Issue date: 1/28/09 Section: Features

Media Credit: The File [Click to enlarge]

When 13-year-old Joon runs away from a mentally troubled mother and abusive-turned-abandoned father, she found herself vying for life on the streets of New York's most dangerous boroughs. Her encounters with other street-dwellers inspire her to try her hand at making money the only way a female can presumably do. Prostitution on the scandalous back-alleys of the Bronx makes no exceptions for an inexperienced pre-teen and soon enough Joon is thrown into adult activities that should be well beyond her years.

Her roller coaster-type friendships with drug addicts has her attending regular Narcotics Anonymous classes that do nothing but introduce her to a world where na've characteristics only hold her back. When driven by the quest for the ultimate high, the only existent bonds of friendship are those that are often severed by death.

It doesn't take long before sex, drugs and thieving become commonplace as Joon desperately tries to reach an understanding between her father's hate for America and her mother's love for it; an understanding found somewhere between steeped tradition and nouveau riche. America once seemed a promising land of opportunity for her young Korean parents, but instead they quickly learn that the freedom offered is much more restraining than one might imagine. Alcohol is ever present, XXX movies cost less than milk and divorce can sometimes take the form of a single packed bag. The only dream that America offers was the one that filled your stomach with hope on the long journey over; the one that was demolished before a green card could even be mailed out.

No one in this novel finds a happy ending and the culprit is easy to spot: American society - one in which dreams are encouraged, but actions are scoffed at and where heritage is prominent, but race is a setback.

These are two disappointing truths that Mun herself was forced to face as a Korean immigrant, and both themes circulate throughout her novel. In fact, Mun's biography runs parallel to that of Joon's. Growing up living a second-generation immigrant's life in the Bronx, Mun was forced to find work when and where she could to help support her family. The realistic feel of the novel through the first person narrative is very much Mun's own voice retelling the events that defined her life.

From working as a door-to-door Avon saleswoman to her activities coordinator position at a nursing home, her real life and that of Joon's collide in the most unexpected ways, making the novel come to life just where it counts. Readers will find it impossible not to sympathize with the most tragically told of American of experiences: the immigrant's life.

Beautifully written in a dark prose style reminiscent of Southern Goth, readers trudge through a five-year seemingly hopeless journey with a young Asian girl, wanting, more than their own dreams perhaps that hers come true. The books ultimate lesson is worth every second you spend reading it and will have you rethinking your loyalty to a country that knocks you down and then locks you out.

Miles from Nowhere
By Nami Mun
286 Pages.
The Penguin Group.
$21.95.
Hit shelves: Jan. 2

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