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American Hagwon
Min Jin Lee, the acclaimed author of Pachinko, returns with a breathtaking contemporary epic that follows one family as they reckon with personal dreams and familial duty.
John and Helen Koh and their three children – Bo, DH and Mido – are building new lives in Korea when they find their worlds upended, first by a terrible betrayal and then by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Striving to regain their footing, the Kohs set out to do whatever it takes to provide for their children’s futures.
They leave Seoul for Sydney and eventually settle in California, where new opportunities open for the Koh children, as the parents, strangers in a strange land, adjust to a difficult existence in which their qualifications mean little. Their way forward is lit by the faith that education will lead the next generation to the success and security that have eluded their parents.
The Kohs, their friends, relatives and even their foes move in and out of each other’s lives as they navigate love, work, fortune and fulfilment across the years. But with each new sacrifice and fresh horizon, larger questions begin to open up before them: what are we willing to give up to secure the happiness of the ones we love? What is the purpose of education? And what is truly important for a good life?
American Hagwon is the most ambitious and extraordinary work yet by one of our greatest novelists, Min Jin Lee.
John and Helen Koh and their three children – Bo, DH and Mido – are building new lives in Korea when they find their worlds upended, first by a terrible betrayal and then by the 1997 Asian financial crisis. Striving to regain their footing, the Kohs set out to do whatever it takes to provide for their children’s futures.
They leave Seoul for Sydney and eventually settle in California, where new opportunities open for the Koh children, as the parents, strangers in a strange land, adjust to a difficult existence in which their qualifications mean little. Their way forward is lit by the faith that education will lead the next generation to the success and security that have eluded their parents.
The Kohs, their friends, relatives and even their foes move in and out of each other’s lives as they navigate love, work, fortune and fulfilment across the years. But with each new sacrifice and fresh horizon, larger questions begin to open up before them: what are we willing to give up to secure the happiness of the ones we love? What is the purpose of education? And what is truly important for a good life?
American Hagwon is the most ambitious and extraordinary work yet by one of our greatest novelists, Min Jin Lee.
656 pages, Hardcover
First published September 29, 2026
About the author
Min Jin Lee
18 books10.5k followersMin Jin Lee’s novel Pachinko (Feb 2017) is a national bestseller, a New York Times Editor’s Choice and an American Booksellers Association’s Indie Next Great Reads. Lee’s debut novel Free Food for Millionaires (May 2007) was a No. 1 Book Sense Pick, a New York Times Editor’s Choice, a Wall Street Journal Juggle Book Club selection, and a national bestseller; it was a Top 10 Novels of the Year for The Times of London, NPR’s Fresh Air and USA Today.
Min Jin went to Yale College where she was awarded both the Henry Wright Prize for Nonfiction and the James Ashmun Veech Prize for Fiction. She attended law school at Georgetown University and worked as a lawyer for several years in New York prior to writing full time.
She has received the NYFA Fellowship for Fiction, the Peden Prize from The Missouri Review for Best Story, and the Narrative Prize for New and Emerging Writer. Her fiction has been featured on NPR’s Selected Shorts and has appeared most recently in One Story. Her writings about books, travel and food have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Times Literary Supplement, Conde Nast Traveler, The Times of London, Vogue (US), Travel + Leisure (SEA), Wall Street Journal and Food & Wine. Her personal essays have been anthologized in To Be Real, Breeder, The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Work, One Big Happy Family, Sugar in My Bowl, and The Global and the Intimate: Feminism in Our Time. She served three consecutive seasons as a Morning Forum columnist of the Chosun Ilbo of South Korea.
Lee has spoken about writing, politics, film and literature at various institutions including Columbia University, French Institute Alliance Francaise, The Center for Fiction, Tufts, Loyola Marymount University, Stanford, Johns Hopkins (SAIS), University of Connecticut, Boston College, Hamilton College, Hunter College of New York, Harvard Law School, Yale University, Ewha University, Waseda University, the American School in Japan, World Women’s Forum, Korean Community Center (NJ), the Hay Literary Festival (UK), the Tokyo American Center of the U.S. Embassy, the Asia House (UK), and the Asia Society in New York, San Francisco and Hong Kong. In 2017, she won the Literary Death Match (Brooklyn/Episode 8), and she is a proud alumna of Women of Letters (Public Theater).
From 2007 to 2011, Min Jin lived in Tokyo where she researched and wrote Pachinko. She lives in New York with her family.
Min Jin went to Yale College where she was awarded both the Henry Wright Prize for Nonfiction and the James Ashmun Veech Prize for Fiction. She attended law school at Georgetown University and worked as a lawyer for several years in New York prior to writing full time.
She has received the NYFA Fellowship for Fiction, the Peden Prize from The Missouri Review for Best Story, and the Narrative Prize for New and Emerging Writer. Her fiction has been featured on NPR’s Selected Shorts and has appeared most recently in One Story. Her writings about books, travel and food have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New York Times Book Review, The Times Literary Supplement, Conde Nast Traveler, The Times of London, Vogue (US), Travel + Leisure (SEA), Wall Street Journal and Food & Wine. Her personal essays have been anthologized in To Be Real, Breeder, The Mark Twain Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Work, One Big Happy Family, Sugar in My Bowl, and The Global and the Intimate: Feminism in Our Time. She served three consecutive seasons as a Morning Forum columnist of the Chosun Ilbo of South Korea.
Lee has spoken about writing, politics, film and literature at various institutions including Columbia University, French Institute Alliance Francaise, The Center for Fiction, Tufts, Loyola Marymount University, Stanford, Johns Hopkins (SAIS), University of Connecticut, Boston College, Hamilton College, Hunter College of New York, Harvard Law School, Yale University, Ewha University, Waseda University, the American School in Japan, World Women’s Forum, Korean Community Center (NJ), the Hay Literary Festival (UK), the Tokyo American Center of the U.S. Embassy, the Asia House (UK), and the Asia Society in New York, San Francisco and Hong Kong. In 2017, she won the Literary Death Match (Brooklyn/Episode 8), and she is a proud alumna of Women of Letters (Public Theater).
From 2007 to 2011, Min Jin lived in Tokyo where she researched and wrote Pachinko. She lives in New York with her family.
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Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
“Nothing exerts a stronger psychic effect upon the human environment, and especially upon children, than the life which the parents have not lived.” - Carl Jung
American Hagwon is a true epic— a sizeable novel, spanning decades, with incredible scope and a large cast of characters. As with all books that introduce this many characters and cover this much ground, there were parts and perspectives I enjoyed more than others. But I was never once bored in all its 650 pages.
At the heart of American Hagwon is the theme of how best to raise and educate our next generation. Moving from South Korea to America, with a stopover in Australia, it looks at many different approaches to education, reflected in different countries, different cultures, different generations, different parenting styles.
A hagwon— unbeknownst to me before reading this —is a kind of private tutoring cram school, ubiquitous in South Korea and common in Korean-American enclaves like Orange County. This is an extension of the intense educational pressure Korean children find themselves under, and Lee casts a scrutinising eye on educational systems that reward stress, anxiety, passing exams, and scoring a place at a top university.
As a character says at one point:
"If you make your child into the perfect object that these schools want to purchase, then you might make the sale. However, will you get what you want?
[..]
