The Future Perfect

Kim’s uneven debut traces an unnamed protagonist’s complex relationship with her mother. The woman was born in 1998 Seoul to a mother whose philosophy revolves around the endurance and diligence drilled into postwar Korean citizens. The mother, also unnamed, relies on the wealth of her husband’s family to attend architecture school in Minnesota and send her daughter to private school to learn English. The mother keeps her daughter busy with math drills and violin lessons and doesn’t deal well with her turning into a teenager: they constantly fight, with mother telling daughter that boys will ruin her life and that she doesn’t study enough. The daughter stays in the U.S. for boarding school and college after her mother returns to Seoul to care for her grandmother. She only sees her depressed mother and her often absent father during breaks, when her mother is prone to giving her the silent treatment and threatens suicide when she isn’t helping to care for her elderly grandmother. While Kim ably captures the weight of a parent’s sacrifice and resentment, the narrative pulls its punches at the end, leaving readers frustrated and perplexed. It’s an evocative if undercooked story. Agent: Sarah Burnes, Gernert Co. (June)