Gripping fiction about a Korean doctor attempting to live the American Dream, but haunted by his past. ( )

This was an important book in terms of the subject matter. It deals with an immigrant Korean doctor(Dr. Kwak) who is an ob-gyn in a small town in Northern Minnesota. The timelines were fuzzy but I gather that the present was during 2016 etc. Dr. Kwak is forced into retirement when the big chain he works for closes the local hospital and he ends working for in a mall doing public hairr removal. The beginning of the novel is a very satirical look at health care in the present and was funny but a bit over the top. The book changes tone when it get's into Kwak's history during the Korean war and his subsequent coming to America. I found that part very educational as it portrays the relationship of both United States and Japan to Korea. My problem was with the way the novel moved back and forth through timelines and back and forth on the current medical versus the Kwak's history. It was a tough read but I did enjoy learning more about the history of Korea. The book ends with Kwak going back to North Korea as part of Doctors without Borders. ( )

fiction; satire / refugee story - middleaged Korean-American OB-GYN of rural Minnesota juggles unexpected career change (this is the satirical part) and family turmoil (wife growing distant, daughter-in-law is terribly racist and insulting) when his past (war trauma, family secrets) catches up to him

starts off ok but then starts to drag -- I got to p. 170 or so but gave up during Yungman's refugee flashback when pages and pages went by without having much idea of what was happening -- my brain just didn't care to put the work into it, and I could tell that I should be paying more attention (maybe if I had more background/interest in the War in Korea, which normally I would but not just now). Setting this one aside for now, but not sure I'll come back to it.

This novel is part family saga, part immigration story, part critique of the American medical system/establishment. I really liked it, and I realized that I have read enough fiction and nonfiction about Korea that I can recognize the common historic threads in these books.

Yungman "William" Kwak has spent his career as the OB/GYN in small town Minnesota, after doing a residency in Birmingham, Alabama. As a Korean refugee, he took the positions available to him and was glad to have them and to get to practice medicine at all, after sneaking his way into taking the Korean medical school entrance exams--growing up during the Korean War, he knew hunger, death, disappearance, stealing, and the usual refugee life.

When the hospital is bought out and he is forced into retirement, he has to think. He meets his wife's church friends, and he thinks about the roads he did not take--and the road his wife did not take. He begins working for the same healthcare startup his son works for, and he vascillates between acceptance and horror. He thinks about his brother and his own guilt at abandoning him in Korea--and he finally opens all of the letters he has ignored over years. His guilt and wonder at how the years have flown lead him down a path he never expected to take.

I especially loved the parts about startup culture and American medicine--from buyouts, closing hospitals, profits, stock options, health care in mall storefronts, lawsuits, watches as surveillance tools, and more. Parts of SANUS made laugh, parts were horrifying--but it was all great.In some ways these satirical (yet not) bits did not mesh well with the more traditional family saga style of the rest of the novel--but I really enjoyed it all. I would love to read a dystopia or post-apocalyptic novel by this author, I think she could do a fabulous job because she has very clever and biting ideas.

Thanks to NetGalley and Simon and Schuster for providing me with an egalley in exchange for this honest review.

Books with similar themes:
If You Leave Me by Crystal Hana Kim
The Girl Who Wrote Loneliness by Shin Kyung-sook
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese ( )

Dr. Youngman Kwak’s life has been all encompassing. He has survived the worst of Korean history, been a refugee, experienced the racism of Birmingham, AL and northern Minnesota. He is at loose ends when the hospital in which he has been employed suddenly closes and he is harboring a secret he has kept for years from his wife and child.

A well written, memorable saga, there is much to this book; many layers that intersect. It is poignant, humorous, entertaining, horrifying, engrossing. With evocative descriptions, there are thought provoking cultural and generational comparisons. I also appreciated learning more about the brutality visited upon Korea by Japan, Russia, China, and the United States.

I highly recommend this book.

My husband also read it and really liked it. ( )