(Yonhap Interview) Korean, but `un-Korean,` Mun tells haunting tale of runaway teenager

(ATTN: photos available)
By Shin Hae-in
SEOUL, Feb. 8 (Yonhap) -- One can either be away from home or safely tucked
inside it, but what happens for someone who did not have a home -- a place of
refuge, sureness and permanent dwelling -- to begin with?
In her grim, but exquisite debut novel, Korean-American author Nami Mun's
protagonist is a confused teenager who lacks a home from the beginning: who is,
like the title, "Miles from Nowhere."
Although the main character of the novel, Joon, is a Korean-American teenager,
she not only represents those of her own age and ethnic group, but everyone in
New York who has felt lost and isolated in the "city of everything."
"For me, Joon is the face of alienation, isolation, struggle and survival --
things that many people feel and achieve, whether they're runaways, priests,
housewives or office workers, and regardless of their country of origin or
cultural background," the 40-year-old author said in an interview with Yonhap
News Agency. "I don't think about my national identity or the literary world when
I'm writing."
Teenage Joon, who may or may not represent the author herself, is a Korean
immigrant living in the Bronx, New York, of the 1980s. Inside a house that can
hardly be called a home, the 12-year-old is faced with a father who constantly
leaves his family and a mother who is mentally ill and seems to have no concern
for her daughter. Leaving home, Joon undergoes a brutal journey that takes her to
a homeless shelter, an escort club and teenage prison, and exposes her to drug
addiction and petty crime.
Although "Miles from Nowhere" does reflect certain experiences of Mun, a second
generation Korean immigrant in the U.S. who left home at a young age, she calls
it strictly a "novel not a memoir."
"If I had to put it in numbers, maybe one percent of the book is
autobiographical. I left home at a young age but I chose not to write about the
actual events of my own life as a runaway," she said. "I kept those actual events
in a 'reserve' of sorts and used my knowledge of them to strengthen the narrative
artifice I was creating."
Mun, who is currently a professor of creative writing at Columbia College,
Chicago, held various jobs, such as a street vendor, photojournalist, bartender
and criminal defense investigator, before turning to creative writing. Her
variegated earlier life may have led to some tormented youthful years, but later
became the source of her enchanting novel.
"I contained the moment (of my life) and wrote fictional events and dialogue to
better express how complex a feeling like pride and hope can be for someone who's
on the verge of hopelessness as Joon," Mun said.
For an author who says "writing has not been a lifelong ambition," Mun shows off
an excellent literary style that makes the gloomy story seem almost poetic. Mun
began writing seriously in 2000 when she started the book.
"I've always had an intense desire to connect with people. That's what writing
and reading is for me -- a chance to quietly, secretly share a moment with
someone," she said. "My main goal (in writing) is to write good sentences that
please the ear and move the plot along."
"Miles from Nowhere" has been published in the English language in the United
States and the United Kingdom in January, as well as other European countries
including France, Italy and Germany, drawing a favorable response from critics.
Mun said it would mean a lot for her to see the book being translated into her
first language, although she has not been back to her motherland for more than
three decades.
"For my book to be translated into my first language that taught me the true
definition of gratitude would be very meaningful for me," she said. "I would love
to return to my motherland with my book in my hand and do a reading in Korean."
"Even though I left Korea when I was eight years old and my Korean is extremely
rusty, when I really want to thank someone, I don't feel my gratitude can be
fully expressed unless I say it in Korean," Mun added.
Mun also said it was a "very exciting and liberating time for Asian-American
writers" like her.
"So many wonderful Asian-American writers have written, and continue to write,
beautiful, insightful books that revolve around Asian identity,
double-consciousness and the diaspora," she said.
hayney@yna.co.kr
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