So far, I’ve received three reviews — Publisher’s Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, and Booklist. And I’m happy (relieved?) to say that I’m batting a thousand — in non-baseball terms, all three of them are positive (Kirkus most of all, as it is a starred review).
Kirkus Reviews: “Cleverly concatenated stories about the experience of Korean immigrants make up Woo’s loosely structured novel…that both delights and instructs.”
Booklist: “Told in sharp, immediate vignettes, mostly from the boy’s viewpoint, this debut novel captures the contemporary immigration struggle, but it is also an elemental family drama of fury and tenderness, affecting all the characters.”
Publisher’s Weekly: “Woo eschews immigrant clichés to focus on complicated familial relationships and surprising, sympathetic characters; alternating between humor and melancholy, Woo’s text strikes a true chord while drawing readers into its strange, strip-mall world.”
You can read the full text of these reviews here.
Listen to the great Richard Yates 
It must be obvious to anyone who has been following this series that I have an unabashed affection for the old guard of book publishing—and an endless appetite for their insights, their war stories, and their wisdom. But after a year in which “change” of one kind or another was never far from anybody’s thoughts, it occurred to me that the series could use a shake-up. Why not give the graybeards a breather and talk with some younger agents and editors? And while I was at it, wouldn’t it be more valuable to writers if I could get a few drinks in them first?
BJ Ward, 41, is the author of “Gravedigger’s Birthday,” “17 Love Poems With No Despair” and “Landing in New Jersey With Soft Hands,” from North Atlantic Books. He grew up in Warren County and lives there in Changewater, which straddles the Musconetcong River. His poems don’t tell us about where we live so much as they create places that are even more compelling.
