I like a nice chunky read over the Christmas holidays. Time on my hands means I can focus on one large, ambitious story over an entire week and just settle into another world. We don’t celebrate Christmas, and we try to avoid travel during these holidays (too expensive, too crowded) so that frees up a lot of time for me to wander into another world and immerse myself in it.
This time, the world was 90s New York peopled with first and second-generation Koreans.
About Free Food for Millionaires
Casey Han’s four years at Princeton gave her many things, “But no job and a number of bad habits.” Casey’s parents, who live in Queens, are Korean immigrants working in a dry cleaner, desperately trying to hold on to their culture and their identity. Their daughter, on the other hand, has entered into rarified American society via scholarships. But after graduation, Casey sees the reality of having expensive habits without the means to sustain them. As she navigates Manhattan, we see her life and the lives around her, culminating in a portrait of New York City and its world of haves and have-nots.
~ Synopsis from GoodReads
My Review
Do you like books like David Copperfield, Middlemarch, or The Goldfinch? Then, Free Food for Millionaires should be right up your alley.
The book starts off following the life of Casey Han – a 20 something who’s torn between her desire for freedom and the space to figure out who she wants to be vs her immigrant parents’ dreams of success for her.
The story soon starts becoming larger in scope going into the POVs of the people around Casey – boyfriends, friends, parents, making this more a story about the Korean immigrant experience than just about Casey.
I loved all the clashes between the American hyperindividualized culture and the class system vs her Asian roots. For Casey and the other Korean characters, the way to success seems to be via the white upper class. Casey’s social and professional success is via her friendships and relationships with white folks. It’s interesting that once she moves away from them, she starts to struggle. At the same time, she cuts ties with her parents, and cut loose, she struggles with understanding who she is.
She is a frustrating character most of the time – she’s smart, brilliant even, but struggles with finishing. Reading about her debts and her over-spending was also anxiety inducing. I so badly wanted to intervene and ask her to get herself checked for ADHD.
Ultimately, Casey realizes that she doesn’t want to play by the rules. She seems on the brink of declining a job offer that could help her pay back her debts and be financially secure. But the ending leaves us to decide which path she eventually takes – does she accept taking over her Korean friend and mentor’s store, or does she go into hat making (her only hobby, and the only thing she enjoys doing), or does she sell her soul to investment banking? Casey is ambivalent about all her options.
The book ends on an emotional cliffhanger. We leave Casey still uncertain about many things in life, but at least she’s made peace with her emotional relationships. She’s surrounded by friends and love, and hopefully that gives her the strength to make the decisions she needs to make.
Do I think she will have her happily ever after? I don’t think so. This isn’t that kind of book, and she’s not that kind of person. She will always be someone who’s indecisive and uncertain about what she wants, someone who overspends, and who may remain aimless for a few more years. But the book does end on an optimistic note. She will finally accept that she doesn’t need to do it alone, and can accept and give love and support. Or at least, that’s how I want to interpret the ending 🥹.
Would I love to read more about Casey Han? Yes, I would. I am so curious about the life trajectory of such a remarkable character, so much unrealized potential, but also someone so self-destructive.
