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asianamlitfansA Review of the Queens of K-Town by Angela Mi Young Hur
Basically, when I get home these nights, I feel too tired to do anything but read something not academically related. I certainly haven’t been able to write, but for some reason, I have reading addiction that keeps me up long past when I should be going to bed, causing me to have less sleep than I need and then I wake up even more tired the next day, with even less possibility that I will get any research or academic reading done. Oh, the vicious cycle within which I seem to put myself!
The Queens of K-Town is narrated from alternating 3rd person and 1st person standpoints. The 3rd person standpoints take place in the present day, in which, Cora Moon, the protagonist grapples with recently being dumped by her boyfriend whom she might while in graduate school in Indiana(a Caucasian man named Garrett); she has relocated to New York City and immediately engages with a traumatic event from her past. The opening evokes Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone immediately because there is a textured narrative involving the suicide of an Asian American woman in an ethnic enclave area. The first person standpoints take place ten years ago, in which Cora Moon, as a sixteen year old girl, faces the confusing emotions related to budding sexuality and feminist friendships. While losing her virginity in an empty, but nevertheless problematic manner, the sixteen year old Cora makes an immediate friendship with Bev, a half Korean/German girl searching for her own roots in Manhattan’s K-Town district. Along with Bev, Cora makes friends with Soo Young (a recent immigrant from Korea) and Mina (a waif-like, beautiful Korean American); together, they become the titular Queens of K-Town. The disintegration of this group is what the narrative seems to be moving inexorably toward; whereas Bone does not seem to give us a sense of where traumatic origins might lie, Hur’s novel does provide the reader with more closure. The narrative structure is such that one wonders constantly what the 26 year old Cora could be so haunted by and the fact that Cora keeps placing herself in the position of an Asian American woman who has jumped off a building leads us to believe that history may be repeating itself again. The question is: what happened ten years ago? In my humble opinion, this book is more successful that Katherine Min’s Secondhand World in addressing the strange combination of female sexuality, race, and identity that intersect in an explosive nexus and result in the psychic schizophrenia of Asian American women. Hur is able to draw out the emotional texture of these “lost women” that drives the narrative with more force toward the conclusion, making the very subtle last moments strangely more rewarding. Although I would say that the novel isn’t necessarily a complete success, it is a strong contribution to the ever-growing body of Asian American novels, particularly with the focus on Asian American women’s mental health.
Basically, when I get home these nights, I feel too tired to do anything but read something not academically related. I certainly haven’t been able to write, but for some reason, I have reading addiction that keeps me up long past when I should be going to bed, causing me to have less sleep than I need and then I wake up even more tired the next day, with even less possibility that I will get any research or academic reading done. Oh, the vicious cycle within which I seem to put myself!
The Queens of K-Town is narrated from alternating 3rd person and 1st person standpoints. The 3rd person standpoints take place in the present day, in which, Cora Moon, the protagonist grapples with recently being dumped by her boyfriend whom she might while in graduate school in Indiana(a Caucasian man named Garrett); she has relocated to New York City and immediately engages with a traumatic event from her past. The opening evokes Fae Myenne Ng’s Bone immediately because there is a textured narrative involving the suicide of an Asian American woman in an ethnic enclave area. The first person standpoints take place ten years ago, in which Cora Moon, as a sixteen year old girl, faces the confusing emotions related to budding sexuality and feminist friendships. While losing her virginity in an empty, but nevertheless problematic manner, the sixteen year old Cora makes an immediate friendship with Bev, a half Korean/German girl searching for her own roots in Manhattan’s K-Town district. Along with Bev, Cora makes friends with Soo Young (a recent immigrant from Korea) and Mina (a waif-like, beautiful Korean American); together, they become the titular Queens of K-Town. The disintegration of this group is what the narrative seems to be moving inexorably toward; whereas Bone does not seem to give us a sense of where traumatic origins might lie, Hur’s novel does provide the reader with more closure. The narrative structure is such that one wonders constantly what the 26 year old Cora could be so haunted by and the fact that Cora keeps placing herself in the position of an Asian American woman who has jumped off a building leads us to believe that history may be repeating itself again. The question is: what happened ten years ago? In my humble opinion, this book is more successful that Katherine Min’s Secondhand World in addressing the strange combination of female sexuality, race, and identity that intersect in an explosive nexus and result in the psychic schizophrenia of Asian American women. Hur is able to draw out the emotional texture of these “lost women” that drives the narrative with more force toward the conclusion, making the very subtle last moments strangely more rewarding. Although I would say that the novel isn’t necessarily a complete success, it is a strong contribution to the ever-growing body of Asian American novels, particularly with the focus on Asian American women’s mental health.
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