The Interpreter

This book is amazing. I easily fell in love with the main character, Suzy, a Korean born immigrant living in the United States. I'm not good with reviews, but this book is absolutely captivating! If you are into Asian American literature or Korean culture, please consider this book!

As other reviewers have noted, The Interpreter offers a third-person view of one Suzy Park whose life up to now can best be described as dysfunctional. She's survived two affairs with married men (although she's remarkably comfortable in her "mistress" role), dropped out a first-rate college, drifted from job to job, and kept only one friend. Her present job, as a contract interpreter working for an agency, has held her longer than others. On one of her jobs, she translates for a witness who happens to know something about her parents, who died of gunshot wounds in 1995. She decides to investigate their death, her own past and the mysterious disappearance of her older sister Grace, who has always been distant.Although the heroine is not especially appealing (you want to shake her and send her to a therapist, pronto), her life makes sense in terms of her background. A dysfunctional life comes from a supremely dysfunctional family -- with layers of mystery. I had trouble putting the book down, although it had qualities of literary fiction and "girl books" as well as murder mystery. The author manages to give us a fresh view of New York, which has been the scene of so many novels. As I read I fondly remembered the Long Island Railroad and the stops on the Number 7 Queens line -- and the way they're counted out by riders. She also gives us a gritty but entertaining view of the Korean immigrant lifestyle as well as the realities of the legal proceedings where she translates. She reads between the lines and occasionally oversteps her boundaries, knowing immigrants have their own code and their own realities. The sense of setting and the pacing make this novel succeed, despite the unsympathetic main character and the even less sympathetic romantic entanglements. Along with Suzy, we are exposed to one mystery after another. Why did the family move so often? Where did they get money to buy a store? Where are the family's citizenship papers? Why is the sister so aloof? Who murdered the parents and why? Amazingly, Suki Kim ties up all these loose ends in the last two short chapters. The story behind the murder makes everything fit together, even the reason for her sister's aloofness (if we read between the lines). The ending is satisfying but not happy. I am reminded of the oft-quoted psychological truth: People need meaning to be happy, but meaning doesn't necessarily bring happiness.Heroine Suzy Park can now make a patterned quilt out of the scraps of her life. We're satisfied. She may never be.

This is an satisfying, entertaining first novel and mystery which explores New York City's Korean American immigrant and merchant community and their 1.5 Generation children. Told in the third person, we meet Suzy Park, on the cusp of turning 30, an ivy-educated, unfinished daughter of immigrant, Korean greengrocers in the Bronx. Estranged from her family, Suzy has aimlessly tripped from one adulterous relationship and temporary job to another. It is a life of unscented impermanence, with dull colored cars and a forever incomplete cathedral. She shuns her fellow 1.5 Generation members who strive in school. Her latest job is as an interpreter for the city court system. As an interpreter, she cannot take sides in court cases, but she is a keen observer and picks up the nuances and subtleties of languages, tones, and expressions. As the story unfolds, the reader will hope that Suzy not only interprets and transfers these depositions, but learns to interpret her own life choices and place in America. Although her parents were killed in a robbery of their store nearly five years ago, she never discusses the tragedy, not even with her friends or prying roommate. But when one client hints at some knowledge of a prior murder of greengrocers, Suzy picks up the trail of the mystery. Like the layers of a greengrocer's onion, the story unfolds as clues are unpeeled in each chapter. Was the robbery a murder? Why did the family move so often? Along the way, the author mixes in Korean culture, Nabokov, the INS, Japanese cinema, news radio-WINS, botany, van Gogh, and King Lear to create an absorbing, expeditious mystery.

The language in this novel haunted me, and keeps haunting me weeks after reading it. It is as interior and quiet and stark as something by Jose Saramago. Really, a beautiful and thrilling book.

I loved this book. Normally, I do not prefer mystery novels but 'The Interpreter' caught me right from the first page. The problem with many mystery novels is that although they are interesting, they lack style. Such is not the dilemma with this book. Suki Kim's intertwining plot coupled with her poetic writing style makes this reviewer recommend this book highly to all readers. The only drawback is that it kept me up for most of the night; consequently, I was late to work.