Everything Asian

by Sung J. Woo

David King was twelve years old when he moved from Korea to New Jersey. In loosely-connected tales, we follow David as he adapts to his new country.

You're twelve years old. A month has passed since your Korean Air flight landed at lovely Newark Airport. Your fifteen-year-old sister is miserable. Your mother isn't exactly happy, either. You're seeing your father for the first time in five years, and although he's nice enough, he might be, well - how can you put this delicately? - a loser.

You can't speak English, but that doesn't stop you from working at East Meets West, your father's gift shop in a strip mall, where everything is new.

Welcome to the wonderful world of David Kim.

Genres: Young Adult, Fiction, Asian Literature, Asian American, Cultural, Realistic Fiction, Adult

336 pages, Hardcover

First published April 14, 2009

About the author

Sung J. Woo's short stories and essays have appeared in The New York Times, PEN/Guernica, and KoreAm Journal. He has written two novels, Love Love (2015) and Everything Asian (2009), which won the 2010 Asian Pacific American Librarians Association Literature Award (Youth category). In 2014, Everything Asian was chosen for Coming Together in Skokie and Niles Township. A graduate of Cornell University with an MFA from New York University, he lives in Washington, New Jersey.

Reviews

[Bert Edens · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. It really delves into the stories of the Kim family, how they struggled to survive in America, and as important, how they managed to survive with each other. The father goes to America in advance of the rest of the family, and once they join him, all members struggle to adapt to the adjusting roles.

Highly recommended for anyone who loves to read about Korean culture or just a good in-depth looking into families and emotions and day-to-day struggles.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

The novel begins with the main narrator and his sister fifteen to twenty years beyond the bulk of the story. The narrator discovers that the shopping center that had previously housed the family store has been demolished. The first chapter begins the story itself, about a family recently reunited in the United States after five years apart.

Instead of focusing solely on the story of the family, the narrator switches each chapter to someone else involved in the family's life in some fashion. This serve to make the family actually feel a part of the community, however, at the same time, it also detracts from the family's story. Instead of getting little bits of information that should help steel you up for the next turn in the plot, you are rather bludgeoned with the next plot twist.

In addition, some of the characters were never really fully developed beyond being cardboard cut outs of people. The author would have probably benifited from culling a few extraneous characters out and focusing on his exsisting ones.

In addition, though the novel begins with a prologue fifteen to twenty years in the "future", it never returns to that point, which serves to make the novel feel somewhat unfinished when you turn the last page.

[Kkraemer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Inside the walls of a down-at-the-heels mall somewhere in Jersey, Dae Joon and In Sook Kim learn to become David and Susan, Americans reared in their father's entrepreneureal dreams. Each morning, they clean "Everything Asian" (a shop full of kimonos, chopsticks, Buddhas, furniture, purses, and assorted other Asian things) and spend the day with customers and other shop owners.

There is Russian immigrant who sells high end stereos and, at one point, decides to investigate a crime by having his poodle serve as a bloodhound. There is the hapless chef who tries to introduce nouvelle cuisine to customers a mall grill. There is the man who finds himself at a dinner party without socks but wearing pantyhose, and the wheelchair-bound woman who knows that her love can't go on but could not have expected an apple-wielding teenager to attack her in public.

Like Stuart O'Nan, Woo explores the grand themes of life by focusing on the small people in our world. He shows the small pleasures and ignominies of life, celebrating humanity by showing it in stories that are both heart wrenching and hilarious.

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this story!! Young David Kim immigrates to the United States from Korea in the 1980’s with his mother and sister. Their father has already been in America for the past five years trying to build a business and getting some money behind him before his family re-joined him. He owns a store in New Jersey called “East Meets West” in the Peddlerstown Mall and sells various items such as: kimonos, candles, vases, dragons and other miscellaneous items.

