There is just something about this novel that sticks with me. I read an audio version that was extremely well narrated by Michelle H. Lee. Park has a double meaning. It’s the name of the ritzy street in Manhattan and the name of the obscenely wealthy and, if possible, the more obscenely dysfunctional family that forms the center of the story. The writing and the plot are quirky and totally entertaining. Yes, it is what I’d call a cotton candy book as one would read it purely for escapism/fun. There are a few takeaways about one’s values that help drive the plot and choices people make but it’s essentially a very well written, well plotted, fluffy book about the very rich and how money affects families and the successful but not born rich who are trying to make it.
When Jia Song, a first general Korean was thirteen, the ghost of her grandfather appeared to her at the moment of his death and said she was responsible for the family. The Song family was doing okay as owners of a Bodega but they couldn’t afford the fancy upscale things or even a simple vacation. Jia finds herself yearning for very expensive purses, a metaphor for her ambition. To be fair, she also has the ultimate goal of making her parents life carefree as they age. But along the way, some luxury for her is very welcome. Jia is a new junior partner in a very fancy NY law firm when a senior partner brings her into a sensitive matter involving a Billionaire Korean family, the Parks. The mother, Jenny, is dying of cancer. She built a dry cleaning empire with her husband, whose name in an audio book sounds like “Seven.” He left Jenny because of her illness and has been living with a mistress the same age as his twin daughters. Again, due to audio book reading, I need to call them Twin 1 and Twin 2. Twin 1 married a very successful doctor, has a boy and a girl, and is miserable in her marriage as her husband cheats and that cheating extended to a fling at a party with Twin 2. Not good. Twin 1 walked in on them. The flimsy excuse that everyone was in costume doesn’t fly with her or with me. This shows up so early, I’m treating is as not a spoiler.
Twin 2 seems totally flighty. She’s creative, irresponsible, yet keyed into the mess Jia is hired to work on in a way the others seem not to be. Twin 1 instinctively dislikes and distrusts Jia. The third child of the Parks is a son who would have been groomed to run the family business and who is a fabulous financial expert. However, he is gay. Thus, Seven felt fine abandoning his three children when he left Jenny, although partly because they were on her side when he left. At the start of their engagement of Jia and her firm. Seven has indicated he wants a very fast divorce from Jenny offering her $25 million and the Park Avenue apartment. The kids would get a small amount. He has clearly hidden a lot of his billion dollar worth while Jenny raised the kids and also worked with him on creating the business.
The plot involves Jia, working with all of these characters and a handsome family advisor/son of the former butler or something like that. She must jet set all over the world to try to track people with information and where the money is stowed. She has four weeks. From time to time, Ahdieah breaks the fourth wall with a word from an unidentified writer who is clearly messing with the family’s efforts. Jia, fresh out of a long term relationship with a fellow high intensity lawyer from a rival firm is not about to trust anyone. Plus, she is really, really competent and creative, which comes with high level lawyer competence, but can also get one in trouble when clients bitch to your bosses.
The fun in Park Avenue is that the characters are not all one-dimensional but they can live and appear to be one dimensional. Very few of them are pure evil, but they all appear to be evil hear and there. It is fun to find out that the devious Seven is not so smart as he thinks when up against Jia. She’s often one pace ahead of him and then…. something gets in the way. This book makes you cheer for a bunch of spoiled and entitled adult kids because their characters and experiences in the Park family make you find compassion for them. Is one of them the mole, being paid off by Seven to scuttle any challenge to his cheapskate offer. The novel also involves an arc that is a coming of age story for Jia. Her personal growth through the nonstop intensity of this case and her general adherence to doing the right thing and usually the legal thing makes her interesting and not stereotypical. When you face a totally corrupt, selfish and mean spirited opponent, that’s sometimes hard to navigate.
I waited a while to write this review because I wanted to convey the pure pleasure that goes with reading this book AND the need to suspend disbelief because it often is in the nature of a farce. I loved it. Hope you do too. Recommend the audio!!
They Called me Bookworm 