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Title: Haunting picture of immigrant striving
Review: The book shows the high psychic costs of "getting ahead" in America on three Korean Americans--the narrator (Henry) who is paid to engage in surveillance used against other Asian-Americans, his father who was trained as an engineer in Korea and built up produce stores in America, and the charismatic council member from Queens on whom Henry is spying.There is much affecting and effective observation of immigrant stoicism (not least that of the literally nameless housekeeper Henry's father hires) and some very beautifully supple prose. A little editing should have pared some passages that contribute nothing, should have established a time perspective (either remembered or ongoing), and might have encouraged a more satisfying ending. Still, the stories of these three intersecting lives are vivid and haunting and this first novel is a major achievment.