"There is a crisis in this country and in the country where many of you were born. The crisis is in our education and what it is meant to do. Having a degree from the Big Three or any of the SKY universities will not protect our children from harm. You know of many stories of people who graduated from these schools who did not have a safe and perfect life. I am asking you to consider at least the anecdotal evidence each of you has to disprove the theory that an elite education will create a successful life."
The story of Helen and John Koh and their three children explores this. Many other family members, colleagues and fellow students become part of their story as the Kohs try to do the best for each other.
Despite not being Korean, or even knowing what a hagwon was prior to reading this, I found the book's message poignant and increasingly relatable. Even in the UK, we are putting ever more pressure on kids to pass exams and compete for Russell Group universities. One thing that has always bothered me is that an absolutely brilliant student can have one bad day, flunk an exam, and have their entire future prospects limited because of a single poor performance. And lots of kids spend their youth working their asses off to get into these prestigious institutions, unable to see beyond that, and then find out they have no idea what to do with their lives once they reach the "top".
But while the message is important, what drives the narrative and keeps the pages turning are the lovable characters. The Kohs are genuinely likeable, as are several other supporting characters. If I were to critique anything, I’d say the Kohs were almost a little too perfect. They were very decent, moral people, always generous and self-sacrificing toward one another. I wouldn’t say the characters are lacking in complexity, necessarily, but they are lacking in flaws. Hardship comes from external forces, almost never from their own mistakes. I would have liked to see one of the family err in some way after this much time. Though despicable, the antagonist is arguably the more interesting character.
Overall, another fantastic book by Min Jin Lee. There are messages, but no easy or neat ones. The author knows this is a complex issue. My main takeaway was that even though parents and teachers may care about exam results and university acceptance, they should care more about the kids themselves. This fact seems almost like a truism until you look at how seldom it is applied.
September 11, 2026
min jin lee release day should be a national holiday
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
(review to come)
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
(review to come)
Review of advance copy received from Author
There are meticulous, beautifully crafted layers to Min Jin Lee's latest novel, American Hagwon. It is, on the surface, an engrossing story about a Korean family and their resilience as forces beyond the control alter the trajectory of their lives. But it is, at its core, a story about striving, the complexities of the hagwon system, and a cultural pressure to succeed at any cost. As Lee's story unfolds, and we get to know a sprawling cast of characters across three continents, the impressive scope and scale of this new epic reveals itself in astonishing ways. She brings grand ambition, fierce heart, and the tenderest hope to a novel I didn't want to end.
October 23, 2026
I LOVED Pachinko, so this was one of my most anticipated releases this year!
I was honestly feeling a tiny bit underwhelmed reading through most of this book, but I had faith that Min Jin Lee would bring it all together in the end - and she definitely did.
I would describe this as a slow, crawling book that sneaks up on you and catches you by surprise. While this book did feel long, and tedious feeling at parts - it's one of those books where you don't realize how attached you are to the characters, until you flip to the next page and all of a sudden realize how much you do actually care. All of the moments and years and life events that you've experienced with them suddenly rushes up to the forefront and all of these emotions come crashing through. And it takes an absolute GENIUS of an author to do this. Min Jin Lee doesn't make you fall in love with individual characters, but with these families as a whole - with their bonds and relationships with one another. It's just so good.
It's sort of the opposite of a slice of life book. It seems that way in moments because you are living through these mundane daily life moments with the characters, but it reads more like a sweeping generational epic.
I found the dive into education so interesting. We explored the dynamics between finance & education. Privilege and education. How certain cultures really push to educate their kids to the point where we're not even prioritizing knowledge anymore, but doing it all for the social status instead. And how families would sacrifice EVERYTHING just so their kids receive the education that they want them to. We also look into the importance of education, but also how the standard expected route might not necessarily be the best option for everyone. And seeing our characters as they thrived in certain educational systems while they fell short in others was fascinating as well.
Some chapters were HARD to read, due to the fact that I actually despised certain characters. But those chapters were essential to the story as well, and I can also see how these chapters also contributed to our theme of education throughout the book.
Anyways, this was great. It definitely isn't a quick read - and you do need to invest some time and energy into it (and push through at points). But the overall impact in the end was absolutely incredible.
I was honestly feeling a tiny bit underwhelmed reading through most of this book, but I had faith that Min Jin Lee would bring it all together in the end - and she definitely did.
I would describe this as a slow, crawling book that sneaks up on you and catches you by surprise. While this book did feel long, and tedious feeling at parts - it's one of those books where you don't realize how attached you are to the characters, until you flip to the next page and all of a sudden realize how much you do actually care. All of the moments and years and life events that you've experienced with them suddenly rushes up to the forefront and all of these emotions come crashing through. And it takes an absolute GENIUS of an author to do this. Min Jin Lee doesn't make you fall in love with individual characters, but with these families as a whole - with their bonds and relationships with one another. It's just so good.
It's sort of the opposite of a slice of life book. It seems that way in moments because you are living through these mundane daily life moments with the characters, but it reads more like a sweeping generational epic.
I found the dive into education so interesting. We explored the dynamics between finance & education. Privilege and education. How certain cultures really push to educate their kids to the point where we're not even prioritizing knowledge anymore, but doing it all for the social status instead. And how families would sacrifice EVERYTHING just so their kids receive the education that they want them to. We also look into the importance of education, but also how the standard expected route might not necessarily be the best option for everyone. And seeing our characters as they thrived in certain educational systems while they fell short in others was fascinating as well.
Some chapters were HARD to read, due to the fact that I actually despised certain characters. But those chapters were essential to the story as well, and I can also see how these chapters also contributed to our theme of education throughout the book.
Anyways, this was great. It definitely isn't a quick read - and you do need to invest some time and energy into it (and push through at points). But the overall impact in the end was absolutely incredible.
October 26, 2026
Just so yall know I’m writing this while bawling my fucking eyes out.
October 20, 2026
Riveting, Engaging But Missed Opportunities
American Hagwon centers on the Koh Family and branches out to other friends/extended family. This tale cuts across time and spans several continents.
Although this book is mesmerizing, it could have been stronger.
One of the characters is Lion who was a child prodigy. The focus was almost exclusively on his academic achievement and high IQ scores. Personally, I have the privilege of living with a family member who has an extremely high IQ, and let me tell you, wow! It is an experience! 1) I am never allowed to assemble IKEA furniture. If I blink twice, whatever I brought home is assembled. 2) Chess. This person is casually a chess champion, and before anyone comes to visit, I offer the reminder, “No two move checkmate!” 3) There is a soundtrack to my life. Because, naturally, one can be a concert level pianist without ever taking a lesson.
But Min Jin Lee doesn’t explore the richness of Lion.
The characters in American Hagwon are introduced in almost a formulaic manner. This is Character X who is Y years old. Insert 2-3 additional sentences. We are told about gambling parents, not shown.
The ending is simply awful, awful! First, there is a long rant. It honestly reminded me of the long rants at the end of an Ayn Rand novel. In American Hagwon, nothing really happens after the rant. It was awkward.
The ending is also completely unmemorable. The relationship between Shin and Anna should have been built up more. Danbi’s last business transaction didn’t make any sense, and John/Anna’s ending should have ended two scenes earlier.
Despite the existence of flaws, storytelling still reigns supreme. And this story is entrancing.
