李珉贞（Min Jin Lee）的新作历时近十年才得以完成；即便耗时二十年，我依然会惊叹于她是如何在构思过程中，将这些故事、这些人生、以及如此深沉的痛苦与爱，长久地铭记于心，直到最终找到合适的文字将它们呈现在书页之上。这部小说是她计划创作的韩裔侨民系列四部曲中的第三部。该系列的第二部作品曾入围美国国家图书奖决选名单。
Min Jin Lee 's new novel, , has been nearly 10 years in the making; if it had taken 20, I'd still wonder how she held all these stories, these lives, such pain and love in her imagination for the time it took to find the words to embody them on the page. The novel is the third in her projected four-novel series about the Korean diaspora. the second in the series, was a finalist for the National Book Award.
这部小说既宏大又细腻，探讨了移民的复杂性、美国梦的脆弱承诺以及教育的意义，同时也是一部引人入胜的经典之作。书中的人物形象鲜活，即便读完六百多页后，依然让人难以忘怀。这是一次震撼人心的阅读体验，既触动理智，也打动人心。
A simultaneously sweeping-but-intimate novel about the complexities of immigration, the fragile promise of America and the purpose of education, is also a classic page-turner populated by characters who are hard to leave behind at the end of 600-plus pages. It's an overwhelming reading experience, one that appeals to the head as well as the heart.
高氏家族是这部叙事宏大的作品的核心，故事跨越了1992年至2007年。故事伊始，约翰（John）和海伦（Helen）夫妇带着三个孩子刚从澳大利亚悉尼回到韩国首尔。约翰此前在悉尼担任一家韩国大型企业集团的高级经理，在那里工作了六年。
The Koh family is at the center of this teeming narrative, which spans the years 1992 to 2007. When we meet them, John and Helen Koh have just returned to Seoul, South Korea, from six years in Sydney, Australia, where John, a senior manager for a Korean conglomerate, had been stationed.
在去澳大利亚之前，高氏一家曾在美国生活——他们现在正值青春期的三个孩子：博（Bo）、DH和美度（Mido），都是在新泽西州的帕拉默斯出生的。然而，由于他们一家长期处于迁徙状态，韩国对他们而言已不再有“家”的感觉，而13岁的小女儿美度性格内向，在学校里正经历着一段格外艰难的时光。
Before Australia, the Kohs were in the U.S. — all three of their now adolescent children, Bo, DH and Mido, were born in Paramus, N.J. But, given, their on-the-move family life, Korea doesn't feel exactly like home anymore and 13-year-old daughter Mido, the shy youngest child, is having an especially hard time in school.
作者访谈：美国国家图书奖入围者李敏京谈她的新小说《美国补习班》然而，韩国最终也将成为另一个临时落脚点，这要归咎于约翰在公司里最年长的朋友兼上司的懦弱背叛。我们得知，申泰勋是一个“职业目标清晰，私生活却一团糟”的人。申已婚，是个热情洋溢的出轨者，他迷上了一位名叫丹比的美丽且性经历丰富的年轻女员工。
Author Interviews National Book Award-finalist Min Jin Lee talks about her new novel, 'American Hagwon' Korea, however, will turn out to be yet another temporary post, thanks to a cowardly betrayal by John's oldest friend and superior at his company. Taehun Shin, we're told, was a man who "was clear in his professional goals and muddy in his private life." Shin, a married man and exuberant cheater, has become besotted with a beautiful, sexually adventurous young employee named Danbi.
由于丹比施压要求他离开妻子，申命令约翰设局让丹比在公司失败，然后解雇她。约翰是个正直的人，起初表示反对，但最终不得不服从他挚友的指令。就在那时，丹比——一个彻头彻尾的致命女人——反将一军，设下陷阱让约翰陷入困境。
Because Danbi is pressuring him to leave his wife, Shin orders John to set up Danbi to fail at the company and then fire her. John, a man of integrity, objects, but finally must obey his best friend's orders. That's when Danbi, a femme fatale to the max, turns the tables and sets John up, for a fall.
《柏青哥》是一部关于流亡、歧视……以及日本弹珠机的家族史诗 书评 文化冲突、生存与希望：《柏青哥》中的故事 电视剧评论 深刻而不可预测，《柏青哥》追随一个韩国家族的史诗般崛起 小说很快跳转到1997年，当时亚洲金融危机造成了更大的破坏。高家的大多数成员，以及众多刻画丰满的其他角色，最终都落脚在加利福尼亚州南部。就连申和丹比也最终抵达了那里。
'Pachinko' Is A Family Saga Of Exile, Discrimination ... And Japanese Pinball Book Reviews Culture Clash, Survival And Hope In 'Pachinko' TV Reviews Deeply felt and unpredictable, 'Pachinko' follows the epic rise of a Korean family The novel soon jumps to 1997, when the Asian financial crisis wreaks more havoc. Most of the Koh family, along with a multitude of other fully-realized characters, wind up in Southern California. Even Shin and Donbi eventually land there.
