Well worth the wait ... Lee brings a precise scalpel to the Korean diaspora, both questioning its desperate pursuit of getting ahead and putting forth a new vision of nuanced characters fitting into a diversity of archetypes not often afforded to Asian characters in Western literature ... Universally, readers will recognize the quiet sacrifices of parents who love their children despite themselves ... With an exacting pen, Lee creates an automaton of intricate detail, where each character plays a vital role in staking out a path in a world marred by globalization, socioeconomic upheaval, and competition.
A simultaneously sweeping-but-intimate novel about the complexities of immigration, the fragile promise of America and the purpose of education, American Hagwon is also a classic page-turner populated by characters who are hard to leave behind at the end of 600-plus pages. It's an overwhelming reading experience, one that appeals to the head as well as the heart ... Lee is so deft that she conjures epiphanies out of the simplest material. I wish I could read to you the very last sentence of American Hagwon to demonstrate her mastery, but, instead, I'll just say that the simple possessive pronoun 'his' unexpectedly appears in that sentence and its effect is spiritually redemptive and emotionally shattering. What a novel.
Accessible but complex; noble without being highfalutin; and, at almost 650 pages, tremendous bang for the buck ... Almost a decade in the making, deeply researched and replete with details of bills, contracts, deals, salaries, settlements, wills and arrangements, American Hagwon might be the first epic novel of estate planning ... Some books are very worthy but held at arm’s length. This one demands to be pressed into friends’ hands.
Sensitive ... The depiction of family solidarity in the face of hardship is touching, and to Ms. Lee’s credit she portrays it simply, without smarminess ... Has the drawbacks of the traditional novel along with its foursquare virtues. The book’s length and creeping pace are reminiscent of 19th-century tomes that had to be padded out to meet the requirements of serialization. Ms. Lee tends to telegraph her plot turns, especially those regarding the characters’ romantic fortunes, and then takes an eternity to arrive where the story is obviously going ... The danger of dullness is heightened by the writing, which is plain and informational to an extreme ... he polite reviewerese for this kind of writing is 'workmanlike,' and it often feels like work to get through it ... That there is still much to like about the novel speaks to the charm of its earnest exploration of virtue ... Heartfelt.
Booms into being, echoing and expanding its predecessors’ powerful impacts ... Soon a reader is gripped—swallowed, really—by an elaborate generational saga. Amazingly, given the complexity of the relationships, no character chart is needed. So vivid and precise are Lee’s descriptions that all players register as fully fleshed ... A near-Tolstoyan genealogy of furious human grappling that could, cumulatively, feel soul-crushing—except for one steady, crucial mitigator: the unremitting love for one another shown by the Kohs and their closest friends and relations.
Though more than 600 pages long, the book is easy reading, if at times clunky and cliché ... Offers a rich portrait of Orange County but a comparatively thin one of its inhabitants’ presumably fraught relationships to it ... Stilted dialogue pervades American Hagwon. It can read less like that of real, first-generation immigrants and more like a Korean text translated bluntly into English ... It becomes a neat drama.
Lee captures the consequences that systemic historical upheavals visit upon private life ... Hagwon seems like the kind of novel that pays such attention to its characters ... Yet we learn little about the inner lives of its subjects. The culprit here is partly style. The dialogue is often expository. The scenes are repetitive. Above all, Hagwon’s narration is neither muscularly omniscient nor intimate. Its primary characteristic is its banal positivity ... If Hagwon is a parable, then it’s one that extols the good immigrant striver, calling readers to admire these model minorities for their perseverance, thrift, and faith, rather than inviting us into their textured inner lives ... Lee convincingly casts hagwons as third spaces that advance the hopes of an entire community. Yet the book does not ask questions about education as a contested sociopolitical institution.
American Hagwon isn’t my favorite Lee novel and will likely not rank among the top books I read this year. Still, it’s a strong contribution to the quartet that places Korea’s last hundred years in a context of global culture, economics, and politics ... Succeeds as a serviceable contribution to her larger project because of the work Lee has already done. Art no longer feels impossible, and that is perhaps Lee’s greatest legacy.
With her new novel, American Hagwon (2026), Min Jin Lee has done her best ... Lee proves herself worthy of a Steinbeck comparison when it comes to character development and pacing, but I would have liked to see more descriptions of the places where her characters live ... As with Pachinko, this book can feel soapy and melodramatic at times ... This is a good book. Ambitious. Grand. The kind of multi-generational family novel that Lee is adept at.
Doesn’t disappoint ... Is imbued with the elegance, empathy and erudition that have become Lee’s hallmarks ... I cared about what happened to these characters ... A crime committed towards the end of the novel provides its most dramatic moment, paving the way for a final sentence that will stop you in your tracks. It is the most understated yet arresting last line of any book I have read in a long time.
An ambitious, deeply compassionate novel about immigration, class, family obligation, and sacrifices parents and children make for one another ... Lee’s most compelling achievement is the way she makes education stand in for this larger immigrant struggle ... At times, the novel’s breadth works against it ... Lee occasionally favors the sweep of a family saga over the sustained development of an individual moment. But that expansiveness is also part of the novel’s appeal.
American Hagwon does lots of things well. Lee has a knack with sharp, distilled dialogue, which means that in a couple of pages she can dispatch a scene that represents a turning point in a character’s life ... the novel is excellent on the daily grind of living, however modestly, beyond your means: the haggling, the moving house, the sense of enclosure. Money drives the world, it says, and it also drives migration patterns. But the grand scope of the book is also a weakness. Lee doesn’t focus enough on the five family members—the close attention that’s the mark of success for much-loved family stories ... Still, the maximalism on display in American Hagwon is impressive in itself as an act of sheer writerly stamina...And even if it doesn’t sink as deep as we might like on individual characters, there’s plenty of entertainment on the surface to bounce along on merrily—until the TV series arrives.
Empowering ... Lee’s documentarian’s approach to capturing details of characters and scenes heightens the stakes and tensions of simple interactions, showing readers that the Korean diaspora is no monolith ... For though it’s a diasporic cast across continents, everybody has a story and nobody is a stereotype ... The book’s thesis about education is born out in these details: knowledge can bring tenderness with social power.
If most novels are concertos, Min Jin Lee writes symphonies ... Another stunning tale of the Korean diaspora ... Lee only needs a few pages to earn your respect and attention, and the love and awe she engenders for people, places and times will make American Hagwon’s hundreds of pages pass like so many frames of film.
Beyond irresistible storytelling, Lee expertly confronts broken systems, familial expectations, and peripatetic identities with empathy and brilliance.
Illuminating ... Lee’s exposition-heavy style feels a bit flat compared to her previous novel, but she writes with precision and keen insights into her characters’ obsession with education and the cost of their sacrifices. Patient readers will find much to ponder.
