“We think that we can do everything, and in our process of doing everything we don’t do the thing that matters the most.” An interview with the “Pachinko” author minjinlee11.
before I started writing. It didn’t turn out very well. I was, like, I need another ritual. I read that Willa Cather read a chapter of the Bible every day. I was really inspired, because I think her prose is so sturdy. I was, like, O.K., I’m going to read the Bible. I would read a chapter, and then I’d do my work. Gradually, I started to read the chapter and I realized that there were things I didn’t understand, and some of it was dreadfully boring.
The title of your book “Free Food for Millionaires” comes from a scene in which investment bankers receive free lunch after closing a deal. Your opening line in “Pachinko”—your thesis statement—is “History has failed us, but no matter.” What did you mean by that? I mean, truly, can you think of any other subject that people could care less about? But I thought, It means so much to me.
They’re very similar. Very often, it comes from economic insecurity, anxiety, and the inability to compete, right? So, as globalization and economic forces [drive] changes around the world, you often have to find scapegoats. Throughout history, we see this. In Europe during the twentieth century, Jews were persecuted and scapegoated. I think in colonialism we have to figure out, how do you justify that these people can be treated this way? And very often it’s economics plus hatred. It’s both.
I’m interested in the formation of modern Koreans. I’m trying to figure out, what does that modern Korean care about more than anything? In all of my travels, I’ve been asking people, and the thing that really comes up over and over again is education. So I was thinking, Well, that’s kind of a big topic, right? I’ve never met a Korean anywhere—like a Korean from Brazil or Canada—who doesn’t have very strong feelings about education, so I’m writing about that.
The book is about young white Americans who hail from outside of élite Northeast circles—Gatsby, from North Dakota; Nick, from Minnesota; Daisy, from Kentucky; Tom, from Illinois; and George and Myrtle, from Queens—and through Fitzgerald’s geographic choices he was able to discuss distinct geographic cultures of white Americans. Recognizing the specificity of Fitzgerald’s choices is a way to read and appraise his work fairly.
“Free Food for Millionaires” was in development with Netflix, but I know that doesn’t mean it’s going to get made. What is the status of the show? Over the past few years, you have become one of the most visible spokespeople for Asian Americans, someone who’s looked to when we experience traumatic moments, like the spa shootings in Atlanta, or when Michelle Go was shoved in front of a subway train and killed, or, more recently, when Christina Yuna Lee was murdered in her apartment in Chinatown.
I like Jay. I actually really like Jay’s book. And I like Jay’s book because, one, I read it—and I say that because I think those who haven’t read the book and criticize it are quite unfair. I thought that Jay’s book was very specifically about Jay. It’s a very personal book, and he has every right to believe those things. Do I think that Jay speaks entirely for me? No, of course not.
Well, there are a couple of things. One is that you’d have to change the state law to get rid of Bronx Science and Stuyvesant and Brooklyn Tech in terms of testing requirements. So part of it is a red-herring issue. We’re distracting parents. But we keep having this conversation because data is so compelling. The data is that you have this alleged overrepresentation of Asian Americans in these schools.
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