A Family at Last

Mina and her daughter, Margot only have each other. Each character tries to communicate in their own way, so they never really connect. There is truly a ' failure to communicate '. After Mina' s death Margot finally gets to know her mother, ultimately understanding her mother's sorrow. I enjoyed the author's description of the food - I'd love to try some of the dishes. The author's depiction of the mother - day relationship in this book rang true. I loved the ending although it brought tears to my eyes. ( )

fiction - family secrets, drama/mystery

narratives switching between 1987 Los Angeles (Mina, recent undocumented immigrant from South Korea) and 2014 (Margot, Mina's American-born daughter, who finds Mina's deceased body when she arrives in town to visit). The causes of Mina's sadness, completely unknown to Margot, unfold slowly as the daughter tries to learn if there was more to Mina's "accidental" death than first appeared.

This was recommended to me by a friend, and I'm glad I read this. Skillful storytelling evoking the life of an undocumented immigrant scraping by (and trying to escape from various dangers and heartbreaks) in LA's Koreatown. ( )

DNF at 71% because it's due back at the library and I've already been distracted by many other books. I don't know why I'm not connecting with this. In theory, it's so my type of book. But I had an ARC and struggled to get more than a few chapters in, and then I checked it out on audio and still managed to get distracted and really struggle with connecting to the characters. I think I'd prefer this if it was just Mina's story, as I enjoyed those far more than the Margot sections, where it feels a bit too much like it's telling Mina's story through a Margot lens kind of just to do so. ( )

Some of it a bit conveluted and far fetched ( )

A mother and a daughter who prefer different languages, a husband and a daughter lost in Korea, two friends separated by accident, an orphan looking for parents lost in an old war, two grocery men - one with a stone heart and one who has been denied the truth... All these elements are woven together with beautiful storytelling and themes of loneliness, loss, survival, and finding love where you are. ( )

A mother and a daughter who prefer different languages, a husband and a daughter lost in Korea, two friends separated by accident, an orphan looking for parents lost in an old war, two grocery men - one with a stone heart and one who has been denied the truth... All these elements are woven together with beautiful storytelling and themes of loneliness, loss, survival, and finding love where you are. ( )

A moving and insightful read, but good gravy it's sad. ( )

this started out so promisingly, but pretty quickly became disappointing.

there's a (pretty nice, actually) metaphor in the book about the korean language slipping through holes in a fishing net such that margot can't catch all the words. it expands a bit to encompass all that's missing or that she can't quite grasp. unfortunately it's a good metaphor for this book as well. way too much slips through or isn't solid enough to land.

what seemed to be the initial idea - margot finding her dead mother and realizing that she really didn't know her well - could have been excellent. if it became about finding out about her mother, once she realized how little she knew her. if it had been about her backstory both in korea and as a new immigrant to the united states. if it made any sense at all that margot didn't know almost any korean when her mother didn't speak hardly a word of english, and she raised her as a single mother. if it was about identity and community and how the past shapes us. if it didn't turn into this nonsensical mystery - why did margot even think that her mom didn't die naturally? there's no reason to think that and this whole aspect of the book falls so flat, feels so secondary and false, and takes away from the much more interesting story that doesn't get adequately explored.

and when it is explored, it's not well done. we aren't made to feel anything or understand their feelings either. it's all told to us, so theoretically we know what they're feeling, but being just told isn't enough. i need more. or at least an explanation of things, like why people who are supposedly in love call each other "mrs lee" and "mr kim." is that a cultural thing? we don't learn anything about korean culture except the names of some foods that are repeated over and over, as if that is enough.

from just about every aspect of this book, i wanted more. except the "mystery." that could have disappeared entirely, and should have. this could have been a much better book. and from the quality of parts of her writing, it should have been better. she doesn't write badly (although most of the dialogue isn't very good) and there are places where she writes really well. so that made the rest of it all the more disappointing. this should have been better, should have been an exploration of mina's past and her relationship with margot, where margot gains an understanding of her mother, even if too late.

this exchange, from early on, made me laugh:

"'Sometimes agreeing to the same lie is what makes a family, family, Margot.'
'Ha. Then what do you call people who agree to the same truth?'
'Well, I don't know any of these people personally, but ... scientists?'" ( )

Wow, I don't know if I could have read this a few months ago, but when daughter Margot Lee travels from Seattle home to LA with a friend and hopes to see her mother after not being able to reach her by phone. There, in their old apartment, she finds Mina Lee, alone and dead. The police don't think there is anything suspicious, but Margot, with her friend Miguel, want to find out more about MIna's life, Margot's unknown father and whether or not she died accidentally or on purpose. The story goes back and forth between Mina's new life in LA in the 80's, leaving Korea after much personal sadness. In the present, Margot struggles to find people who want to talk about her mom and hopefully lead her to more of the story about her life. It's heartbreaking in parts and a very emotional journey for Margot. ( )

