The Eyes Are The Best Part is the debut novel from Monika Kim, a second-generation Korean living in Los Angeles’ Koreatown. Set in California, the story is narrated by Ji-won, a Korean-American student who’s struggling at college, as well as at home and with her friends. The book opens when her father has just left her mother for another woman, and Ji-won’s umma is struggling to cope. Her mother has been an intimidating presence in the lives of Ji-won and her little sister Ji-hyun, but now she’s falling apart in front of their eyes.
But surprisingly quickly, Ji-won’s mother starts dating again, this time a middle-aged white guy she met at work. She is smitten and tells the girls about how great George is, but when they meet him, Ji-won realises he’s a hideous letch, misogynist and a bully, as well as apparently fetishising Asian women in front of all of them.
While Ji-won is repulsed by George, she also becomes slowly obsessed with his blue eyes. The book opens with a graphic depiction of her mother eating fish eyes, thus the title, and that leads to Ji-won dreaming of eating George’s eyes in increasingly bizarre and disturbing passages.
This literary horror debut is a slow burn to start with, but gradually builds in tension to a frantic and explicit climax that keeps the reader guessing until the end. It’s smartly written, dealing with trauma, both familial and societal, and the kind of micro-aggressions that Asian-American women face every minute of every day. Kim’s writing is simple and direct, but full of nuance too, planting seeds of ideas that flower into full blown themes as the story progresses. A fun and nasty debut with real edge to it, and a promising calling card from a writer to watch.
Doug Johnstone is an author and journalist.
The Eyes Are The Best Part by Monika Kim is out now (Brazen, £16.99). You can buy it from The Big Issue shop on Bookshop.org, which helps to support The Big Issue and independent bookshops.
