false 2895061 3 <B>A major new voice in fiction debuts with the electrifying and heartbreaking story of a teenage runaway on the streets of 1980s New York</B>. Teenage Joon is a Korean immigrant living in the Bronx of the 1980s. Her parents have crumbled under the weight of her father's infidelity; he has left the family, and mental illness has rendered her mother nearly catatonic. So Joon, at the age of thirteen, decides she would be better off on her own, a choice that commences a harrowing and often tragic journey that exposes the painful difficulties of a life lived on the margins. Joon's adolescent years take her from a homeless shelter to an escort club, through struggles with addiction, to jobs selling newspapers and cosmetics, committing petty crimes, and, finally, toward something resembling hope. In raw and beautiful prose, Nami Mun delivers the story of a young woman who is at once tough and vulnerable, world-weary and naive, faced with insurmountable odds and yet fiercely determined to survive. In the process, Mun creates one of the most indelible characters in recent fiction and establishes herself as an extraordinarily talented new voice. Brutally honest, linguistically inventive, and profoundly moving, <I>Miles from Nowhere</I> is a work of fiction that will haunt and inspire a generation of readers. 2921453 26 12 2008 Miles from Nowhere total:438|5:76|4:146|3:132|2:57|1:27| 438 1501 1079 156 5 8 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 22 07:36:54 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 08 13:37:23 -0800 2009
“I was trapped in my body, and my body was trapped in this empty lot with men who knew nothing about love or pity but everything else crucial,” our young narrator, Joon, tells us early in this debut novel by Nami...more...]]> 4 2 false false Sun Sep 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 25 18:20:48 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 22 17:11:18 -0700 2009
I looked at the cover. I didn't want to touch it; it's lig...more...]]> 4 3 false false Mon Nov 03 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Oct 20 20:00:57 -0700 2008 Mon Nov 03 14:30:25 -0800 2008 2 4 false false Thu Dec 18 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Wed Dec 10 13:35:45 -0800 2008 Thu Dec 18 20:58:31 -0800 2008 1 more...]]> 1 2 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 01 05:52:40 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 01 05:55:10 -0800 2009 What was insightful to me is how a mental illness of a family member can be toxic to their loved ones and lead to this type of distruction. It was sad.
...more...]]> 3 2 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Dec 27 08:10:22 -0800 2008 Sun Feb 22 18:31:02 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Jan 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 03 20:25:10 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 04 07:04:36 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 2 false false Tue Sep 30 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Nov 07 16:58:32 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 07 17:14:41 -0800 2008 twice+ 2 1 false false Thu Dec 11 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Nov 22 12:57:31 -0800 2008 Fri Dec 12 11:48:41 -0800 2008 1
This book is filled with marital infidelity, mental illness, homelessness, prostitution, homosexuality, drug addiction, alcoholism, abortion, and suicide. In other wo...more...]]> 1 1 false false Tue Feb 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 22 10:30:49 -0800 2008 Wed Feb 04 14:03:31 -0800 2009 Miles from Nowhere, by Nami Mun, is the tale of a teen runaway living on the streets of New York in the 1980s. Joon is an almost-likable protagonist, but I found myself getting more and more frustrated every time she made the wrong choice. She does try to make her life better, leaving the reader wit...more...]]> 4 1 false false Tue Jan 27 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 07 10:39:51 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 27 08:21:18 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 11 09:19:14 -0800 2009 Mon Mar 02 11:03:30 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Mon Sep 29 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 30 09:10:32 -0700 2008 Tue Sep 30 09:13:59 -0700 2008
This is usually not my sort of thing, but I picked up and began reading and couldn't put it down. It's a very well written story about a Korean teenage runaway and drug addict in early 1980's New Yo...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 21:31:45 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 04 22:11:01 -0700 2009
"Two days of speeding, bagging, drinking creme de menthe, and snorting procaine, and...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 23 06:31:08 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 23 06:36:57 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 12:10:30 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 25 12:11:54 -0700 2009
This is a debut novel which won some awards, the Pushcart Award. June, a Korean immigrant with her family, lives in The Bronx. At age 13, she leaves home because her father has...more...]]> 4 1 false false Sat Jul 11 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 11 11:32:21 -0700 2009 Sat Jul 11 12:28:51 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Jul 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 17:52:20 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 08 17:52:20 -0700 2009 Miles from Nowhere is an easy read, however so easy I don't feel I learned anything from it. It feels like something I would have read freshman year in high school. Up until halfway through the "Avon" section I couldn'...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Jan 21 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat May 23 11:59:46 -0700 2009 Sat May 23 12:00:37 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jun 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 22 22:11:53 -0700 2009 Thu Jun 25 17:10:04 -0700 2009
Mun's writing is fabulous. Spare, yet incredibly descriptive. Every word is important, every experience is key, every small bit about her mother ties in to give us a picture of a character we never meet. ...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2895061