The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Hardcover Text – $25.97 on Amazon
Audiobook – Audible – 1 Credit (Audible Premium Plus Annual – 24 Credits Membership Plan $229.50 or roughly $9.56 per credit)
Connect With Me!
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American Hagwon centers on the Koh Family and branches out to other friends/extended family. This tale cuts across time and spans several continents.
Although this book is mesmerizing, it could have been stronger.
One of the characters is Lion who was a child prodigy. The focus was almost exclusively on his academic achievement and high IQ scores. Personally, I have the privilege of living with a family member who has an extremely high IQ, and let me tell you, wow! It is an experience! 1) I am never allowed to assemble IKEA furniture. If I blink twice, whatever I brought home is assembled. 2) Chess. This person is casually a chess champion, and before anyone comes to visit, I offer the reminder, “No two move checkmate!” 3) There is a soundtrack to my life. Because, naturally, one can be a concert level pianist without ever taking a lesson.
But Min Jin Lee doesn’t explore the richness of Lion.
The characters in American Hagwon are introduced in almost a formulaic manner. This is Character X who is Y years old. Insert 2-3 additional sentences. We are told about gambling parents, not shown.
The ending is simply awful, awful! First, there is a long rant. It honestly reminded me of the long rants at the end of an Ayn Rand novel. In American Hagwon, nothing really happens after the rant. It was awkward.
The ending is also completely unmemorable. The relationship between Shin and Anna should have been built up more. Danbi’s last business transaction didn’t make any sense, and John/Anna’s ending should have ended two scenes earlier.
Despite the existence of flaws, storytelling still reigns supreme. And this story is entrancing.
The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Hardcover Text – $25.97 on Amazon
Audiobook – Audible – 1 Credit (Audible Premium Plus Annual – 24 Credits Membership Plan $229.50 or roughly $9.56 per credit)
Connect With Me!
Blog Threads BookTube Facebook Insta My Bookstore at Pango
October 10, 2026
Read and enjoyed every page of this 600+ page novel. Min Jin Lee’s prose is straightforward and non-flashy, though I was hooked by her writing and read this book late into the night. I grew to care deeply about the characters, especially John and Helen Koh, their children, and their extended family. Grateful to Lee for her three-dimensional characterization of Korean women and men (especially appreciate how Lee includes Asian men who are kind, smart, attractive, etc.) Also, Lee’s full focus on this Korean cast of characters with essentially no white characters… iconic decentering of whiteness when so many Asian/Asian American authors are not doing that.
I appreciated the interesting theme of educational ambition and how different characters approached that. I also found Danbi’s character a fascinating study in the intersection of gender, money, and power. My heart felt most though for the Koh family, unsurprisingly – even if it may make me basic, my heart was warmed by the compassion and kindness in which Lee characterized this central group of characters in American Hagwon.
I would be curious to read what people, and especially Korean/Korean diasporic readers, think about how Lee portrayed the hagwon industry. I think she touches on people’s criticism of the industry especially through Tek’s character, though I wonder if readers may think that she was a bit too easy on the industry in regard to how it breeds/accelerates the negative effects of capitalism and wealth inequality, ambition over the mental health of children, etc. (though perhaps folks who think Lee went too easy on hagwons may think she also went too easy on capitalism/meritocracy as a whole?) It was interesting to read about how the characters justified their engagement with the hagwon industry by offering scholarships to a small (e.g., 10%) of students who couldn’t have afforded it otherwise.
Engaging read and overall worth the wait from Lee. Looking forward to reading her next book!
I appreciated the interesting theme of educational ambition and how different characters approached that. I also found Danbi’s character a fascinating study in the intersection of gender, money, and power. My heart felt most though for the Koh family, unsurprisingly – even if it may make me basic, my heart was warmed by the compassion and kindness in which Lee characterized this central group of characters in American Hagwon.
I would be curious to read what people, and especially Korean/Korean diasporic readers, think about how Lee portrayed the hagwon industry. I think she touches on people’s criticism of the industry especially through Tek’s character, though I wonder if readers may think that she was a bit too easy on the industry in regard to how it breeds/accelerates the negative effects of capitalism and wealth inequality, ambition over the mental health of children, etc. (though perhaps folks who think Lee went too easy on hagwons may think she also went too easy on capitalism/meritocracy as a whole?) It was interesting to read about how the characters justified their engagement with the hagwon industry by offering scholarships to a small (e.g., 10%) of students who couldn’t have afforded it otherwise.
Engaging read and overall worth the wait from Lee. Looking forward to reading her next book!
April 26, 2026
I read Pachinko when it came out in 2017 and it remains one of the best family sagas I've ever read. Almost ten years later, American Hagwon now joins it. Min Jin Lee took her time with this one and readers will reap the benefits of unraveling every layer. Prior to reading this, I didn't know what a hagwon was. James Baldwin told and Lee reminds us that "as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated". Lee examines this for profit/pro cramming private supplemental education system by looking at the ways it affects a child and a parent's psyche all while questioning what education is really "for".
American Hagwon is epic in scope, following the members of the Koh family from 1992-2007 across multiple international moves. Helen and John Koh, like all parents, want the best for their children. They want to see all three successful and happy. When the father is betrayed and soon after the South Korean IMF financial collapse occurs, the family is no longer comfortably in the middle class. What does this mean for the futures of the three children when money seems to be...everything.
American Hagwon has so much to say about ambition, satisfaction, and what drives these ideas. There is a whole lot of blind faith in the education system. If my kids go to the best school and then go to the best hagwon, surely they will come out on top, right? When there isn't room for everyone at the top, when siblings or friends are pitted against each other, what is the fallout? When education feels like a transaction more than anything, what happens if I don't get my expected return on investment? There is no one answer to these questions, but Lee offers us multiple to chew on through each character.
The Koh family will be some of the most memorable characters I read all year. Their devotion and sacrifice to one another is stunning. The official description of American Hagwon calls this loyalty something like a prayer, and I think that is perfect. While this doesn't publish until September, that gives you plenty of time to read Pachinko and Free Food for Millionaires in anticipation.
American Hagwon is epic in scope, following the members of the Koh family from 1992-2007 across multiple international moves. Helen and John Koh, like all parents, want the best for their children. They want to see all three successful and happy. When the father is betrayed and soon after the South Korean IMF financial collapse occurs, the family is no longer comfortably in the middle class. What does this mean for the futures of the three children when money seems to be...everything.
American Hagwon has so much to say about ambition, satisfaction, and what drives these ideas. There is a whole lot of blind faith in the education system. If my kids go to the best school and then go to the best hagwon, surely they will come out on top, right? When there isn't room for everyone at the top, when siblings or friends are pitted against each other, what is the fallout? When education feels like a transaction more than anything, what happens if I don't get my expected return on investment? There is no one answer to these questions, but Lee offers us multiple to chew on through each character.
The Koh family will be some of the most memorable characters I read all year. Their devotion and sacrifice to one another is stunning. The official description of American Hagwon calls this loyalty something like a prayer, and I think that is perfect. While this doesn't publish until September, that gives you plenty of time to read Pachinko and Free Food for Millionaires in anticipation.
October 12, 2026
Book of the Year.
Want to Read
January 15, 2026I pre-ordered! This book will be released in 2026 from Min Jin Lee, author of Pachinko and Free Food for Millionaires (both of which I loved!).
