Fiction This article is more than 15 years oldReviewMiles from Nowhere
This article is more than 15 years oldIndividuals living on the margins of society tend to be portrayed as hardbitten, resilient, vulnerable - yet Joon ("like the month, but spelled like the moon"), a young Korean immigrant foraging for herself in 1980s New York, is a pragmatic rather than romantic innocent. With her father absent and her mother breaking down, Joon leaves their Bronx neighbourhood, severing all connection. We follow her progress from 13-year-old in a homeless shelter to 18-year-old semi-respectability via prostitution, drug addiction and thieving. Relayed in a series of sharply delineated, matter-of-fact chapters, Joon's desperate life and times are shot through with outrageous characters, transient loves and wisecracking dialogue. Brief, balanced and gritty, Nami Mun's debut shows much promise.
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