American Han
The real art of American Han lies in the circuitous path this narrative follows ... What Jane gradually pieces together is a history shaped by parents determined to push their children into the swift-moving stream of American success. It’s a tragedy of almost bottomless torment, all the more painful for its waste and futility. But despite Jane’s wholly justified grievances, American Han rarely sounds like a wail of complaint — or not for long. Instead, it’s a desperate effort to understand her parents, to grasp the frustration and the fury they must have felt trying to navigate a thicket of condescending expectations and resentments ... What looks initially like another story of immigrant striving turns out to be something more unsettling — a family struggling with pain that only one of them can articulate.
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In Lee’s reflective and layered storytelling, 'han' pervades the novel, as something Korean immigrants cannot leave behind and something they pass to the next generation.
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The novel asks a question for the ages—what happens to love when it is pushed, prodded, squeezed and weighed on from all angles? Fortunately, the question is layered enough to render Lisa Lee’s debut a powerfully complex, moving take on one family’s answer.
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