Free Food for Millionaires / Min Jin Lee

RATINGS

Overall: 3.5 / 5 stars

Text Level: Medium

Entertainment: High

Self-Help: Low

Genres: Fiction, Coming-of-age, Social Commentary, Satire, Women’s Fiction, Asian American

Page Count: 664

Is this book right for my inmate and me?

A novel about coming to terms with finding your way in life and recognizing that many other people are just like us in not knowing what to do to find success.

Buy on: Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Review By: Blackbird (inmate)

Sometimes people that seem that they have it all together on the outside are just as lost as the rest of us.

Free Food For Millionaires is a book that wants you to keep reading and not put it down. I found myself always being willing to read a few more pages before it was time to stop. In the end I enjoyed the story very much, even if the ending felt a little flat to me. The novel follows a Korean family and friends that live in New York City. Most of the characters would be considered highly successful working as doctors or highly paid finance professionals on Wall Street. As an inmate I read this book at the beginning trying to figure out ways it related to my life, which is far from what I read in these pages. In the end I was able to gain some good insight into the perceptions we hold to others and ourselves.

All of the characters in this book from the outside seemed to have it all together with high paid jobs and Ivy League educations. However, in reality most of them were struggling to find their way in life very similar to how I feel about myself. The main character of the book, Casey, has struggles with debt, her parents, finding a job that brings her passion and love. All of those are things I have felt hindered me in the past as well. The more I read the book the more I saw that all of the characters a had flaws and strengths that I believe all of us share.

In the past I held on to the perception that I was somehow the only one that wasn't able to cut it in this world to be successful. It often left me feeling alone with no one to turn to for help. This story gave me some inspirational hope that I am not alone in what I see as my struggles to understand my place in this world. Just like the characters of the book, I recognize that my chances for success increase when I find care and support from others and I don't give up. In jail I believe many inmates feel this same way. Maybe this book can let them see that many of the things they struggle with in life most people deal with as well and it will give them courage to keep trying.

Book Quotes:

"When life didn't go your way, was it because it wasn't meant to or because you didn't have the faith, or was it that you couldn't make it so by the labors required of you?"

"Because you're a true person... You are your own. That's important... In the end, that matters most, I think. And being truthful."