Free Food for Millionaires

by Min Jin Lee

No cover — Min Jin Lee: Free Food for Millionaires (Paperback, 2008, Grand Central Publishing)

Paperback, 592 pages

English language

Published April 9, 2008 by Grand Central Publishing.

ISBN:: 978-0-446-69985-3

(7 reviews)

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. FREE FOOD FOR MILLIONAIRES offers up a fresh exploration of the complex layers we inhabit both in society and within ourselves. Inspired by 19th century novels such as Vanity Fair and Middlemarch, Min Jin Lee examines maintaining one's identity within changing communities in what is her remarkably …

14 editions

technicat reviewed Free Food for Millionaires by Min Jin Lee

Excellent title

5 stars

I read this book after thoroughly enjoying the author's other work Pachinko and although the setting is quite different, it still has the feel of a Korean melodrama to me, notwithstanding the author crediting 19th century English novels (or maybe Korean drama also has that connection). Anyway, it's a dishy portrait of Wall Street crudity (hence the title), Korean and Korean-American culture, generational issues, lots of sex, and young people trying to find their path in life. Frankly, this book is a more obvious choice for a TV adapation than Pachinko.