Amazingly written. The mystery of it all kept me turning the pages. ( )

Margot Lee is 26 and lives in Seattle. In late 2014, she is helping a friend move to Los Angeles, Margot's hometown, and when they stop by the apartment of Margot's mother, Mina Lee, a Korean immigrant, they find her dead. It's ruled an accident, but Margot is convinced someone murdered her mother. Margot's attempts to solve this mystery are the weakest part of the book. I also found it hard to believe that Margot never learned to speak much Korean.

Much better is Mina's immigrant story, told in flashbacks to 1987, when she first arrived in the United States as an undocumented immigrant. Mina herself is an orphan, having been separated from her parents during the Korean War, and has left Korea after the death of her husband and young daughter in an accident. She starts out living in a house with other recent immigrants, working in a Korean grocery store also frequented by Hispanics, first as a stocker and then as a checker.

As most everyone who lives and works in Los Angeles' Koreatown speaks either Korean or Spanish, Mina never learns much English. Thus communication between the single mother and daughter is limited. Margot doesn't know (and doesn't ask) about her mother's backstory and her father (although the reader learns both through the flashbacks). By the time Margot is old enough to have memories, her mother is operating a "store" at a swap meet (after her clothing store burns down in the 1992 Los Angeles riots), and Margot resents having to help after school and on weekends.

The book is very personal for debut author Nancy Jooyoun Kim (who is the daughter-in-law of a member of my book club).  Her parents were both born in North Korea. and her father left before his parents could escape, and he never knew what happened to them.  Nancy's parents never talked much about their immigrant experiences, which was an inspiration for the book.  There's also lots of mentions of Korean food in the book, which I've never had before - now I am curious to try some.  There are some recipes in the book club guide on the author's website. ( )

I absolutely adored this book! The Last Story of Mina Lee is an exquisite, delicate look at families in separation, a mystery and delectable descriptions of Korean foods I wish I knew more about, all wrapped up in one small beauty of a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ book ( )

I was underwhelmed by this book.

Margot returns to Koreatown in Los Angeles and finds her mother Mina dead in her small apartment. The police rule Mina’s death as an accident, but Margot thinks someone might have killed her. She starts asking questions and digging through Mina’s past and discovers a mother she barely knew.

The book alternates between Mina and Margot’s perspective. Margot’s story is set in 2014, beginning with her drive from Seattle to Los Angeles; Mina’s story begins almost 30 years earlier with her arrival in the United States.

Mina’s sections are very interesting. We learn about her being raised in an orphanage after being separated from her parents while fleeing North Korea during the war, about her losing her husband and daughter in an accident, about her challenges as an undocumented immigrant, and about becoming a single mother after a brief romance. I kept wishing Mina’s story would be more fully detailed.

Margot’s sections fall flat. She herself is a flat character. For a 26-year-old, she seems very immature. She does not know her mother or appreciate her at all. She supposedly has artistic aspirations but she lacks passion. Then, for someone who has expressed no interest in anything Korean or her mother’s story, she suddenly becomes an expert on the Korean immigrant experience!

As a personal immigration narrative, this book does work to some extent, though more focus on Mina would have strengthened it. As a mystery, the book doesn’t work because the police are portrayed as inept and Margot is able to uncover the truth only because of implausible coincidences. As a mother-daughter drama, this book also does not work because we are only told about the difficult relationship between Mina and Margot; we are not shown their difficulties so there is a lack of depth. The Last Story of Mina Lee is certainly not a Korean immigrant version of The Joy Luck Club which excels at showing the complex relationships between immigrant mothers and their daughters.

I enjoy reading books which will help me learn about other cultures. Unfortunately, this novel seems to focus only on Korean food. The names of dishes are always given, every time someone sits down to eat, but to a non-Korean these mean nothing. The constant reference to food just becomes tedious.

The novel’s tone also becomes didactic. Here’s just one example of Margot’s pontificating about the exploitation of immigrants; she argues that the U.S. repeats a lie to live with itself: “that fairness would prevail; that the laws protected everyone equally; that this land wasn’t stolen from Native peoples; that this wealth wasn’t built by Black people who were enslaved but by industrious white men, ‘our’ founders; that hardworking immigrants proved this was a meritocracy; that history should only be told from one point of view, that of those who won and still have power.” Rather than explicitly stating its theme, good literary fiction develops its theme.