The chapters alternate between stories told by each family member and other people who own stores at the mall. Every character in the story is interesting, and has a convincing story of their own to tell. Mr. Hong and his family become friends with the Kim’s and near the end of the book the Kim’s suffer a tragedy together with the Hong family.

The story is gentle, funny, beautifully written and is about the coming of age story of David who is in between two very different cultures but meets them with both grace and humour.

[Sally · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was the perfect escapist lunch break read. I loved the characters, who were deeper than you find in most novels twice this length. I really appreciated the nuance of being a new American and all the complexity that comes with it. Would recommend!

[SITI NURBAITI MOHAMED]

Another book finished by 1.12 am. I am satisfied with the plot and it is as I expected to be. Studying literature which revolves around thematic issue of identity, immigration and belonging, I always find these kinds of story fascinating and critical. It went all back to the time I studied literature with my professors and teachers whom I admire the most.

The mischievous young Kims always kept my eyes fixated to the story. The most memorable part of this book is when the siblings wanted to surprise their parents for their anniversary (if I am not mistaken, or is it Parents Day? I can't remember), preparing dinner of Korean dish but it turned out they did some mistake to the dish but it was still consumable.

The fact that the novel really highlights the differences between Americans and Asians had driven me to read more, as I kept distinguishing and identify them with my pencil. Asians are that, meanwhile Americans are like this. Despite the alienated world the Kims were living in, they found themselves acceptable by others and by themselves as well, although the Mother had her difficult time accepting and making herself used in the new environment. She portrayed the personality of Asian women and Mothers should be which is contradicted to her daughter (as due to the fact that she is the second generation of immigrants) who blended well in the new place.

Towards the ending, I found myself in awestruck regarding the Father (which if I tell it here, it would be a spoiler). Yes, but I don't think all Asian men are like that. Some are, but American men are not exceptional. Basically, all men tend to do it. The strong and bold personality of American women dissolved well in the daughter but honestly, due to her rudeness, I kinda dislike her.

Overall, this is a very recommended book so give it a try, especially those who loves to know more about Korean culture.

[Marc · Rating 5 out of 5]

David Kim just migrated to America from South Korea with his mother and sister. He finally met his father who he only remember him as a picture. The Kim family owe a store in a strip mall where their are a cast of weird owners. The Kim family has to adjusted to their new life, while other lives intersect theirs.

I had to expectation coming to this book as I heard not much from it. All I know coming in is that its an immgrigant story, which is something I can relate to. And yes it is that type of story, it was something more. This novel reminded me of so much of A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Bachman. Both have similar tone and have a cast of community characters that were unusal yet charming. And I real jive on that atmosphere.

I really applauded this novel for showcasing what it means for a family to moved to another country, but also what it means when family reunited. This novel was cool that it showed different POV, rather than just David, so we could see what the other characters' lives were and are. And at the core of this story is about family, which is a theme I love to read about. I did wished I had an epilogue, but what I got in a story overall was amazing. I laughed out loud, I teared up, and I fell in love with the characters.

Overall 5 out of 5 fishing poles.

[Shin Yu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Written from a variety of different perspectives - Everything Asian revolves around an immigrant Korean family that sets up shop in a suburban American strip mall. The book chronicles their efforts to adjust to a new life and culture by getting to know their neighbors, attending ESL classes, and everyday interactions in their retail store. The book begins with narration from David Kim - a 12-year-old boy, as he leaves behind Korea with his mother and sister to join his father, who's been working diligently in the U.S. There is a fair amount of focus on David's older sister in this book, and her difficulties with adjusting, to the extent that she makes a feeble effort at committing suicide. This part of Woo's narrative reminded me of David Yoo's much more compelling essay in "The Choke Artist" on his own sister's difficulty in adjusting to a new culture and school.

[Ietrio · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was curious about the immigration story. And Woo seems to have been right in the middle between three moves, four if you are counting him. But the writing is so 19th century I started turning pages in an attempt to get what happened without being confronted with too much unpleasant poetry:

> [...] the first phase of Noona’s loneliness, soon to swell heavy and round like a full moon.

