Esther
2026년 9월 9일
The book of November is Min Jin Lee's <American Hagwon>
It was quite a while ago that I heard Min Jin Lee was working on a book about hagwons. At the time, I was also writing an academic article about them. Looking back, I think I was trying to get at something fairly simple: that hagwons are thoroughly human places, where hopes, frustrations, ambitions, delusions, and small dramas play themselves out through the relationships among students, parents, teachers, and everyone else caught up in the system. What interested me was whether, within such an intensely competitive and instrumental environment, there might nevertheless be some possibility of people thriving in a meaningful sense.
I don’t know how Min Jin Lee approaches the subject, or what kind of world she intends to find in it. I assume immigration and contemporary family history will figure into the book somehow, given the concerns of her earlier work, but I’m curious about what draws her specifically to the hagwon. When I first heard about the project, I made a mental note of its expected publication, only to see the date apparently slip a few times - or perhaps I have simply lost track of it.
After the smashing success of Pachinko and the fame that followed, I imagine there must have been some pressure, external or otherwise, to produce something that would live up to the expectations. That in itself makes the project more interesting to me.
I’m not a massive fan of Pachinko, though I admire Lee’s ambition and her sustained interest in Koreans, and in Korean culture and history. So what I’m really curious about is less the plot of the new book than the perspective behind it. How does someone like her - however exactly one defines her, Korean American, American, outsider, insider, something in between - look at the hagwon? What does she see there that I might not? And what might remain invisible to her?
I wonder what you’ll make of it, and what you’ll see in her gaze. This is our November book, so unless the publication date gets delayed again, we should be able to get hold of it and read it by then. See you in November!
At last, the National Book Award finalist and NYT bestselling author of Pachinko returns with a breathtaking contemporary epic: Min Jin Lee has written a masterpiece by turns sweeping and intimate, one that reckons with ambition and moderation, lust and loyalty, personal dreams and familial duty.
In schools and churches, hotel rooms and nail salons, law firms and fried-fish shops; in cramped, dingy apartments and luxury, gated communities, the men, women, and children in American Hagwon struggle to find satisfaction and meaning in a world that seems to grow less forgiving with each passing year...
베스트셀러 <파친코>의 작가 이민진이 드디어 눈부신 현대적 대서사로 돌아왔다. 작가는 <아메리칸 학원>을 통해 야망과 절제, 욕망과 책임, 개인의 꿈과 가족에 대한 의무라는 삶의 갈등과 문제들을 다루며, 장대한 스케일이지만 아주 친밀하게 느껴지는 걸작을 완성했다. 학교와 교회, 호텔 방과 네일숍, 로펌과 생선튀김 가게에서, 또 비좁고 낡은 아파트, 혹은 호화로운 게이트 너머의 커뮤니티에서 살아가는 사람들. 이들은 해가 갈수록 무자비해지는 듯한 세상에서 삶의 만족과 의미를 찾기 위해 애쓰는데...
Sunday, November 29, 2026, at 5pm
Join us for an evening of camaraderie and intellectual stimulation. Admission is free, but attendance is restricted to individuals of college age and above. You can sign up for the meeting via Karrot (당근 모임) or secure your spot through Kakao (에스더어학원).
세종에 거주하고 있는 외국인을 포함해 교사, 강사, 회사원, 공무원 및 가사일을 하시는 분들에게도 원서독서를 장려하고 자유롭게 토론할 수 있는 문학적/문화적 소통과 교류의 공간이 되고자 합니다. 해당 책을 읽고, 영어로 소통이 가능한 대학생 이상의 성인에 한해 누구나 무료로 참석할 수 있습니다. 2026년 11월 모임의 책으로는 Min Jin Lee의 <American Hagwon>을 읽습니다.