Amazon.com: Free Food for Millionaires (9781455571673): Min Jin Lee: Book
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Free Food for MillionairesPaperback – January 10, 2017
by Min Jin Lee (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars 126 customer reviews
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Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Free Food for Millionaires, the debut novel from Min Jin Lee, takes on daunting themes of love, money, race, and belief systems in this mostly satisfying tale. Casey Han is a Princeton grad, class of '93, and it is her conflicts, relationships, and temperament that inform the novel. She is the child of immigrant Korean parents who work in the same laundry in Queens where they have always worked and are trying hard to hang on to their culture. Casey has catapulted out of that life on scholarships but now that college is over, she hasn't the same opportunities as her white friends, even though she has acquired all of their expensive habits.
The concept of free food for millionaires is the perfect irony that describes much of what Casey faces. Walter, one of her bosses, says, when a huge buffet lunch is delivered to the floor: "It's free food for millionaires... In the International Equities Department--that is, Asia, Europe, and Japan Sales--the group you're interviewing for--whichever desk that sells a deal buys lunch for everyone in the department."
Casey is ambivalent about everything--her love life, work, friendships, her family, dating a Korean man--but she seems to believe that money would sort everything out and smooth any rough spots. She works part-time for a fashion maven who would like to "adopt" her by paying for business school, but Casey can't quite accept all that she offers. She pulls back from help, digs herself deeper in debt, works like a slave during an internship and then, when she is offered the job, finally begins to realize what she might really want--and it isn't only money.
There are several loose ends left dangling, some bad behavior toward others on Casey's part and an unlikely and too coincidental passing acquaintance with an old bookseller whose wife was crazy about hats, as is Casey. When he dies, he leaves all her hats to Casey--which just might just be the start of something. The author runs out of steam after 512 pages and ends the book without really finishing it, but it is a thoughtful treatment of many of the questions Lee raises, and an emninently worthwhile debut. --Valerie Ryan --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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From Publishers Weekly
In her noteworthy debut, Lee filters through a lively postfeminist perspective a tale of first-generation immigrants stuck between stodgy parents and the hip new world. Lee's heroine, 22-year-old Casey Han, graduates magna cum laude in economics from Princeton with a taste for expensive clothes and an "enviable golf handicap," but hasn't found a "real" job yet, so her father kicks her out of his house. She heads to her white boyfriend's apartment only to find him in bed with two sorority girls. Next stop: running up her credit card at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City. Casey's luck turns after a chance encounter with Ella Shim, an old acquaintance. Ella gives Casey a place to stay, while Ella's fiancé gets Casey a "low pay, high abuse" job at his investment firm and Ella's cousin Unu becomes Casey's new romance. Lee creates a large canvas, following Casey as she shifts between jobs, careers, friends, mentors and lovers; Ella and Ted as they hit a blazingly rocky patch; and Casey's mother, Leah, as she belatedly discovers her own talents and desires. Though a first-novel timidity sometimes weakens the narrative, Lee's take on contemporary intergenerational cultural friction is wide-ranging, sympathetic and well worth reading. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Showing 1-10 of 44 reviews(Critical). See all 126 reviews
2.0 out of 5 starsReadable, but a mess
ByJapan Readeron September 30, 2008
Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase
This book was good for more than a week's worth of commutes since it was easy to read and easy to digest. I was mildly curious about the world it drew, since the Korean community is such a big part of our urban landscape now, especially in new York. I wouldn't dare to judge how accurate or stereotyped her portrayal might be, but it interested me.
Otherwise, the book was a mess. An acquaintance who read it too said that it needed a really good editor, and I think that's true. Point of view bounced all over the place, from person to person within the same chapter and sometimes from paragraph to paragraph; there were a lot of clunky phrases, and the characters all seemed flat and cardboard. In the end, I couldn't really care about them much. They all seemed more representative of certain types than any three-dimensional, fully realized people. Reviewers and Lee herself have said this is an imitation of a certain genre from an older era of fiction, as if this explains the problems, but I think even those books (with all the problems inherent in their genres, and a lack of connection with modern life) had a bit more character development.
I think this is a real shame, as the book does have potential. Unfortunately, it needed some tough love in the early stages and never achieved what it could have. I hope her next book is better.
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3.0 out of 5 starsYoung Korean-American in New York City
ByClif Hostetleron April 17, 2014
Format: Kindle Edition
This is an epic length novel that's not an epic. It's a portrayal of life within the ambitious and high achieving Korean-American community in New York City during the 1990s. The book also aspires to be a romance novel of the 19th century style but with modern mores (i.e. lots of sex and not so much marriage).
As one would expect the conflict between traditional Korean and urban American culture is examined. Another theme are differences between those who are wealthy and those who wish they were wealthy. We soon learn that these same differences between rich and poor are also very real within the Korean-American community. And in the traditional Korean culture we also learn that being from the wrong place in Korea can make a difference.
