and loss as she immigrates from Korea in the eights and struggles to find herself and a new life here in America. While Margot, now an adult herself is struggling to understand her mother and the strange circumstances around her mother's death. Slowly you go along with both woman as one heals and ventures into the promise of an American Dream and the other tries to figure out if she knew her mother at all. This book is great to read with your mom because someone who is the same age as Margot completely relates to her experience of not feeling a need to be close to your mom as a young adult but then realizing you don't have forever with them. Definitely go pick this one up! 

Stand out quote: 

"All of it would be shattered, too. Because their life would be part of the lie that this country repeated to live with itself - That fairness would prevail; that the laws protected everyone equally; that this land wasn't stolen from Native peoples; that this wealth wasn't built by Black people who were enslaved but by industrious white men, "our" founders; that hardworking immigrants proved this was a meritocracy; that history should only be told from one point of view, that those who won and still have power. So the city raged. Immolation was always a statement." page 104 

Some questions to ponder: 

1. Do you feel as if most children don't truly know their mothers (or parents)? How well do/did you know your mother? 
2. What does this novel comment on the American Dream? What is Mina's? 
3. What are the similarities between the loss of Mr. Kim and Mina's families and the loss of Margot's? 
4. Do you think Margot got justice for her mother? 

Thanks for stopping by! 

-MDB