Library Journal - Audio
12/01/2022
In his debut novel, Han draws upon his life experience as a Korean American living in Hawai'i to tell the story of the Cho family. Mr. and Mrs. Cho live with their two adult children—Grace, 21, and Jacob, 25. Their life centers on the family's three Korean plate lunch restaurants, which are steadily gaining in popularity. Disenchanted with the restaurant business, Jacob moves to Seoul to teach English, where, unbeknown to the family, he becomes possessed by the spirit of his grandfather, who is desperate to return to North Korea. While in Seoul, Jacob's grandfather makes a run for North Korea and ends up getting Jacob shot in the process. The fallout from this event has dramatic repercussions for the family's business and personal lives. Listeners will appreciate actor and narrator Keong Sim's (Dead to Me, Netflix) skillful portrayal of the characters' varying degrees of English mastery as well as his authentic pronunciations of the Korean words that are sprinkled throughout. VERDICT Han's thoughtful story, which touches on the Korean War, the separation of two halves of one nation, and the colonization of Hawai'i is highly recommended. Kimchi comes, and kimchi goes, but family is forever.—Laura Trombley
From the Publisher
Winner of the AAAS Book Award for Prose
APALA Adult Literature Honor Book
Shortlisted for the VCU Cabell First Novelist Prize
Longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice
Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR, TIME, Debutiful, and them
Named a Most Anticipated Book by BuzzFeed, LGBTQ Reads, The Millions, Goodreads, and more
"You’d have to visit Cirque du Soleil to see someone juggle as much as Han with such effortless dexterity and tenderness . . . Rhythmic and hypnotic; it captivates from the very first page and gracefully conveys the loss and the longing the family experiences." —The New York Times Book Review
"This book is genius . . . The narrative is inventive, and the prose is too: upside-down sentences, scrambled language, erased words. None of this is distracting; it only enhances the reading experience. Oh, and the book is funny. No. Hilarious. Nuclear Family woke me up from the deep slumber of Covid and brought me back to life. I’m sure it will do the same for every reader." —Morgan Talty, The Wall Street Journal
"Joseph Han’s heartfelt and hilarious novel is so well executed, so self-assured, that it’s hard to believe it’s a debut . . . Guy Fieri, who makes a cameo in the novel, might call this book 'off the chain'; we’ll just settle for 'masterful.'" —Michael Schaub, A NPR Best Book of the Year
"[A] gorgeous debut." —TIME
"Inventive." —A Washington Post Book to Read This Summer
"An inventive debut . . . In Nuclear Family, through laughter and wonder and intriguing complexity, Han makes us pay attention." —Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times
"The unalloyed genius of Nuclear Family is not just its use of but improvement on the venerable ghost story." —Tim Pfaff, Bay Area Reporter
"This bizarre comic plot showcases Han’s uncanny ability to expose in a fresh way the battles inherent in preserving a complicated cultural identity." —Connie Ogle, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
"Although some scenes in the story are heavy, the novel has a fundamental optimism. The love the family members have for each other is bigger than the understanding gaps between them, moments of levity appear throughout, and even the futures of Korea and Hawai’i themselves are presented as full of possibility." —WRAL News, A Best Book of the Year
"Local-centric screwball comedies emotionally grounded in the trauma of immigrant separation aren’t new, but few have shown the panache of Joseph Han’s debut novel, Nuclear Family." —Don Wallace, Honolulu Magazine
"Heart-rending and, dare we say it, quite funny." —Seija Rankin, The Hollywood Reporter
"A richly imagined, era-straddling saga exploring several generations of a Korean American clan." —Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
"There are many books out there that fuse serious social and cultural issues with comedy, folkloric elements with contemporary style, accessible prose with intellectual rigor. To do it all in this debut novel so seamlessly is Joseph Han’s gift . . . This imaginative and propulsive story proves that Han is a literary talent to watch." —Matt Ortile, Esquire
"This book is captivating from beginning to end." —Sarah Neilson, Shondaland
"Gorgeous . . . If you love queerness, ghosts, and Guy Fieri, then you've gotta give this a read." —Corinne Sullivan, Cosmopolitan
"An entrancing, boldly satisfying debut from Joseph Han. It feels both massive, grand on a global scale, and also small and intimate; a deeply personal story of a family trying to keep their small business open when their son suddenly causes the eyes of the world to turn on them. Nuclear Family is a knock-out." —Jeffrey Masters, The Advocate, One of the Best Books of The Year
"Nuclear Family is many things: a ghost story embedded into a multigenerational Korean family saga; a typographical experiment utilizing elements of concrete poetry; a reckoning with the U.S. military; a lowbrow stoner comedy . . . It’s funny, but at its heart Nuclear Family is about the many fractures, fallouts, and fissures caused by war." —Mitchell Kuga, FLUX Hawai'i
"Nuclear Family is also a warm and, most importantly, funny read. There is no melodrama; there is no tragedy beyond what we would expect from real people going through the tough parts of life . . . Nuclear Family invites those who are unfamiliar but are willing to explore its world with an open heart. It is a book that exemplifies what is unique and special about Korean American literature outside of Korean or American literature, and one that will haunt the reader for a while." —Minyoung Lee, Chicago Review of Books
"Beautifully strange . . . Han tells a moving and specific story about [. . .] symbolic possessions—how violence possesses bodies, how history possesses the present and how a person’s stories remain alive in their descendants, even if those stories go unspoken . . . Darkly funny, delightfully surprising and with a sprinkling of unusual formatting that reveals hidden subplots, Han’s debut bears witness to the brutal realities of war and imperialism while honoring the many kinds of magic that exist in the world." —Laura Sackton, BookPage