> Noona put the tape recorder to work immediately. She spoke intensely, her long black hair falling around the unit like a cape, her lips floating over the tiny triple slats on the built-in microphone. The first day, she sat in her room and made five ninety-minute tapes in a row, seven and a half hours of her fragile voice laid out on thin magnetic ribbon.

Oh, puh-lease!

[Jamie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An immigrant story, Woo switches narrators with each chapter. The story covers the first year that a Korean man's family (wife, teen girl and teen boy) join him in the States after being separated for five years. There are several conflicts -- most of them expected after a family has been apart for so long. I liked all the characters and enjoyed stepping inside their shoes for a chapter. It was not a particularly happy story, but it's written in a light tone. It was great pool-side reading.

[Amy Beck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This slice of life portrait of a Korean family in upheaval is told through the eyes of a 12-year-old son who, along with his mother and noona, join their father in the US after 5 years apart. The dad owns a shop in a rundown New Jersey strip mall.

These feel like vignettes told honestly--without sugarcoating--as the family tries to negotiate and navigate cultural differences and familial dysfunction. This book manages to be both humorous and melancholy at the same time. A quick read that is very well written. I would shelve this in the Literature aisle.

[Mary · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was expecting a more humorous novel, but this story--while it did have humorous moments--was actually quite poignant and even a little melancholy. Mr.Woo uses multiple voices to depict not only the Kims' struggles but also moments in the lives of the other Peddlers Town merchants to paint an affecting portrait of what it is to be part of a family, in all its messy glory.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Each chapter told from a different POV, of various people in these 2 Korean families and the their neighbors in a mall where they own shops. Keeps coming back to 10 year olds perspective, following his first year in America. Took me a few chapters to start enjoying it, but then it kept getting better and better.

[Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Besides, Father added, this was a man's job, this is what men do, we are men, we do these kinds of things that women don't do - which apparently included talking like an idiot."

[Lucas Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Everything Asian by Sung J. Woo is the heartwarming story of a young Korean Immigrant overcoming the challenges of living in New York in the predominantly white 80's. The Kim family, Sue, David, and their mother move to the state of New York to reunite with Harry, David and Sue’s father. Harry left his family for 5 years to start a newer more prosperous life for his family by opening a Korean goods store. The story then swaps perspective from family friends to store employees, at times the transitions from character to character may be confusing and not seem relevant to the initial outcome of the book, which most of the time is correct. Despite the author’s pointless narrative changes the book, at times, will keep you on the edge of your chair. Everything Asian accurately and entertainingly describes the struggles of a 80's Korean family In the United States and is a good read for anyone who can sympathize with this topic.

[Deb · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a cute, funny, lighthearted story told from the perspective of a 12 year old Korean boy, David Kim, who just moved to America, with his mother and teen age (and very moody) sister, to join their father. Their father had established a life in America a few years earlier and the transition for young David and his family tends to be difficult and awkward. Everything Asian covers the first year of their new lives together. The book cover says it is a Winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Youth Literature. It was a good read with colorful characters but there are some topics covered in the story that I would caution parents to review first. I would recommend it more for older teens/young adults.

[Ann · Rating 3 out of 5]

had lots of potential but the plot felt like it wasn’t working with the structure of the book— the progression felt unnatural and random at times.
funny and fun and enjoyed the POVs and exploring different characters, but left me wishing for more…

[Mary · Rating 2 out of 5]

It started off very promising. Interesting characters throughout. but as you went on it got to be, what's the plot/resolution? It ended with no tying up of anything.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Good writer but I really couldn’t get into the book.

[Ian Folger · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book Everything Asian, is about a boy named David that just moved from Korea to America to live with his father, who he has not seen in five years and the book goes through and tells us of David’s new life in America while working at his father’s Gift shop.