However, the most visible theme of the book is the variety of male-female relationships with the book providing examples of just about every possible variation between good/happy to bad/sad. The book makes an obvious hint to be compared with the plot of Middlemarch. The story notes that our protagonist has read it multiple times. For readers who found that the 19th century Middlemarch didn't include sufficient explicit sex will find that this book makes up for it with a double dose.
There is also a reference to Jane Eyre but the parallel to that novel's plot is less obvious. I think the author was trying to say that this book is being written in the tradition of famous 19th century romance novels which probably explains its length.
The title of the book comes from an observation about ambitious investment bank brokers. The wealthiest were the ones most likely to elbow their way to the front of the line when the doors were opened to a free food smorgasbord. In other words, they had no qualms about accepting free gifts. Meanwhile, those of limited means were reluctant—or too proud—to accept the smallest gift because it might indicate an obligation or dependence on others.
The author's writing certainly shows an understanding of what it is like to be a member of a supportive faith community. In this case it is a Korean-American Presbyterian Church that at an official level are united by a common faith. But at a more practical level they are united by a common ethnic culture and real human friendships. This is a community that will come and visit when a member is sick. If the member is in the hospital they will visit their room and sing some hymns, causing people down the hall to turn and take notice.
It seems that every character in this novel manifested behavior at some point that I found either unwise or unacceptable. But the story made them real and very human. The skilled writing of the narrative kept me interested even though I couldn't identify closely with the characters.
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3.0 out of 5 starsIf you like soap operas
ByOld hoosieron June 26, 2017
Format: Paperback|Verified Purchase
If you like soap operas, you will love this book. Even if you turn your nose up at soap operas, you will find this story of second generation Koreans trying to make it in the amoral, materialistic and corrupting world of New York high finance an interesting and worthwhile read.
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1.0 out of 5 starsAwkward, not well written.
ByMaureen Paravention March 26, 2014
Format: Paperback
Didn't care for this book AT ALL. The dialogue was clunky and awkward. The main character was not only unsympathetic, she was difficult to connect with on any level. Additionally, there were problems with the writing such as the random shifting of points of view. It did get better as it went along, but if you don't engage the reader within the first 150 pages, you've lost them.
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2.0 out of 5 starsGood writing, but what's the point?
ByTomajon July 14, 2008
Format: Hardcover
Free Food for Millionaires is like a reprise on the movie Slacker, only set in the NYC finance world. The author knows how to write, how to set a scene, and how to tell a story. It's just that she doesn't have anything to say. The reader gets to watch the main character named Casey stumble through life without any direction or goals. The book starts out with Casey having graduated from Princeton and being accepted at Columbia Law. But she doesn't want to go to law school or get a job. Why? Who knows? She's just not excited about either one. What does she want to do? No one knows. We then see her bounce around from job to job, in and out of business school. But still without goals or a plan. No internal thoughts or outward direction about a job, career, or interests. Her other quality is throwing away all the abilities she has along with the plethora of chances that come along. She's smart (with awesome grades), well-spoken, attractive, a hard worker (when she has a job), has lots of contacts, and is even a naturally good golfer. She went to Princeton on a scholarship, gets accepted at law and business schools, has one boss who will pay for school and wants to hand over a high-end store to her, and she has other contacts who will help her get set up in the world of finance. And she turns almost all of it down. Not interested.
She spends almost all the book crashing in other people's apartments because she can't afford one of her own, and she still racks up credit card debt and never has any money. She dumps her fiance because she can't envision a picture of them together (an allusion to an underexplained neo-mystical ability she has that is used for this one excuse and never referenced again), and then spends the rest of the time with a guy whose life is also messed up. In fact, almost all the characters have messed-up lives; it's like a soap opera where no one can really go very long without some serious drama. Everyone keeps losing their jobs, losing money, and cheating on their spouse or partner, including Casey. Someone gets date-raped near the end of the book, in an unreadable passage that I skipped before any of it could sink into my long-term memory.
The Asian-American theme is played out, but it's not omnipresent. The greater culture clash for Casey is rich versus poor, since she comes from poor immigrant roots but lives in the world of high finance. If there is anything she is indeed interested in, it's money and the stuff it buys (mainly clothes). Casey learns that Harvard business school is better than NYU, not because of the education, but because of the name. Ditto with jobs at certain companies, and of course the labels on clothes. Her conflict comes not because she wants to merely join the world of the rich but because she can't deal with not having been part of it all along when all her friends have, and because she can't deal with being an outsider on any level of it. That would be a worthy theme to explore in a novel, but instead we get to slog through 500 pages of soap opera drama gimmicks. The barest glimmer of a possible happy ending we finally get isn't any sort of a wrap-up; it has the effect of a TV series that was finally canceled.
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3.0 out of 5 starsPrecious scribblings for Ivy-Leaguers
ByAndrew C.on February 17, 2008
Format: Hardcover
I picked up this book from my local library based on all the great press it had received. After finishing the book, my reaction is that the praise is only somewhat deserved.
