Miles from Nowhere is Nami Mun’s debut novel about a 13 year-old Korean girl named Joon living in New York. Her adulterous father left and her mother could not cope. She decides to leave her mom and the rest of the novel follows her for the next 5 years through a shelter, an escort club, homelessness, drug addiction, a job selling makeup, and finally ends on a hopeful note. It’s written elegantly and instantly I’m already wanting to recommend this book to Kim. Only because I know she enjoyed Perks of being a Wallflower and this has that same feeling of tragic hope. Joon goes through all these hard, ugly experiences and she still somehow has a childlike and naive desire for hope. The desire shrinks and expands through out this novel but would never completely shrink away. I think that’s sweet.
Overall, it was simply written which makes the prose easy to read. It’s pretty fluid. However, the content can be pretty hard and ugly. That said, I feel Nami Mun gave the content beauty by giving Joon resilience, hope, and gumption. I like my girls with gumption.
Two Excerpts
“Hope was based on the unknown, and I liked knowing things. Like that I was going to fail. Failure had better odds. You could depend on it.”
“He had no idea that grief was a reward. That it only came to those who were loyal, to those who loved more than they were capable of. He had a garage, full of her belongings, and all I had was my guilt. It took on its own shape and smell and nestled in the pit of my body, and it would sleep and play and walk with me for decades to come.”
I recommend this book to those who liked Perks of being a Wallflower and A Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing.
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