David along with his mother and older sister has finally moved to america where their father has lived for 5 years to set up a shop called East meets West and try to make a good enough living so the rest of his family can live in america. While in america, David’s family try to help out their father with the store by stocking shelves and try to help customers out if they need it. Around the time they start to get comfortable with living, David’s father wants to make up the five years he has missed with his son by doing things that a father and son would do. And throughout book, it goes through David’s and his family new life America. Everything Asian is definitely an interesting read, with its story about immigrants new life in america.Though, the book does at times decides to focus on new characters in the book and would just bring them in suddenly, which would lead the reader to become confused and wondered if they missed something. But, those transitions does give the reader characters with some with something to them and not characters that are just there that David and his family interact.


This book gives us a view of new immigrants lives and troubles when coming into america by showing their difficulties with interact with others, accepting where they live now, and trying to make a living.

[Q_Barb]

(newly arrived in the States from Korea in the early 1980s, Dae Joon, 12, does not know his dad and does not want to. Father left five years ago to make a home for his family in New Jersey. Now Dae Joon (“David” in America) and his older sister must adapt to a new world, working after school in Dad’s Asian gift store in the shabby Peddlers Town mall, attending ESL classes with their embarrassing parents, and discovering secrets and betrayal. Told in sharp, immediate vignettes, mostly from the boy’s viewpoint, this debut novel captures the contemporary immigration struggle, but it is also an elemental family drama of fury and tenderness, affecting all the characters. Dae Joon’s mother cannot speak the language and remains angry that her husband left her behind so long. But what about Dae Joon’s loneliness? Woo also shows the ironic satisfactions that come with speaking a second language: the joy of insulting locals to their faces without their understanding. A great addition to the titles listed in Booklist’s “Core Collection: The New Immigration Story” (August 2005). --Hazel Rochman Booklist))

[Bookworm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible debut. 12 year old David has arrived with his mother and older sister in New Jersey. It has been five years since they've seen their father and husband, and now they are to make a new life in New Jersey running a small shop in a strip mall.
 
I found the book horribly disjointed. It keeps switching viewpoints and I have never been a fan of that style. Done well with a large cast of characters can make a great story, but here it just did not work for me. The book actually opens with an adult David and his sister seeing the strip mall that they worked in be prepared for demolishing.
 
The text just seemed very difficult to get into and it is hard to connect with characters if we keep switching to another character in the next chapter. I was very interested in reading in the immigrant experience (like David expresses he can't speak any English and doesn't understand a lot in the beginning), but it just seemed so slapped together and did not really dig in with the characters.
 
Ultimately I had to just skim the book in the hopes it'd get better. It did not for me. I bought it as a bargain but would recommend skipping it entirely.

[Libraryscat · Rating 4 out of 5]

According to the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary ACCULTURATION is the cultural modification of an individual, group, or people by adapting to or borrowing traits from another culture. Having studied Cultural Anthropology in my college career, I remember that full acculturation is often easier for younger children than adults and that learning the language is paramount to this process. Even so, definitions and lectures cannot take the place of actual experiences. While I do not know David Kim, his sister, parents, or friends, I can certainly feel their pangs of growth in this process of acculturation in Sung J. Woo s debut novel Everything Asian. Perhaps this is because the author experienced many of these pangs himself learning English as a Second Language after moving to the United States from South Korea at the age of 10. His past realities have given life to Everything Asian. Visit the author s web page to learn more about Sung J. Woo..[return]To read my complete review, visit http://libraryscatbooks.blogspot.com/

[Pamela · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very graceful, lively, and generous-spirited novel about a family from Korea that runs a shop in a Jersey Shore mall called Peddler's Village. ("Everything Asian" is a nod to the son's secret name for their Asian-goods store.) The main narrator is 12-year-old David, who has just arrived from Seoul with his mother and sister to meet his father, who has already been in the States for several years. There's both comedy and deep sadness in the difficulties the family has in reuniting--the natural disjunctions between what it once was and what it must now be. The novel is greatly enriched by the addition of chapters from many other points of view, from David's sister to his father's mistress to the ethnically varied owners of other shops in Peddler's Village. Woo is unsparing of his characters and completely unsentimental about immigrant life, yet the book never feels harsh; it has a humor and sweetness that makes its vision large.