I had been looking forward to reading this book -- not only because of the acclaim, but because the author and her characters come from a background like my own -- high-achieving immigrants who had gone on to successful professional lives in New York.
Yet, just fifty pages in, I wanted to put it down. I had to force myself to read. The dialogue, especially the passages between the protagonist and her sister, and the protagonist and her friends, is so precious it's brutally painful -- a sort of artificial, too-smart-for-it's-own-good witty banter. I found myself grimacing while reading.
But that wasn't the only problem. The author also indulges in these tedious passages of exposition -- indeed, as one critic wrote, too much tell, too little show. The book is 600 pages -- it could surely have been edited down to half.
As a testament to how unnecessary the exposition is though, and as a boon for me as a reader, I was able to skim pretty quickly and get into the plot and characters. I started to enjoy the experience, and read on. To be fair, this may be because the world and the characters in the book are so familiar to me, and because the author weaves a heck of a soap opera of a story -- lots of sex and intrigue.
Following the trend of excess though, the author even takes the soap opera too far, with infidelity not only plaguing the protagonist, but nearly every other character in the book -- not just her immediate friends. If it's not a theme, it's almost a parody.
The book also deals a lot with internal struggles and external appearances -- maybe the "society novel" angle is what appealed so much to critics. I couldn't help but at times think the "witty" banter, the peek into rarefied worlds was a bit of fantasy fulfillment for the author. Fans of Jane Austen and Edith Wharton, this book may be for you.
There are also strong themes of materialism and desperation for power running through the plot, with very little laugh-out-loud humor. It's interesting that the author was able to capture my attention with characters that are in general, pretty unlikeable. I enjoyed reading about these characters, and the author constructs a decent ending, but I didn't leave the story wondering about the protagonist or hoping to one day learn more about her future.
A final bit of acknowledgement for the novel -- in last 20 years, there have been some widely very successful books about Asians, usually written from a female perspective and purporting to give an "insider's view" of the culture. Think Amy Tan's "The Joy Luck Club" and Arthur Golden's "Memoirs of a Geisha." Many of them just stank of exoticism. This one is also has that cultural sampler feel, but for all its faults, is more familiar to me, and trades less on that exoticism.
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3.0 out of 5 starsThree Stars
ByMichele L. Axton May 16, 2016
Format: Kindle Edition|Verified Purchase
ending was lackluster. disappointing in a story that had a strong start.
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3.0 out of 5 starsAbsorbing, uneven
ByMarianneon March 12, 2011
Format: Paperback
LOVED the title. Wanted to see how it played in the novel, that theme of "the rich get all the free food." Maybe that alone (and curiosity about the central character, Casey Han, who struck me as unique enough to be interesting) kept me reading almost 600 pages.
SPOILER ALERT:
There were many threads that did not actually get developed: the Bible reading thing, the hat designing thing. They were very perfunctorily treated. I should have stopped reading. But the author was able to keep enough balls in the air (Casey Han's mom, Leah, wanting to know her fate; Ella, a friend whose ambitious Korean husband leaves her for a Christina Hendricks-type office girl) so that I kept turning the pages. Generally, the men (except for the minor characters, like a doorman named George; a surprisingly sweet playboy named Hugh Underhill) were not compelling. In fact, there wasn't a single man in this hefty novel that I really empathized with. A major male character, Unu, is just -- stupid. Perhaps I did feel slight sympathy for Ted, Ella's first husband. Because he chose unwisely, for the first time in his life.
I sometimes actually forgot that the main character was Korean American. Then I'd read a section about her parents and get reminded. Much was made of Casey Han's active sex life. Alas, for 600 pages, she only has two lovers, and she doesn't much enjoy having sex with either, although very close to the end, the author tells us that Casey found sex with one of the men "enthralling." Though the sex scene that follows is totally lacking in heat. But she didn't love the guy (so what makes this important? It's a surprisingly conventional thought for a sexually active, liberated American woman), and she throws a tantrum because, after snooping in his closet, she finds a stash of porn, watches a tape, and it shows an Asian woman, and she wonders if the guy came on to her because he always had a fantasy about having an Asian woman ... This enrages her, and she storms out, and ... well, I still have 20 pages to read, but I'm guessing she goes back to her ex, the one with the gambling addiction, because he still loves her, and she still loves him, and so forth. Oh well, I guess that'll do for closure.
Oh, and I forgot about Casey's fancy Princeton degree, about 50 pages in. In fact, by the end of the novel, I completely FORGOT about the Princeton degree, until it came time to find tags for this review. She never thinks about it, never even describes her memories of Princeton, after the first hundred or so pages. Princeton could be xxxx college in Boston/New York/ Philadelphia (you pick), for all we know.
I'll probably still read Lee's next novel, though. So I guess the last laugh's on me.
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