Free Food for Millionaires: A Novel

by Min Jin Lee

At first glance, Casey Han would seem to have it all: an Ivy League education, a great boyfriend, a nice, close-knit family. But Casey's world is about to unravel. Just days after graduating from Princeton where she lived among its wealthy and priviledged student body, Casey is back living with her parents in their tiny Queens apartment. Her parents are religious and hardworking, with very traditional Korean beliefs, tirelessly running a busy dry cleaning business to support their family. They do not know about Casey's American boyfriend Jay and favor the more quiet and agreeable demeanor of her younger sister. One night at dinner, Casey and her father have a horrible fight about her future plans; he wants her to attend law school at Columbia but she wants to defer for a year. When Casey cannot apologize to her father and agree to his wishes, she is hit and thrown out of the house. She turns to Jay for help but finds him in a compromising position with two sorority girls. Heartbroken, alone and completely broke, Casey seems to have hit rock bottom. However, Casey does have two things that many people in that situation might not have: a "fairy godmother" of sorts named Sabine and the beginning of a friendship with her classmate Ella. Free Food for Millionaires is the story of how Casey turns her life around despite problems of race, class and romance. At over 550 pages, this is a pretty heavy book to carry around but I found myself wishing that it was even longer so I could read more about Casey and the lives of her friends and family. Well written with interesting observations about life and flawed yet realistic characters, this is a great coming of age story.