October 11, 2026
Biggest disappointment of the year. It should’ve been everything I wanted: a 600+ page epic family saga, immigrant family, from a favorite author. Instead, it read like a non-fiction. I know she based it on many interviews and she wanted her voice to disappear, but she succeeded too well. The prose is lifeless and bland, telling rather than showing, and almost completely devoid of emotion. I felt no connection to the main characters and fought boredom as I read.
The author was making an obvious effort to present all the kids in a positive light; everyone was smart, beautiful, loyal, and hard-working. There were a couple of designated Bad Guys who were similarly two-dimensional in their evil. It was preachy and repetitive about the pressures applied to Korean students. And there was no story arc that built into a meaningful ending, it just kind of stopped. I finished it out of spite.
The author was making an obvious effort to present all the kids in a positive light; everyone was smart, beautiful, loyal, and hard-working. There were a couple of designated Bad Guys who were similarly two-dimensional in their evil. It was preachy and repetitive about the pressures applied to Korean students. And there was no story arc that built into a meaningful ending, it just kind of stopped. I finished it out of spite.
Want to Read
March 27, 2026My review was reported because I complained about the price of this book… okay! I am still excited to read it, but I rest my case that this is a valid criticism! I love a good family saga, so excited for this release :)
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Excited for this, but $47 CAD ($36 USD) is honestly a criminal price tag...Thank god the library exists
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Excited for this, but $47 CAD ($36 USD) is honestly a criminal price tag...Thank god the library exists
October 6, 2026
[4+] As I reached page 640, I was sad to see this novel end. I would have loved a few hundred more pages with the Koh family. Lee is a master storyteller who has crafted an epic about a Korean family, their struggles, their immigration to Los Angeles, and, above all, their experience with hagwons.
I was fascinated by the novel's deep examination of the stressful Korean (and American) education system and the role of hagwons, as well as the unusually detailed accounts of the characters' financial lives. Lee writes in a straightforward, workmanlike style - there are no sentences I wanted to underline - but I was thoroughly engrossed in this fine novel.
I was fascinated by the novel's deep examination of the stressful Korean (and American) education system and the role of hagwons, as well as the unusually detailed accounts of the characters' financial lives. Lee writes in a straightforward, workmanlike style - there are no sentences I wanted to underline - but I was thoroughly engrossed in this fine novel.
June 23, 2026
Yikes this was not for me. I was really excited to get this ARC because I am also currently reading Pachinko and am really liking it. This however, did not do it for me.
From the jump, I found that there were wayyy too many characters. It is similar to Pachinko in there are large families and lots of connections between them being made, but it was a lot harder for me me to make those connections and remember the relationships because we were switching storylines and perspectives so quickly. There were several tragedies that happen along the way that I wish made a big impact on me and I feel like should have, but because of the jumpy narrative, I couldn't find myself connecting enough to care or illicit any real emotions.
This book is objectively beautifully written without a doubt. I would read a stunning and consider rating this a lot higher. I also feel like there were potentially some really fantastic themes, but I'm not sure they were explored enough for me to really understand the points that were trying to be made. Maybe this was just too over my head, which is very possible, and this was absolutely a story about characters dealing with things I've never even begun to experience, but it just wasn't landing like I wish it was.
I also feel like there was no real arc here. The story just kinda immediately kicked off which was great, but there was no structure to follow it, no rising action, and no real conclusion. The book just kinda ended...and I was honestly shocked that there were no pages left. The ending was truly just so anti-climatic. That being said, this was insanely long for what it was, and I did not find myself wanting to pick this up.
Overall, I didn't understand the message or themes, I didn't love the characters, and the storytelling narrative did not work for me.
I'm so disappointed I didn't like this. Min Jin fans please don't come for me.
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
From the jump, I found that there were wayyy too many characters. It is similar to Pachinko in there are large families and lots of connections between them being made, but it was a lot harder for me me to make those connections and remember the relationships because we were switching storylines and perspectives so quickly. There were several tragedies that happen along the way that I wish made a big impact on me and I feel like should have, but because of the jumpy narrative, I couldn't find myself connecting enough to care or illicit any real emotions.
This book is objectively beautifully written without a doubt. I would read a stunning and consider rating this a lot higher. I also feel like there were potentially some really fantastic themes, but I'm not sure they were explored enough for me to really understand the points that were trying to be made. Maybe this was just too over my head, which is very possible, and this was absolutely a story about characters dealing with things I've never even begun to experience, but it just wasn't landing like I wish it was.
I also feel like there was no real arc here. The story just kinda immediately kicked off which was great, but there was no structure to follow it, no rising action, and no real conclusion. The book just kinda ended...and I was honestly shocked that there were no pages left. The ending was truly just so anti-climatic. That being said, this was insanely long for what it was, and I did not find myself wanting to pick this up.
Overall, I didn't understand the message or themes, I didn't love the characters, and the storytelling narrative did not work for me.
I'm so disappointed I didn't like this. Min Jin fans please don't come for me.
Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
October 20, 2026
This has been my favorite book I’ve read in a very long time.
I fell in love with this family, a Korean-American family.. John, Helen, and their three children.. Bo, DH, and Mido..
The years it covers are late 1990’s to early 2000’s
we follow the family from Seoul to Sydney and eventually Southern California.
Their lives revolving around the children’s education, and its affordability.
The hagwon, is a huge part of this book.. it is an academic center that tutors and prepares students to take college exams to get into Ivy League colleges.., a big deal in Korea.
This is a big, sweeping novel about family, immigration, education, ambition, and sacrifice, and love.
I didn’t want it to end!
I fell in love with this family, a Korean-American family.. John, Helen, and their three children.. Bo, DH, and Mido..
The years it covers are late 1990’s to early 2000’s
we follow the family from Seoul to Sydney and eventually Southern California.
Their lives revolving around the children’s education, and its affordability.
The hagwon, is a huge part of this book.. it is an academic center that tutors and prepares students to take college exams to get into Ivy League colleges.., a big deal in Korea.
This is a big, sweeping novel about family, immigration, education, ambition, and sacrifice, and love.
I didn’t want it to end!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
In the first chapter of this novel, Helen Koh has three envelopes, one for each of her children, filled with money. This money will cover their clothes and supplies, but mostly it is for their school fees and educational expenses. Finding themselves back in Korea after several years away, the Koh family will find that this system they've relied on is no longer able to provide what they need. In Korea the children are already behind their classmates, the expectations are much higher, and everyone studies not just for school but in Hagwons on evenings and weekends where they receive additional work and instruction. In the first few pages, Lee lays out for us exactly what we will be considering for the rest of the novel--the expectations around education and the financial burden of meeting it.
In so many books I read, it's like money doesn't exist. Even when we are told a character is broke, they rarely seem to act broke except for when it's convenient for the story, they rarely think all that much about money. It is common for a character strapped for cash to vaguely consider their maxed out credit cards and then ignore them for the rest of the story. Those maxed out credit cards never seem to come due. In American Hagwon, money is a real thing and it's reassuring to me to see how much these characters consider it, talk about it, plan around it. (Recession indicator? Possibly.) This is a book about sacrifice, about characters who give up their own comfort to provide for others. And this is not just talk, it is real effort, with care and love of family often attached.
