Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Miles From Nowhere

By Joan Hinkemeyer, Special to the Rocky

Published January 15, 2009 at 7 p.m.

Text size  

More Books

More stories »

* Fiction. By Nami Mun. Riverhead, $21.95. Grade: A-

Plot in a nutshell: In this urban fiction, 13-year-old Joon watches her mother descend into catatonic depression after her father abandons the family for alcohol and women. Joon then decides to leave home to strike out on her own, living on the streets of 1980s New York, where the perils awaiting this young Korean far exceed those of her life at home.

Joon narrates her adjustment in a series of spare episodes beginning with her mentor, a street-smart girl named Knowledge whom Joon meets in a homeless shelter. Joon's real education begins when Knowledge convinces Joon and a boy named Wink to leave the shelter and live on the streets.

During her five years on the streets, Joon meets an assortment of colorful characters and unscrupulous males who introduce her to sex, alcohol and drugs. Completely controlled by her addictions, she briefly attends Narcotic Anonymous, but even there she meets a man who shoots up with her after the meetings.

After time spent in jail for stealing, Joon finally feels hope for a real life when a sympathetic employment counselor helps her find a job. When her mother dies, her father treats her as a stranger during a chance encounter on the subway, and as her friends' lives all plunge into downward spirals, Joon realizes that truly she is miles from nowhere and it's time to stop running. It's this realization that makes us cheer for this plucky girl.

Sample of prose: "Home was an abandoned apartment I shared with roughly twenty people. Except for my Audrey Hepburn poster hanging by two nails, the space was pretty empty. A couch with no cushions sat opposite the front door, and the rest of the living room writhed with rows of sleeping bodies."

Pros: Joon's narrative voice reveals the gritty realities of street life with its disparate cast of very real individuals but balances it all with flashes of wry humor.

Cons: The story's episodic structure diminishes the possibility of a strong impact.

Final word: Mun was a teenage runaway who has since earned numerous literary awards. Her vibrant new voice has created an engaging character with as much true grit as Huck Finn.