"Such a beautiful, original book . . . It’s a gorgeous meditation on loss and memory, a painful and haunting novel about the legacies of war and the violence of separation." —Laura Sackton, Book Riot
"Han’s powerful book examines both the borders put up in the world and the ones we surround ourselves with to protect ourselves in this memorable and innovative debut" —Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful
"Tragic, funny, and strikingly ingenious, Han’s prodigious debut is a spectacular achievement. Seamlessly dovetailed into his sublime multigenerational saga are pivotal history lessons, anti-colonial denunciations, political slaps. For Korean speakers, Han’s brilliant linguistic acrobatics will prove particularly enlightening (Jeong is a homophone for jeong, something akin to empathic connection) and shrewdly entertaining." —Booklist (starred review)
“Han makes a smashing debut with this stunning take on identity and migration told through the multiple perspectives of a Korean American family . . . [W]hile it’s heartbreaking, it’s also sharply hilarious . . . This is a master class from a brilliant new voice.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Han’s surreal fantasy, sometimes devolving into slapstick, contains a serious critique: of the marginalization of Korean immigrants; of the plight of families separated by a politically contrived border; of shattered lives, pain, and guilt. A raucous and adroit debut." —Kirkus Reviews
“One of the most original novels I’ve read in the last decade. Nuclear Family imagines a story of the lives of our Korean ancestors in the present tense, their ghost life as full of urgency, politics, and complication as our own. How far does the separation at the thirty-eighth parallel go?, Han asks. All the way into the land of spirit, a wound for the living and the dead.” —Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical Novel
“Nuclear Family is a world unto itself: Joseph Han's novel is heartfelt and propulsive, immersing readers in a narrative whose questions of family, borders, queerness, and forgiveness constantly surprises and astounds. Han's prose is remarkable—both deadpan and compassionate—juggling the stories that we're told with the ones we seek to tell ourselves. Nuclear Family is a singular work, and Han's writing is truly special.” —Bryan Washington, author of Memorial and Lot
New York Times Book Review
A funny and moving examination of family and the question of how to recover after a disaster.”
Cosmopolitan
If you love queerness, ghosts, and Guy Fieri, then you’ve gotta give this a read.”
Library Journal
07/01/2022
DEBUT Set in the author's home state of Hawai'i, this debut novel takes place prior to the 2018 false alarm when a nuclear missile alert was issued throughout the state. Here, readers meet the Cho family, purveyors of a chain called Cho's Delicatessen, which offers Korean-style plate lunches. The business was boosted after being featured on a program with Guy Fieri. The Cho's daughter, Grace, loves smoking cannabis—some of her passages sound like "Harold & Kumar" with a Hawaiian food flair. Grace is finishing her final year of college and regularly helps her parents run the business. Their son Jacob, who's teaching English in South Korea, is suddenly possessed by his grandfather's ghost on a visit to the DMZ, the demilitarized area that acts as a buffer between North and South Korea, but he crosses that zone and gets shot in the process. The ghost wants to find family left behind in the north, but when news of the incident spreads, patronage of the family's business dries up as loyal customers suspect the family of being spies with ties to North Korea. VERDICT Han successfully depicts the love binding the Cho family and the struggles they face, and themes of unity, assimilation, and acceptance run deep, whether it be for the country of Korea, the people of Hawai'i, or humankind more generally. Filled with campy humor, Han's novel will be appreciated by readers looking for a light, fun, yet meaningful read.—Shirley Quan
Kirkus Reviews
2022-03-16
An immigrant family is haunted by the past.
Korean-born Han sets his debut novel in Hawaii in 2018, in the months leading up to a false alert of an impending missile attack from North Korea. Central to his tale are Mr. and Mrs. Cho, ambitious Korean immigrants who successfully run a popular plate-lunch restaurant they dream of turning into a chain in hopes that their two grown children, Grace and Jacob, will take over someday. The siblings, though, have other plans: Grace, perpetually (and tediously) stoned, wants “to get off this rock, strap an Acme rocket on her back [and] land in grad school as far away as she [can] get.” Jacob, who is gay, doesn’t see himself as his mother does: “her representative and living proof, her healthy and tall son, of how well they were doing.” When he decides to travel to South Korea to teach English and discover something of his heritage, his parents are delighted, but soon they learn devastating news: Jacob has been arrested for trying to breach the Demilitarized Zone. Back in Hawaii, gossip spreads quickly, the family is shunned, and the restaurant struggles. Jacob, though, is no spy; unwillingly and unwittingly, he has been inhabited by his dead grandfather, who desperately wants to find the family he left behind when he fled North Korea. The ghost sees Jacob as “merely a vessel for his wishes, like how all sons, and grandsons, ought to be.” Excited at being embodied, he is intent on making up “for an afterlife of starvation.” Jacob’s efforts to extricate himself from his selfish “spiritual tumor”—even seeking help from a domineering shaman—test both his strength and hold on reality. Han’s surreal fantasy, sometimes devolving into slapstick, contains a serious critique: of the marginalization of Korean immigrants; of the plight of families separated by a politically contrived border; of shattered lives, pain, and guilt.
A raucous and adroit debut.