It is beautiful to follow the Koh family through many years, as the children become adults, as the parents grow old. If anything, they are all a bit too saintly, too self-sacrificing, too generous and kind. I would have liked it a bit more if one of them had developed an addiction or done something thoughtless and unwise, by the time you have been with them for 500 pages you do start to wonder if they have ever made mistakes. This moral clarity, the black and white world of these characters, also extends to the villains. The chief antagonist may eventually have her motives explained, but she is so consistently evil, so selfish and vain and greedy, that I was actually hoping she would have a redemption arc.
The morality of the book may be simple, but the paths of these characters are not. This is an expansive novel with dozens of characters, as the Koh family moves farther out into the world, the story expands into the lives of their friends and neighbors. All along the way these questions of money and education linger, returning again and again. The obsessive Korean system with its hagwons, the question of whether there is a better way to teach students, the generational and cultural divides between those who want change and those who want tradition. It is a very Korean book and a very American one as well, moving between the two countries (with the occasional stop in Australia) and the Koh's are a unique family who are able to move between these countries and understand how each of them work.
There is something old about this novel, rather Dickensian. Not just in the structure and character, but in the prose, which has an old-fashioned straightforwardness to it. Even though I prefer books where the moral universe is more relative, there is an appeal to people who are good, to spending time with the Koh's who only argue with each other when it is about who will sacrifice and who will be the one sacrificed for. It hits different to read this kind of novel now than it would have 20 years ago.
Lee is, truly, a treasure. This is the 3rd of 4 novels in her loosely connected Diaspora Quartet and I will be anxiously awaiting the 4th.
In so many books I read, it's like money doesn't exist. Even when we are told a character is broke, they rarely seem to act broke except for when it's convenient for the story, they rarely think all that much about money. It is common for a character strapped for cash to vaguely consider their maxed out credit cards and then ignore them for the rest of the story. Those maxed out credit cards never seem to come due. In American Hagwon, money is a real thing and it's reassuring to me to see how much these characters consider it, talk about it, plan around it. (Recession indicator? Possibly.) This is a book about sacrifice, about characters who give up their own comfort to provide for others. And this is not just talk, it is real effort, with care and love of family often attached.
It is beautiful to follow the Koh family through many years, as the children become adults, as the parents grow old. If anything, they are all a bit too saintly, too self-sacrificing, too generous and kind. I would have liked it a bit more if one of them had developed an addiction or done something thoughtless and unwise, by the time you have been with them for 500 pages you do start to wonder if they have ever made mistakes. This moral clarity, the black and white world of these characters, also extends to the villains. The chief antagonist may eventually have her motives explained, but she is so consistently evil, so selfish and vain and greedy, that I was actually hoping she would have a redemption arc.
The morality of the book may be simple, but the paths of these characters are not. This is an expansive novel with dozens of characters, as the Koh family moves farther out into the world, the story expands into the lives of their friends and neighbors. All along the way these questions of money and education linger, returning again and again. The obsessive Korean system with its hagwons, the question of whether there is a better way to teach students, the generational and cultural divides between those who want change and those who want tradition. It is a very Korean book and a very American one as well, moving between the two countries (with the occasional stop in Australia) and the Koh's are a unique family who are able to move between these countries and understand how each of them work.
There is something old about this novel, rather Dickensian. Not just in the structure and character, but in the prose, which has an old-fashioned straightforwardness to it. Even though I prefer books where the moral universe is more relative, there is an appeal to people who are good, to spending time with the Koh's who only argue with each other when it is about who will sacrifice and who will be the one sacrificed for. It hits different to read this kind of novel now than it would have 20 years ago.
Lee is, truly, a treasure. This is the 3rd of 4 novels in her loosely connected Diaspora Quartet and I will be anxiously awaiting the 4th.
October 30, 2026
I really enjoyed this book for the themes that Lee is choosing to explore - education, class, what a successful life is and means. I think it especially does a great job of looking at how far parents will go in order to put their kids in a better position, or at least what they think will be. I think that aspect of the book is really well done.
However, this book is very long and there are points where I felt that length. I think overall, the themes are things I was extremely into but there are other things that just missed the mark for me.
Watch my full review: https://youtu.be/s_muPO6vJ0s
However, this book is very long and there are points where I felt that length. I think overall, the themes are things I was extremely into but there are other things that just missed the mark for me.
Watch my full review: https://youtu.be/s_muPO6vJ0s
October 15, 2026
I am honestly trying to wrap my head around how this is the same author as Pachinko. Probably one of my most disappointing reads in quite a while considering that Pachinko is one of my favorite books of all time. I really don't want to completely rip into this book, but there's just so much wrong with it. These characters all feel surface level to me and nothing changes about them through the entire course of the book, the same things get repeated over and over and over again. Why? We remember these characters and their decisions, and we do not need to be reminded constantly or told. There is very little growth or any sort of plot to grasp onto here. The most interesting character was Danbi lol.
Seriously by the time you get halfway, and a major event happens it feels so lackluster because I did not feel connected to anyone whatsoever. After that point the book is pointless, there is nothing that happens after that. I am not interested in the dynamics of a Hagwon or how it operates. I mean maybe I would be if they gave us any sort of reason or showed us why their Hagwon was so different other than saying that "it's because we care". I am sorry but you cannot keep saying this without giving us stories or reasons. I have a hard time believing that these ppl are making six figures in late 90's/early 2000's by simply tutoring.
Anyway, I am frustrated I carried on hoping for something, anything really, to keep me interested. Yet, I got to the end and felt as though I just wasted my time. I got so tired of the constant repetition. Every time a character is focused on, we get the same reminders of who they are, what they care about, or what they do.
Seriously by the time you get halfway, and a major event happens it feels so lackluster because I did not feel connected to anyone whatsoever. After that point the book is pointless, there is nothing that happens after that. I am not interested in the dynamics of a Hagwon or how it operates. I mean maybe I would be if they gave us any sort of reason or showed us why their Hagwon was so different other than saying that "it's because we care". I am sorry but you cannot keep saying this without giving us stories or reasons. I have a hard time believing that these ppl are making six figures in late 90's/early 2000's by simply tutoring.
Anyway, I am frustrated I carried on hoping for something, anything really, to keep me interested. Yet, I got to the end and felt as though I just wasted my time. I got so tired of the constant repetition. Every time a character is focused on, we get the same reminders of who they are, what they care about, or what they do.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
"A masterpiece by turns sweeping and intimate, that reckons with ambition and moderation, lust and loyalty, personal dreams and familial duty."
The Koh family lived a nice middle class life in Korea. When John's friend betrays him and the Korean financial crisis of 1997 occurs, the Koh family has to regroup and do whatever it takes to meet their basic needs.
I absolutely loved everything about this book which explores diaspora, immigration, education, ambition, and family dynamics and values in depth. The character development is outstanding and I felt invested in all the characters, some more likable than others. The prose is captivating, engaging and immersive. I loved this as much as Pachinko but it felt more relatable to me. It is one of my favorite reads this year. Highly recommend this magnificent masterpiece.
Many thanks to NetGalley, Grand Central Publishing, Cardinal and Min Jin Lee for the gifted advance reader's copy. All opinions are my own.