I listened to this novel as an audiobook and that also tainted my enjoyment. I appreciated Greta Jung’s Korean pronunciation, but otherwise her voice often set my teeth on edge. The voice used for Mrs. Baek in particular doesn’t fit what she is saying: she always sounds whiny and displeased, even when her words suggest otherwise.

This book does not do justice to the experience of Korean immigrants.

Note: Please check out my reader's blog (https://schatjesshelves.blogspot.com/) and follow me on Twitter (@DCYakabuski). ( )

A great and heartbreaking mystery about a mother‘s death and her daughter‘s attempt to reconcile herself to the loss. ( )

This book is described as a mash up between an immigrant's life story and a mystery. If you're looking for a page turning mystery, then this is not it. But I did enjoy the story surrounding Mina's immigrant experience as a poor widow who leaves Korea to try and forget about her past. There are a few references about how families were torn apart when North and South Korea split -- something we don't really discuss or learn about in the history books -- and the descriptions of the struggle that poor immigrants have trying to make ends meet in America were the parts of the book that I enjoyed the most. The book leaves you with definitely a feeling of loss and melancholy and made me think of all the stories that are lost when someone we love dies.

The writing is a little rough, but I still touched by this story. ( )

This novel has mystery and intrigue, family secrets and friendships. This is what I think of as a great book club book, if that makes sense. Lots to talk about, but also a fast enough read that people will finish it.

Margot grew up as the only child of a single Korean-immigrant mom who did not speak fluent English. Margot was born in LA, never knew who her father was and never had a father figure, and never learned much Korean. (Honestly, this confused me--if it was just the two of them, how did Margot never learn Korean? How did they EVER communicate?) Her mother was in her 40s when she immigrated, and was raised in a Korean orphanage after losing her parents while fleeing during the Korean War. Margot moved to Seattle for college, and stayed after graduation. Margot knows very little about her mother's past, and after her mother's untimely death, she finds out things she never could have imagined. ( )

Margot Lee with her friend, Miquel are heading down to LA to find Miquel an apartment close to his new job. Margot hasn’t been able to reach her mother, Mina Lee who lives in Koreatown, LA to let her know that they are coming into town. When they arrive at Mina Lee’s apartment, they find her dead on her living room floor. Was it an accident as the police say or suspicious as Margot thinks. The two story timelines that unfold follow Mina Lee as she arrives in the United States as an undocumented immigrant. In the present time as Margot searches for what happened to her mother as well as looking into her mother’s past, Mina’s story is being told in alternating chapters as she arrives in Los Angeles and becomes part of the American myth of reinvention. Barely earning a living by stocking shelves in a Korean grocery store, the last thing Mina wants is to fall in love. It’s this unexpected love story that sets in motion the string of events that will affect everyone in this story.

Told through the lens of both the mother and daughter who have struggled all their lives to understand each other, this book captures the difficulties of starting over in a new country by Mina Lee and not wanting any part of the old country by her daughter, Margot.

While the book was a little uneven, this is Nancy Jooyoun Kim’s debut novel and I was impressed by how well she was able to pull the reader into the immigrant experience without preaching. Definitely recommended. ( )

Nancy Jooyoun Kim's The Last Story of Mina Lee is a mystery novel—but there's a great deal going on beyond the novel's central mystery. The novel is told in an alternating pair of voices. Mina left Korea after the death of her husband and daughter in Korea and now lives—undocumented—in Los Angeles. She's never really learned English because in her part of LA, the two primary languages are Korean and Spanish. She runs a small shop in a warehouse-style swap meet, working six days a week. Her second daughter, Margot, who is American-born, works a not-particularly-satisfying desk job at a nonprofit in Seattle. Raised by her single mother, Margot's Korean is limited. Refusing to learn that language was one of Margot's first steps in trying to escape the poverty and cultural isolation in which she was raised. Mina and Margot's relationship is stiff, both because of language issues and because each of them has learned to fear revealing herself to the other.

When Margot, who is helping a friend move to LA, she finds that her mother has died in a home accident. But was it an accident? That's the question Margot can't let go of, so she remains in LA doing her own investigations. The police assume the "case" is solved and no-one in the neighborhood where Mina lived wants to be questioned—not by Margot, and certainly not by the police.

As readers, we actually know more about Mina than Margot does, thanks to the chapters in Mina's voice. But even with this knowledge, we don't have the whole picture. The pieces of the full story fall in place gradually both for readers and for Margot. We—and Margot—witness the particular vulnerabilities of living in the U.S., both for women and for those without documentation. Until we, and she, can understand these, Mina's story will not become clear.

The solution to the mystery at the book's end is surprising, but the real meat of the book is in sharing Margot's journey to see the world through the perspective of the mother she didn't want to speak to—and who is now out of reach forever.

