Re Jane
Patricia Park
Fiction P2198r
For Jane Re, half-Korean, half-American orphan, Flushing, Queens, is the
place she’s been trying to escape from her whole life. Sardonic yet
vulnerable, Jane toils, unappreciated, in her strict uncle’s grocery
store and politely observes the traditional principle of
nunchi
(a combination of good manners, hierarchy, and obligation). Desperate
for a new life, she’s thrilled to become the au pair for the
Mazer-Farleys, two Brooklyn English professors and their adopted Chinese
daughter. Inducted into the world of organic food co-ops, and
nineteenth–century novels, Jane is the recipient of Beth Mazer’s
feminist lectures and Ed Farley’s very male attention. But when a family
death interrupts Jane and Ed’s blossoming affair, she flies off to
Seoul, leaving New York far behind.
Reconnecting with family, and
struggling to learn the ways of modern-day Korea, Jane begins to wonder
if Ed Farley is really the man for her. Jane returns to Queens, where
she must find a balance between two cultures and accept who she really
is.
Re Jane is a bright, comic story of falling in love, finding
strength, and living not just out of obligation to others, but for one’s
self.
Journeying from Queens to Brooklyn to Seoul, and back, this is a fresh, contemporary retelling of
Jane Eyre and a poignant Korean American debut.
(from publisher)