The Koh family lived a nice middle class life in Korea. When John's friend betrays him and the Korean financial crisis of 1997 occurs, the Koh family has to regroup and do whatever it takes to meet their basic needs.
I absolutely loved everything about this book which explores diaspora, immigration, education, ambition, and family dynamics and values in depth. The character development is outstanding and I felt invested in all the characters, some more likable than others. The prose is captivating, engaging and immersive. I loved this as much as Pachinko but it felt more relatable to me. It is one of my favorite reads this year. Highly recommend this magnificent masterpiece.
Many thanks to NetGalley, Grand Central Publishing, Cardinal and Min Jin Lee for the gifted advance reader's copy. All opinions are my own.
October 3, 2026
There are parts of this book I really loved; The writing style, some of the characters, the moments of scandal and drama. There were also parts of this book that dragged on; certain other characters, the monotony of Hagwon management. Overall a solid book and it did make me cry but it was too long and repetitive.
October 8, 2026
My review of Pachinko has reached 2251 count. This one will not even be a 10 likes. Not because of the book being so horribly bad- but because I just refrain from giving all the myriad of reasons it is a scant two star. The review would go on to 20 to 30 paragraphs if I did. At parts it is even less than 2 stars.
If you like the deep dive into what a Hagwon (after regular school intense memory retention study by determined mentors driving kids to "achieve" higher levels of "correction") really is? Well, you might get some of that here.
Her way of tell, tell, tell becomes mind numbing to me. The first parts in this with Mido and Yun were a "show" and not a tell. But with dozens and dozens of characters and various locale placements that were, if anything, UNDER nuanced? Repetition and memorizing and association social climbing- you are all here. Over and over and over. Disagree completely with others posters' posts of "well written". The redundancy and continuity elements are NOT characteristics of good writing. Lots of tangents hanging free plus voids never completed or unified in her writing.
Not a fan. I think this will be the last one I ever try of hers. Knows Korean parents and culture "musts" who drive kids like cattle toward the slaughter- but just not fun to read. I do NOT recommend taking this on. Actually more than anything- this book made me feel sorry for South Korean kids. The cultural idea of "family" purposes is also off-putting at times. You don't LIVE with your kids. I think the habit in the UK of shipping your 8 year old off to boarding schools is atrocious too.
If you like the deep dive into what a Hagwon (after regular school intense memory retention study by determined mentors driving kids to "achieve" higher levels of "correction") really is? Well, you might get some of that here.
Her way of tell, tell, tell becomes mind numbing to me. The first parts in this with Mido and Yun were a "show" and not a tell. But with dozens and dozens of characters and various locale placements that were, if anything, UNDER nuanced? Repetition and memorizing and association social climbing- you are all here. Over and over and over. Disagree completely with others posters' posts of "well written". The redundancy and continuity elements are NOT characteristics of good writing. Lots of tangents hanging free plus voids never completed or unified in her writing.
Not a fan. I think this will be the last one I ever try of hers. Knows Korean parents and culture "musts" who drive kids like cattle toward the slaughter- but just not fun to read. I do NOT recommend taking this on. Actually more than anything- this book made me feel sorry for South Korean kids. The cultural idea of "family" purposes is also off-putting at times. You don't LIVE with your kids. I think the habit in the UK of shipping your 8 year old off to boarding schools is atrocious too.
October 11, 2026
That was pretty much perfect. I am not sure what to say about this sprawling epic, the third book in Lee's loosely linked series grounded in the Korean diaspora. I am not sure how this book, which emanates from a very particular community, constantly made me think of Middlemarch and occasionally East of Eden. These are books that seem to have nothing to do with one another. But all focus on community expectations, on invented definitions of good and right, and on the loneliness of wisdom.
I have tried three times to read the first book in this group, Free Food for Millionaires, and I can't make myself like it. I will try again, because Lee's elaborate, immaculate books that focus on the psychology of groups, and how those shared standards come up against, and are impacted by, the shared standards of other groups are clearly my jam. I loved Pachinko, but I thought this was even better. My only complaint is the sheer perfection of certain characters (John and Lion in this book and Sunja in Pachinko), this Christlike demeanor. I have decided to treat them as allegorical characters and let it go because letting it bother me would just be me focusing on the trees. It is a beautiful forest Lee has grown here.
I listened to the audiobook for this, and while I imagine there is value in reading the text, this is one of the very best narrated books I have ever listened to. Yerin Ha is a marvel.
I have tried three times to read the first book in this group, Free Food for Millionaires, and I can't make myself like it. I will try again, because Lee's elaborate, immaculate books that focus on the psychology of groups, and how those shared standards come up against, and are impacted by, the shared standards of other groups are clearly my jam. I loved Pachinko, but I thought this was even better. My only complaint is the sheer perfection of certain characters (John and Lion in this book and Sunja in Pachinko), this Christlike demeanor. I have decided to treat them as allegorical characters and let it go because letting it bother me would just be me focusing on the trees. It is a beautiful forest Lee has grown here.
I listened to the audiobook for this, and while I imagine there is value in reading the text, this is one of the very best narrated books I have ever listened to. Yerin Ha is a marvel.
Review of advance copy received from Publisher
There are SO many thoughts I have on American Hagwon, Min Jin Lee's follow up to the classic Pachinko, which came out almost ten years ago.
On one hand, American Hagwon is a deeply delicate novel about the education system on an international level. It explores the extreme steps parents take to ensure their children receive a top-notch education, regardless of the cost. At its core, the book highlights the immigrant experience and the profound sacrifices made to pave the way for the next generation's success.
Lee’s prose is wonderfully direct; she lacks lush, overly descriptive language or melodrama. Instead, her phrases are simple and clean. She makes her point beautifully without any unnecessary complexity.
On the other hand, Lee doesn't use the descriptions of longing that I wish it did. The phrases are simple, nothing too complex, and the point is made. Sometimes, I just wanted MORE.
However, the book is LONG. Maybe 250 pages too long, but I still couldn't put it down.
On one hand, American Hagwon is a deeply delicate novel about the education system on an international level. It explores the extreme steps parents take to ensure their children receive a top-notch education, regardless of the cost. At its core, the book highlights the immigrant experience and the profound sacrifices made to pave the way for the next generation's success.
Lee’s prose is wonderfully direct; she lacks lush, overly descriptive language or melodrama. Instead, her phrases are simple and clean. She makes her point beautifully without any unnecessary complexity.
On the other hand, Lee doesn't use the descriptions of longing that I wish it did. The phrases are simple, nothing too complex, and the point is made. Sometimes, I just wanted MORE.
However, the book is LONG. Maybe 250 pages too long, but I still couldn't put it down.
Read
January 14, 2026The rules of engagement have changed already.
I'm deeply interested in the themes covered within this novel: education, economic fragility, immigration/diaspora and the struggle of trying to be fair in an unfair world. I've watched countless interviews with the author where she discusses her thoughts and motivations behind writing American Hagwon, all very admirable. This is definitely an ideas novel.
That being said I didn't love this as much as Pachinko. I personally didn't connect much with the characters and often felt like I was at a distance. I wish I was articulate enough to really explain why this didn't totally work for me.
14/01/2026
HUGE news for me personally!!!