[Zaya · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cover Art: 🥕
Title: 🥕
Review: 🥕🥕
🐰 I was hoping for more.
First Page Nibble:
🐰 It's my sister on the phone. She's talking, I'm sort of listening. "So anyway, on the way down, I drove by Peddlers Town," she says.
Words carry information. Some words carry memory. And some words, like Peddlers Town, carry a life, my life, my first year in the States. I was twelve then, and even now, a quarter of a century later, I can go back in an instant to that sad sack of s strip mall. What I see most clearly is our own gift shop, Father sitting behind the register, Mother helping a lady try on a kimono, my sister and I manning the showcases, sliding open those beat-up wooden doors at least a hundred times a day.
Format: Paperback
Date Read: January 1, 2021🐇

[Jeanne · Rating 2 out of 5]

David Kim is twelve years old and has just come to the United States with his mother and sister. His father has been here for five years, establishing himself and enabling his family to finally join him.

The family owns a store in New Jersey, East Meets West. Located in a mall called Peddler Town, the Kim's store is the center of their lives. Stories of the other merchants and their families pepper David's narrative.

The point of view shifts from David to other characters, making for an uneven and even confusing narrative. This novel really reads more like a collection of short stories, with the loosest of narrative threads holding them all together.

The reviews were good, and I had high hopes for it. But I just wound up disappointed.

[Paul Clayton · Rating 5 out of 5]

I finished Everything Asian today and now I’m a little blue. (I really enjoyed this story! What am I going to read tonight?) Immersing myself in this character-driven novel day after day, I felt like a house guest of this young immigrant family making their way in New Jersey. Theirs is a universal story, and their language barriers and cultural differences are like a spice added to a wholesome meal, eaten alone in the back of a darkened restaurant. The characters are complex and very human (I was especially touched by the father.) And when you must part from them, it’s sad. But isn’t every family’s story of growing older and apart ultimately sad? The Buddhists call it impermanence. It’s sweet and sour and Sung J. Woo has served it up wonderfully.

[Kak Kang · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything Asian is a story about a David and his family going to the U.S. to reunite with his father that he hasn't seen for 5 years, and who has a shop. When david, and his family come to america they are greeted by their father, and are taken to there new home. They get settled Into the new home, and almost Immediately are put to work at their dad’s store East Meets West. David doesn’t seem to enjoy working there, and complains about It a lot. While his sister Susan on the other hand seems like she’s going through denial of leaving her friends, and school to come to America. This book is an emotional rollercoaster that will give a nice perspective on what’s it like to start over in a place you’ve never been before.

[Rahadyan]

Sung J. Woo's debut novel, Everything Asian, chronicles a year in the life of David (aka Dae Joon) Kim, a teenage emigre from Korea, and his family in small-town New Jersey. Set in the early 1980's, chapters that focus on David's struggles with the cultural and generational divide in his new home alternate with vignettes from the viewpoint of other characters, such as his sister Susan (In Sook), his parents and fellow shop owners in their central N.J. stripmall. The characters and situations were very real and resonant (often uncomfortably so) for me. I would be interested in a novel or series of stories revisiting this family 10 and 20 years later. Recommended.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a general rule, I'm leery of reading books about Korean immigrants, but the author does a good job of telling the story of this individual family, rather than getting stuck in the rut of trying to define the 1st/2nd-generation Asian American identity. While the book starts out telling the story of the Kim family, it branches out into a collection of vignettes about the other characters in the novel. Somewhat depressing, and it's not really a story with a nicely wrapped up ending, but written in a light-hearted tone.