I received a free electronic ARC of this title from the Publisher via EdelweissPlus. The opinions are my own. ( )

If you like Amy Tan, you’ll enjoy this debut by Nancy Jooyoun Kim. When Margot goes back to visit her mother in Koreatown, Los Angeles, she finds her mother dead. Now she has not been the best daughter. She is American, through and through and her mother has seen life through the eyes of an immigrant. In this mystery, as Margot tries to figure out what happened to her mother, she also sees what life was like for her mother. She comes to the realization that her mother was an extraordinarily strong, resourceful woman. Yes, the story is a little uneven, but I’ll give Kim leeway in that. This is her debut novel, and she wrote a story in which I was easily immersed. ( )

The Last Story of Mina Lee by Nancy Jooyoun Kim sets up what should be a powerful story of the immigrant experience and an emotional story of the relationship between a mother and a daughter. The story has amazing potential but somehow manages to stay at a distance from its themes. It feels like the story is told not lived and the emotion of the story remains just out of reach.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2020/09/the-last-story-of-mina-lee.html

Reviewed for Netgalley and a publisher's blog tour. ( )

I felt this story started a little slow but then I understood that we really had two stories. One is a story of Mina Lee’s daughter and we learn a bit about her as she searches for some truths that she never knew. The second story is about Mina Lee herself and how she rebuilt herself when she came from Korea to the United States after some tragedies hit. I received a copy of this book from Harlequin Trade Publishing for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will. ( )

Margot cannot get her mother to answer the phone. When she arrives at her mother’s home, she finds out why. Her mother has died and it literally takes Margot by complete surprise. She and her mother have a complex relationship. But, Margot is just not ready to survive in a world if her mother is not in it.

This story started out very well and then lost a little steam. I think it was because I did not like Margot. I found her demanding, rude and little mean to people, especially people trying to help her. She just rubbed me the wrong way. Usually this adds to the story but, for some reason, this was a complete turn off for me.

However, I enjoyed the mystery surrounding Margot’s parentage and what actually happened to her mother, in the past and the present. This is what actually kept me reading this story. There is a very unique storyline surrounding Mina.

I received this copy from the publisher for a honest review. ( )

One of the reasons we read fiction is to put ourselves in the shoes of other people, people who have different life experiences than ourselves. Nancy Jooyoun Kim does that beautifully in her novel, The Last Story of Mina Lee.

Margot is a 26 year-old Korean daughter of Mina Lee, who raised Margot on her own in Koreatown in Los Angeles. Margot lives in Seattle and hasn't seen her mother in awhile. She is driving to LA to bring a friend to his new home, and after being unable to get a hold of her mom by phone, she stops by her mom's apartment and finds her dead on the floor.

It appears that Mina fell and hit her head, but after the landlord tells Margot that he heard Mina arguing with a man, Margot becomes suspicious that perhaps her mother was killed.

Margot begins to dig into her mother's life, discovering things that she didn't know about Mina. They had a difficult relationship. Mina owned a clothing shop that burned down during the LA riots in 1992. She worked her way back to opening a small shop at a swap meet in Koreatown, but her business never recovered.

Growing up was difficult for Margot. She wanted to be like other kids, act American. She had to work at her mother's store after school and on school breaks, and her mother never learned English. Margot resisted learning Korean, so communication between the two was never good on several levels.

The story is told in two different timelines, so we see Margot working to learn what happened to her mother in 2014, while we see Mina's story in 1987, when she came to America. Mina became separated from her parents as a young child when they were fleeing the war in Korea, and ended up in an orphanage. She never knew what became of her parents.

She came to America as an undocumented immigrant, and found work at a Korean grocery store. She made one friend at the boardinghouse she lived in, and led a fairly lonely life. There was a deep sadness about Mina, something in her life in Korea that she wanted to put behind her.

I found Mina's story compelling. She came all alone to a country where she didn't speak the language. Imagine doing that; leaving your home to go to a place where you know no one, and starting over. We see how hard Mina worked to make a life for herself and later for her daughter, the sacrifices she made. Mina just broke my heart.

Foodies will find many references to Korean dishes here, and book clubs could create an entire evening's feast with them. The Last Story of Mina Lee would made an excellent book club choice, as the mother/daughter and immigrant themes would make for a rich discussion.

If you liked Jean Kwok's Searching for Sylvie Lee, this book would be a good read for you. Both feature a mystery about a person, and a family member who must discover what happened to their loved one, while dealing with the issue of living in a different culture. I highly recommend The Last Story of Mina Lee, I will not forget her.

Thanks to Harper Collins for putting me on Nancy Jooyoun Kim's book tour. ( )