I'm deeply interested in the themes covered within this novel: education, economic fragility, immigration/diaspora and the struggle of trying to be fair in an unfair world. I've watched countless interviews with the author where she discusses her thoughts and motivations behind writing American Hagwon, all very admirable. This is definitely an ideas novel.
That being said I didn't love this as much as Pachinko. I personally didn't connect much with the characters and often felt like I was at a distance. I wish I was articulate enough to really explain why this didn't totally work for me.
14/01/2026
HUGE news for me personally!!!
October 31, 2026
Undoubtedly beautiful and poignant despite the straight-forward prose used (I don’t understand how Min Jin Lee manages that difficult balance either), but bogged down by its length.
This follows a family from 1992 to 2007 across multiple international moves (Seoul, New Jersey, Sydney, and California). It is an examination of the highly pressurised hagwons (private cram schools and after-school academies).
I had a bit of background knowledge on the Asian drive and obsession with relentless pursuit of educational success. The themes of immigrant family life, sacrifice, and uncertainty are also underlying - cash and the need to belong being a linchpin.
This novel is emotional and moving, yet there was a disconnect for me as we are constantly told rather than shown. Paired that with time jumps and this it felt like I was observing rather than being present.
I think the author relied too heavily on conveying a message which resulted in repetitive passages, rousing speeches, and characters being used as mouthpieces.
The audiobook is very well narrated with different accents and has a lilting quality that keeps you engaged.
I will be keeping my eye out on own-voices reviews. My own experience and commentary comes from some of my close university friends and my parents’ immigration to the UK from South Africa.
Bookstagram
Tiktok
This follows a family from 1992 to 2007 across multiple international moves (Seoul, New Jersey, Sydney, and California). It is an examination of the highly pressurised hagwons (private cram schools and after-school academies).
I had a bit of background knowledge on the Asian drive and obsession with relentless pursuit of educational success. The themes of immigrant family life, sacrifice, and uncertainty are also underlying - cash and the need to belong being a linchpin.
This novel is emotional and moving, yet there was a disconnect for me as we are constantly told rather than shown. Paired that with time jumps and this it felt like I was observing rather than being present.
I think the author relied too heavily on conveying a message which resulted in repetitive passages, rousing speeches, and characters being used as mouthpieces.
The audiobook is very well narrated with different accents and has a lilting quality that keeps you engaged.
I will be keeping my eye out on own-voices reviews. My own experience and commentary comes from some of my close university friends and my parents’ immigration to the UK from South Africa.
Bookstagram
Tiktok
October 4, 2026
American Hagwon is a deeply Korean project, but the casual reader should not assume it is “just about Korea” any more than Middlemarch was just about the English Midlands.
Min Jin Lee, like George Eliot, has a special vision for her work: instead of telling a story, she creates and then systematically dissects an entire world in miniature, one fully populated and rife with social hierarchy and political striving and its own complex economy.
To me, what Eliot and Lee both manage with this approach is demonstrating this: there are actually no dividing walls between the life of the heart and the life of the spirit and the life of the mind and, in crude terms, the life of the dollar (or pound sterling, as the case may be).
Lee’s world, like Eliot’s, is stark in its stakes: its people live or die by their own industry, education is a governing force in life’s unfolding, love both animates and decimates, and faith and loyalty and discipline and integrity are their own forms of currency when cash, inevitably, is no longer king.
I am not Korean, but Korea shaped me from my earliest young adulthood; my brain’s architecture is scaffolded on a blend of English and Korean, and I have the privilege of teaching Korean language classes at a time when Korea is among the major players in global cultural influence.
From my long engagement with Korean culture my soul has been shaped in some uniquely Korean ways. “What ways are those?” you might ask. But ultimately I think I’d say if you wanted to understand, you’d have to sit in a Korean living room and just watch people do life for a decade or so.
And it’s here that Min Jin Lee does us one better: she builds the living room, the house, the neighborhood, the whole world, and she populates it, and then she breathes life into it. “There,” it’s as though she’s saying, “now watch and learn.”
Some of those untranslatable Korean lessons we learn, no, we live, with her characters: there’s jeong, or the familial love that forms between people over time and which outlasts novelty to weather true tribulation. Then there’s nunchi, the ruling principle of Korean society—easily put as “pay attention to relationship dynamics and read the room”—except it must always be activated, and its proper deployment requires fast thinking and faster action. Then there’s budam, which is the kind of weight that accompanies loyalty: this is the hard-learned rule that actually, a gift horse should be looked in the mouth. A hastily accepted gift or compliment all too often comes with expectations, and when your loyalties are honest, expectations are not something to trifle with. Trust, as it turns out, is a gamble.
I have a shelf of books that, amidst all my constant reading and research, I come back to again and again. Middlemarch is on that shelf, along with some other greats, but it’s rare for a new book to claim space there. American Hagwon has officially taken a spot—I’m literally already reading it for the second time (and the audiobook, it turns out, does justice to the physical one!).
I’ve had a hard time finishing this review because there’s so much more I want to say—about the characters and the painstaking research they took to create (Min Jin Lee must be an extraordinary listener, to know so well what makes a soul!); about the financial realism of the book (an aspect that felt truly unique); about the stylistic bravery to write an omniscient narrator—and how American Hagwon helped me think about the grander scheme of my life, how very-much-not-omniscient, easily confounded me is part of something bigger, a larger inyeon (I’ll let you look that one up).
Min Jin Lee, like George Eliot, has a special vision for her work: instead of telling a story, she creates and then systematically dissects an entire world in miniature, one fully populated and rife with social hierarchy and political striving and its own complex economy.
To me, what Eliot and Lee both manage with this approach is demonstrating this: there are actually no dividing walls between the life of the heart and the life of the spirit and the life of the mind and, in crude terms, the life of the dollar (or pound sterling, as the case may be).
Lee’s world, like Eliot’s, is stark in its stakes: its people live or die by their own industry, education is a governing force in life’s unfolding, love both animates and decimates, and faith and loyalty and discipline and integrity are their own forms of currency when cash, inevitably, is no longer king.
I am not Korean, but Korea shaped me from my earliest young adulthood; my brain’s architecture is scaffolded on a blend of English and Korean, and I have the privilege of teaching Korean language classes at a time when Korea is among the major players in global cultural influence.
From my long engagement with Korean culture my soul has been shaped in some uniquely Korean ways. “What ways are those?” you might ask. But ultimately I think I’d say if you wanted to understand, you’d have to sit in a Korean living room and just watch people do life for a decade or so.
And it’s here that Min Jin Lee does us one better: she builds the living room, the house, the neighborhood, the whole world, and she populates it, and then she breathes life into it. “There,” it’s as though she’s saying, “now watch and learn.”
Some of those untranslatable Korean lessons we learn, no, we live, with her characters: there’s jeong, or the familial love that forms between people over time and which outlasts novelty to weather true tribulation. Then there’s nunchi, the ruling principle of Korean society—easily put as “pay attention to relationship dynamics and read the room”—except it must always be activated, and its proper deployment requires fast thinking and faster action. Then there’s budam, which is the kind of weight that accompanies loyalty: this is the hard-learned rule that actually, a gift horse should be looked in the mouth. A hastily accepted gift or compliment all too often comes with expectations, and when your loyalties are honest, expectations are not something to trifle with. Trust, as it turns out, is a gamble.