家人、学校朋友以及韩国教会构成的关系网，帮助这些新移民免于陷入绝境，尽管高家不得不降低生活标准。约翰在一家韩国购物中心的鱼类餐厅“虾堡”（Shrimp Castle）厨房里找到了工作。漫长的一天结束后，“他的头发被汗水和油污粘在发网下”，而他“早晨那件挺括的白色围裙上，也溅满了油渍和肥皂消毒液”。
A network of family, as well as friends from school and the Korean church, help prevent the newcomers from going under, although the Kohs must settle for less. John finds work in the kitchen at Shrimp Castle, a fish place in a Korean shopping mall. By the end of a long day, "[h]is hair was matted down with sweat and oil beneath the net" and his "crisp white apron from the morning was spotted with oil and soapy disinfectant."
我们遇到的几乎所有人都在拼命工作。在小说临近结尾时，全知叙事者出人意料地引入了另一位关键人物：申先生分居的妻子玛丽，她在新泽西州的一家花店工作。玛丽尖锐地反思道：“这些年来，在她的教会里，与她同龄的贫困男女因各种癌症相继离世，有时玛丽不禁怀疑，仅仅是繁重的工作是否就能夺走人的性命。”
Almost everyone else we meet works themselves to the bone. Late in the novel, our omniscient narrator surprisingly introduces another key character: Shin's estranged wife, Mary, who works in a florist's shop in New Jersey. Mary pointedly reflects that: "Over the years, at her church, poor men and women her age had died of different cancers, and sometimes Mary wondered if hard work alone could kill people."
李珉贞（Min Jin Lee）阅读《百万富翁的免费食物》（Free Food for Millionaires）书摘：高家的孩子们寄托了全家对美好未来的所有希望，他们也同样在工作：这三个孩子都曾先后在一家“学院”（hagwon，即课后私立补习班）打工。大多数“学院”——无论是在韩国还是在美国——都致力于让学生在学业上出类拔萃，最好能进入常春藤盟校；但高家孩子打工的那家“学院”由一位绰号“狮子”的理想主义韩裔美国人经营，他的想法与众不同。
Books Min Jin Lee Reads from 'Free Food for Millionaires' The Koh offspring, in whom all hopes for a better future reside, also work: All three of them, at one time or another, are employed by a hagwon, an after-school private prep academy. Most hagwons — in Korea and here in America — prepare their students to excel academically and, preferably, go on to Ivy League schools; but the hagwon the Koh kids work at is run by an idealistic Korean American nicknamed Lion who thinks differently.
小说结尾处有一段苦乐参半的重头戏：狮子面对体育馆里坐满的约500名韩裔家长，告诉他们教育应该是变革性的，而不仅仅是交易性的。这段话极具感染力，任何被要求捍卫博雅教育的人都应该读一读。
The bittersweet set piece toward the end of this novel, where Lion addresses a gymnasium packed with some 500 parents, all ethnically Korean, and tells them education should be transformative, not just transactional, is so powerful it should read by anyone called upon to defend a liberal arts education.
书评：前瞻书单，九月新书14本，助你从容步入秋季。太多。太好。的书了。
Review The Book Ahead 14 new books in September to help ease you into fall Too. Many. Good. Books.
李的写作风格非常独特——她完全打破了“只展示事实、不进行详细解释”的传统写作准则。这部小说中充满了详细的描写，但没有任何一处显得刻意或生硬。事实上，李的写作技巧极其高超：她能够从最简单的素材中创造出令人震撼的文学效果。我真希望能为大家朗读这部小说的最后一句话来展示她的写作功力，不过在这里我只能简单地说：在那一句话中，一个普通的物主代词“his”出现了，而它的出现既具有精神上的启迪作用，又令人感到情感上的震撼。这真是一部了不起的小说啊！
Lee's style throughout is striking in that it counters the old "show, don't tell" writing adage: Instead, there's plenty of exposition in this novel and, yet, not a page is workmanlike. In fact, Lee is so deft that she conjures epiphanies out of the simplest material. I wish I could read to you the very last sentence of to demonstrate her mastery, but, instead, I'll just say that the simple possessive pronoun "his" unexpectedly appears in that sentence and its effect is spiritually redemptive and emotionally shattering. What a novel.
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