#patricia park
Nine Books I Want You to Read This Summer
If you haven’t read these books yet, you need to, and you need to do it soon. These are some of my favorite books by women about women that I’ve read over the last year or so, and they’re the ones that have stuck with me. I firmly recommend all of these, in no particular order.
A contemporary retelling of Jane Eyre set in NYC in 2001, Re Jane follows the titular character through not only her recognizable past but through a new future that tackles extended family relationships as well as contemporary woman- and adulthood.
The Girls from Corona del Mar, Rufi Thorpe
Rufi Thorpe’s debut novel is out in paperback this summer, following the lives of Mia and Lorrie Ann, childhood friends whose stories diverge and meet again over the course of what feels like a young lifetime. As both women struggle with bringing family baggage into their adult lives, they learn what the reality of adult friendship can be.
After her father died, Charley Bordelonfound she’d inherited a sugar cane farm in rural Louisiana, so she packed up her life and her daughter to move from Los Angeles to reunite with her childhood family and friends. As she learns, moving back home after many years comes with its own challenges, not limited to the struggle she faces on the farm.
The second book in Tana French’s tenuously-linked Dublin Murder Squad series, The Likeness follows Det. Cassie Maddox as she revisits her Undercover days after the body of a young woman is found, with her former false identity - and a practically identical face. Cassie finds herself deep undercover after taking back on the identity, trying to determine who the killer is without finding herself in trouble.
Based on Bolick’s widely-publicized Atlantic article, Spinster is a non-fiction exploration of not only what it means to be a single woman in the 21st century but how women push to distinguish themselves in careers, particularly as writers. She ties in the stories of well-known “spinster” women writers from the last few centuries, giving historical context to what turns out to be a not-so-new struggle.
The Gracekeepers, Kirsty Logan
Inspired in part by Scottish myth, Kirsty Logan’s ethereal debut tells the alternating stories of North, who travels with a floating circus, and Callanish, a gracekeeper who presides over a watery cemetery. As circumstance brings them together, both young women wonder if they’re really satisfied with where their lives have taken them thus far.
Charlie Wong is a young dishwasher in Chinatown who dreams of a life that will let her see the rest of the world, or, at least, the rest of New York City. When she gets a receptionist job at a dance studio uptown, she gains confidence in herself, but as her mother’s talent as a ballerina comes out in her own life, Charlie must learn how to balance the two halves of her life.
Roxane Gay’s debut novel follows Mireille, visiting her Haitian family with her husband and young son. When Miri is kidnapped for ransom and her father refuses to pay, she is subjected to the brutalities of captivity and must rely on herself to survive. Not for the faint of heart, An Untamed State is a gut-wrenching insight into an infrequently-mentioned topic.
Everything I Never Told You, Celeste Ng
Celeste Ng’s debut novel begins with the death of teenager Lydia Lee in 1970s Ohio, and unravels a story of what happened to her and how her family deals with it. This is the story of a mixed-race family with some secrets laid bare and some secrets still to come.
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On sale 4/19/16
Some books I have LOVED reading that are on sale TODAY, 4/19.
- Eligible - Curtis Sittenfeld:This update to Pride and Prejudice nails every beat by smashing up the story and putting it back together. Set in Cincinnati, the book includes a Bachelor-style TV show, Crossfit, family barbecues, and more, all with the wit and love of the original.
- The Darkest Corners - Kara Thomas: A YA novel with a true-crime feeling about a teenage girl missing in a small town where a serial killer roamed ten years ago - and may be back now. The problem with this is that someone was jailed for this last time it happened, and Tessa Lowell’s childhood account was part of the crucial testimony to put him behind bars. More than a “lost girl” thriller, this is about the aftermath of a serial killer on a small town, the story of what life looks like ten years later, and the dark suspicion that maybe not everything was wrapped up as neatly as hoped for a decade ago.
- Scarlett Epstein Hates it Here - Anna Breslaw: Independent and caustic Scarlett is a staple in the fandom of her favorite TV show, and when it gets canceled, the Internet - and Scarlett - goes into a tailspin of what-to-do-next. This nails contemporary fandom without being condescending or unrealistic. If you liked Fangirl, you’ll love this.
New in paperback:
- Spinster - Kate Bolick: Bolick’s memoir-cum-deep dive into historical spinsterdom covers her own life as an unmarried woman and weaves into the narrative the lives of women writers considered “spinsters”. A real examination of the word and its history, as well as why we focus on marriage instead of what women can accomplish alone.
- Re Jane - Patricia Park:Inspired by Jane Eyre, this contemporary Korean-American novel set in NYC tells the story of Jane, whose story is loosely based on the classic. Breaking the mold works here, too, as Park examines the story through a contemporary lens.
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by REERA YOO
When Korean American novelistPatricia Park first read Charlotte Brontë’s Victorian novelJane Eyre at the age of 12, she was struck by how the titular heroine was scorned by society and her relatives solely because of her orphan status. “Orphan” was a word Park often heard her mother throw around whenever she misbehaved as a child.
“My mother used to say to me in her limited English, ‘You act like an orphan!’ This never made sense to me,” Park, 34, tells KoreAmvia email. “How do you actlike an orphan? You either are one or you aren’t.”
After reading Brontë’s 19th-century tale, Park realized that her mother’s generation of Koreans—those who grew up during the Korean War—perceived orphans as outcasts with questionable lineage, morals and manners. To “act like an orphan,” Park realized, meant you behaved in a shameful way that proved to others you didn’t receive a “good family education.”
“My mind drew the link between the Victorian construct of the orphan and the Korean post-war one, and ReJanewas born,” Park says.
Released in hardcover in May, Park’s debut novel is a modern retelling of Brontë’s classic tale, only set in New York’s sprawling outer boroughs and South Korea in the early aughts. Jane Re is a half-Korean, half-Caucasian recent college graduate who, since childhood, has lived with her strict uncle and his family in Flushing, a neighborhood Jane describes as “all Korean, all the time.”
Read full article here.