I have a shelf of books that, amidst all my constant reading and research, I come back to again and again. Middlemarch is on that shelf, along with some other greats, but it’s rare for a new book to claim space there. American Hagwon has officially taken a spot—I’m literally already reading it for the second time (and the audiobook, it turns out, does justice to the physical one!).
I’ve had a hard time finishing this review because there’s so much more I want to say—about the characters and the painstaking research they took to create (Min Jin Lee must be an extraordinary listener, to know so well what makes a soul!); about the financial realism of the book (an aspect that felt truly unique); about the stylistic bravery to write an omniscient narrator—and how American Hagwon helped me think about the grander scheme of my life, how very-much-not-omniscient, easily confounded me is part of something bigger, a larger inyeon (I’ll let you look that one up).
October 10, 2026
Only MJL can make me read a 600+ page novel in two days 🥰
June 1, 2026
This book was a disappointment to me. I found myself dreading to go back to it. The style of writing that Lee used in this novel was odd. It was very stark and simplistic (and almost childlike at the beginning). There was no emotional component. It seemed like a rote reporting of this family's and their friends' and colleagues' lives. The main message seemed to be how much Koreans valued and pushed the importance of education and success (money). It takes place in South Korea, Australia, and Southern California as the characters struggle to overcome job loss, economic downturns, etc. Overall, it was trying to be a family saga, but felt like a list of everything that was happening in a soap opera with no emotion or heart at all! I finally quit at 31%. Bland, just bland.
I would like to show appreciation for the cover art. It is very cool and right on topic!
Thanks to Cardinal/Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced copy.
I would like to show appreciation for the cover art. It is very cool and right on topic!
Thanks to Cardinal/Grand Central Publishing and NetGalley for the advanced copy.
August 13, 2026
I had to look up what a Hagwon was as I had no idea. It's a Korean term for a for-profit private educational institution and it therefore forms the basis of this epic family saga.
The Koh family (John and Helen, and their three children) are building their lives in Korea, however after a betrayal by someone they thought they could trust and then the financial crisis of 1997, they move to Sydney and then eventually to California to start their lives over again. John and Helen struggle to find work but are determined to do everything they can to support their children and end up working in manual jobs with long hours, which is particularly difficult for John due to the high status corporate world he was used to in Korea.
In time, the Koh children recognise the importance of education in allowing future generations to escape the difficulties their parents have endured. But with success comes a question they must ask themselves - do they put wealth above their principles?
At a whopping 700-ish pages, American Hagwon needs to keep your interest and indeed, for me, it really did - I don't believe there's a word wasted in this book. The characters are well rounded and each of them plays an important part in this intricately woven story. It is clear the meaning that family has to Min Jin Lee, particularly when it comes to parents who wish a better life for their children.
A truly enjoyable read, despite its size (don't be put off!).
The Koh family (John and Helen, and their three children) are building their lives in Korea, however after a betrayal by someone they thought they could trust and then the financial crisis of 1997, they move to Sydney and then eventually to California to start their lives over again. John and Helen struggle to find work but are determined to do everything they can to support their children and end up working in manual jobs with long hours, which is particularly difficult for John due to the high status corporate world he was used to in Korea.
In time, the Koh children recognise the importance of education in allowing future generations to escape the difficulties their parents have endured. But with success comes a question they must ask themselves - do they put wealth above their principles?
At a whopping 700-ish pages, American Hagwon needs to keep your interest and indeed, for me, it really did - I don't believe there's a word wasted in this book. The characters are well rounded and each of them plays an important part in this intricately woven story. It is clear the meaning that family has to Min Jin Lee, particularly when it comes to parents who wish a better life for their children.
A truly enjoyable read, despite its size (don't be put off!).
October 18, 2026
This is a very generous three stars, I hate to say it. It’s honestly hard for me to believe that this book was written by the same person as Pachinko, one of my favorite novels of all time.
There is an overwhelming preponderance of telling, not showing, all through the 640 pages of this narrative. And despite all the lip service paid to the amount of research that went into the details of this book, none of it amounts to much meaningful texture, which was something which was so beautifully rendered in Pachinko. Most damning of all, none of it makes up for the astonishing lack of character depth. Absolutely all the characters in this book are flat as pancakes, with no insight at all given into their interiority or inner lives. Each of them hews painfully to various archetypes: model minorities abound among the protagonists, while the villain is a frustratingly vapid succubus/viper type 🥴
Among the three central siblings, the rare conversations we get to glimpse between them are stilted and inorganic: it beggars belief that these young people would never have anything better to discuss than their schooling and grades and career prospects. As new adults in their 20s they are given no interests other than work and school and filial responsibility, and no personalities to boot. Even when it comes to the rare prospects of relationships or earth shaking family tragedies, the way this story handles major plot points is just so…bloodless. Things happen, then more things happen. At one point a character delivers an impassioned speech/sermon/monologue about how the culture of overachievement is eating its young, yet not a single soul is moved by it. Little changes in the grand scheme of things.
In terms of the prose itself, it is unadorned and extremely repetitive, almost as if passages were left in from earlier drafts that should have been taken out in editing. It’s readable, but there’s nothing beautiful about it.
I’ll add that as someone who’s taught in a hagwon in Korea, of course I recognize the truth of the themes here regarding the pressures the culture puts on kids to succeed and do well in school, and how these attitudes get imprinted on the children themselves. However the students I taught represented the full spectrum of humanity, boisterous and lively and full of spark and mischief; I wish I saw some of those personalities reflected in any of the characters in this book, because I feel that that’s the missing ingredient in the sauce of this sprawling, emotionally removed diasporic saga.
There is an overwhelming preponderance of telling, not showing, all through the 640 pages of this narrative. And despite all the lip service paid to the amount of research that went into the details of this book, none of it amounts to much meaningful texture, which was something which was so beautifully rendered in Pachinko. Most damning of all, none of it makes up for the astonishing lack of character depth. Absolutely all the characters in this book are flat as pancakes, with no insight at all given into their interiority or inner lives. Each of them hews painfully to various archetypes: model minorities abound among the protagonists, while the villain is a frustratingly vapid succubus/viper type 🥴
Among the three central siblings, the rare conversations we get to glimpse between them are stilted and inorganic: it beggars belief that these young people would never have anything better to discuss than their schooling and grades and career prospects. As new adults in their 20s they are given no interests other than work and school and filial responsibility, and no personalities to boot. Even when it comes to the rare prospects of relationships or earth shaking family tragedies, the way this story handles major plot points is just so…bloodless. Things happen, then more things happen. At one point a character delivers an impassioned speech/sermon/monologue about how the culture of overachievement is eating its young, yet not a single soul is moved by it. Little changes in the grand scheme of things.
In terms of the prose itself, it is unadorned and extremely repetitive, almost as if passages were left in from earlier drafts that should have been taken out in editing. It’s readable, but there’s nothing beautiful about it.
I’ll add that as someone who’s taught in a hagwon in Korea, of course I recognize the truth of the themes here regarding the pressures the culture puts on kids to succeed and do well in school, and how these attitudes get imprinted on the children themselves. However the students I taught represented the full spectrum of humanity, boisterous and lively and full of spark and mischief; I wish I saw some of those personalities reflected in any of the characters in this book, because I feel that that’s the missing ingredient in the sauce of this sprawling, emotionally removed diasporic saga.
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