Which Side Are You On: A Novel

by Ryan Lee Wong

But, of course, it wasn’t about what I’d done or whether there was truth in the claim—it was about us having the resources to control the narrative within the system where my innocence was decided.

“You know, Koreans have this word hwabyung, ‘burning sickness.’ It’s when you have so much anger, and it’s so repressed, that it destroys you. Halmoni would’ve rather held on to all her anger toward Haraboji, or me, or Korea, or America, than let go of her fantasy life. When I was an organizer, I was so good at tapping into that anger, getting up in front of people and stoking that fire in them. But then it made me sick, and L.A. burned, and I wondered what the hell it was for. I see the same anger in you, Reed, this feeling like everything in the world is wrong. I see it eating you.”