Author: R.O. Kwon
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Blurb: Phoebe Lin and Will Kendall meet their first month at prestigious Edwards University. Phoebe is a glamorous girl who doesn't tell anyone she blames herself for her mother's recent death. Will is a misfit scholarship boy who transfers to Edwards from Bible college, waiting tables to get by. What he knows for sure is that he loves Phoebe.
Grieving and guilt-ridden, Phoebe is increasingly drawn into a religious group—a secretive extremist cult—founded by a charismatic former student, John Leal. He has an enigmatic past that involves North Korea and Phoebe's Korean American family. Meanwhile, Will struggles to confront the fundamentalism he's tried to escape, and the obsession consuming the one he loves. When the group bombs several buildings in the name of faith, killing five people, Phoebe disappears. Will devotes himself to finding her, tilting into obsession himself, seeking answers to what happened to Phoebe and if she could have been responsible for this violent act.
Me: What did this book mean to me? I feel like I could best express everything in a letter to the author, R.O. Kwon. So here goes...
Dear R.O. Kwon,
I met you before I read your book. I saw you on a panel at Texas Book Festival with two other fantastic authors and after listening to all of you talk, I distinctly remember feeling regretful that I hadn't read any of the books beforehand. I came home and made sure The Incendiaries was next on my list.
I didn't even realize it until I was in the middle of this book, but I think this might be the first adult book I have ever read by a Korean-American author. Part of that blame, I'll take upon myself - I haven' t yet gotten around to greats like Min Jin Lee and Chang-Rae Lee. But while I've read Korean authors, your Korean-American narrative was so familiar yet completely new on paper.
I had never seen Korean names like "Haejin" used alongside Americanized ones like "Pheobe," even though that has been the norm my entire life, from Kyungmin to Kate. I too have stumbled trying to cut fruit, only to realize my parents have done it for me my entire life. The image of the perfectly cut apples with the fork brought to the piano lasted so vividly in my mind.
It was such a beautiful sensation, to see these elements in a book without explanation or question. As a writer, I've found it difficult to write my own reality into being. I see now that that's because I'd never seen it done before. The Incendiaries changed that.
At one point in the book, John Leal says that "No one was more spiritual than Koreans could be; no believers, more devoted. It was a land of purists." I was so fascinated by this; every time I've visit Korea, I'm so struck by the collectivist culture. It almost frightens me, sometimes feeling like an erasure of the individualism I've become accustomed to in America. But I've always noted a certain beauty in it too: if you buy into it, you'll always belong.
In this way, I see your book as a distinctively Korean-American one. I don't know if it was your intent but to me, even the character development, the spare but brilliant writing, and winding plot, each element felt almost too familiar, like the sensation of coming back to a hometown you'd longed to leave. You've made this beautiful ache so palpable to every reader though, not just Korean-Americans; you've somehow carved a new voice.
I've always marveled at the established "cultural" styles and legacies of certain groups. There is a Latin American, an African-American, a European literary tradition. Maybe it's just me, but I've never really felt there was an Asian-American one. But you showed me it's possible, and it's coming - we are writing one into being.
(Of course, I adored the book itself! The concepts were so striking: the different faiths we take on throughout our lives, how all of us fall to a need to believe in something. Where this belief turns violent, turns self-serving. The characters were stunning, and I liked seeing the plot unravel as I went. Usually, I would talk more about the contents of the book, but this time, its meaning to me surpasses just the content.)
I've always felt that if I had a faith, it would be literature...The Incendiaries is another book that has made me believe in its magic. Thank you.
Much love,
Kate
To love, he said, is but to imagine well.
I kissed bitten nails that shine, in hindsight, like quartz, spoils I pulled down from the moon.
Rating: 5 kisses!
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