American Han

A 20-something Korean American woman chafes at her immigrant parents’ expectations in this emotive and incisive debut novel. In 2002, third-year law student Jane Kim faces an existential crisis. Growing up in Napa, Calif., where her rage-prone father ran a string of businesses, Jane’s mother, a mink-wearing woman obsessed with Korean beauty rituals, subjected her to “unhinged bullying, the kind that made me numb, unable to think straight,” causing her to follow a career path she’d never desired for herself. Jane and her brother, Kevin, once excelled at tennis and piano, but when Kevin’s grades declined in high school, their father smashed his tennis rackets as punishment. Now a San Jose police officer, Kevin’s own anger gets the better of him, and he savagely beats a homeless man, undermining his successful career. When Jane announces that instead of taking the bar exam, she’s moving across the country to study Korean American history, the news is too much for her mother, who holds a “grieving party” to mark her departure. Lee’s character work is top notch, especially as she shows how each family member struggles with the Korean notion of han, an amalgamation of anger, grief, and regret over one’s decisions. It’s a remarkable achievement. Agent: Kirby Kim, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Mar.)