Oh em gee!

Nami Mun is coming to Roger Williams next year!

*happy dance*

Hope and Didion

So, in my Creative Nonfiction class, my professor saw me re-reading "Miles from Nowhere" and mentioned that he'd actually met author Nami Mun at a writer's convention in Chicago! You can imagine my shock--shock furthered as he said he and some other professors were trying to get her to come speak at Roger Williams! It's just tentative at the moment, but gosh oh golly, I've never wanted something so much in a long time! I really hope she visits--that would be so exciting!

My professor also mentioned wanting to read Miles from Nowhere, but said he wouldn't borrow my copy as he was afraid of losing it. Oh writers.

So at the moment I am reading "The Year of Magical Thinking", by Joan Didion, for the aforementioned class. It's a nonfiction piece Didion wrote about the aftermath of the death of her husband. I'm only about eighty pages in and haven't formed a real opinion of it yet, so I think once I finish the book [and the 8-page paper on it required for class] I'll review it here.

Also, I'm working on a thesis paper for my American Literature class about John Updike, and reading the "Rabbit" books as supplements. But instead of promising reviews I won't get around to writing, I'll say maybe I'll review "Rabbit, Run" once I finish it.

I want a Kindle II for my birthday. It costs over 300 dollars, but hey, I'll be 21. It's better than buying me booze.

Nami Mun: Miles from Nowhere

Nami Mun: Miles From Nowhere

So it came in the mail today, three hundred pages of amazing. I knew from the start this was going to be one of those 'can't stop reading it' books, and I was not disappointed. As I started reading it before my anthropology class started, I was immediately swept into the story of Joon-Mee, a young Korean teenager whose mother's mental instability and father's marital infidelity drive her to run away from her home in the Bronx. Over the course of the next six years, Joon lives in various homeless shelters, develops several unstable love interests, and engages in a wealth of nefarious activities. Somehow, though, Nami Mun's understated and lyrical prose manage to convey a level of indescribable emotion. Several parts of the book had me on the verge of tears because of their sheer poignancy--I'll spare you the details, but there is one scene in particular that drove me to pieces.

I read this book in an hour and a half--a record even for the notoriously-good-at-speedreading me. It's not that it's an easy read--more that it's the hardest easy read I've ever found. The plot is a little ambiguous, and the chronology jumps around a lot, which makes it difficult to follow, but overall it is one of those books that slips under your skin so quietly you don't even notice it until you find it's planted its magic in your heart. Characters weave in and out, their futures unresolved. It is definitely a modern picaresque--I've heard it compared to Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son on several occasions, and I feel the comparisons are justified. Mun also reminds me of another author, Haruki Murakami [After Dark; Kafka On the Shore; Sputnik Sweetheart] for some reason. True, Murakami is a Japanese author writing in Japanese and Mun is a Korean-American author writing in English, but there's something very simple and beautiful about both their writing styles. They say so much by saying so little.

I am so happy I read this book. It's truly one of the most unique pieces of fiction I have ever read, and I eagerly anticipate Nami Mun's next novel.

Always,
Amber [the Rogue Intellect]

Try Number 3

So I have a literary blog. Again. And let's hope I can keep up with it this time.

I ordered a used copy of Nami Mun's "Miles from Nowhere" off Amazon a few days ago--twelve dollars hardcover, not too shabby. Should be coming in the mail in a few days. I've read a lot of good reviews of it--it's a vaguely picaresque novel about Joon, a young Korean immigrant living on the streets, and parts of it are based off of Nami Mun's real-life experiences as a runaway. I'm psyched to read this--can't wait for it to come!

Expect an update when the book comes, and a review shortly thereafter. I'm swamped with schoolwork [mostly Anthropology] right now, so we'll see when I can get it done.

Always,
Amber [the Rogue Intellect]