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| photo: Xue Tan | |
Janice Y.K. Lee was born and raised in Hong Kong. Of Korean descent, she moved to the U.S. when she was 15, and graduated from Harvard College with a degree in English and American Literature and Language. A former editor at Elle, she moved to Hong Kong in 2005 with her husband, where they lived with their four children until recently moving back to New York City. Her debut novel was The Piano Teacher. The Expatriates is her second novel and is published by Viking (January 12, 2016).
On your nightstand now:
ARCs of authors who were at regional bookseller events with me: Be Frank with Me by Julia Claiborne Johnson, a sprightly and delightful comic novel set in L.A.; The Nest by Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, a really wonderful, engaging tale about a dysfunctional family; The Portable Veblen by Elizabeth McKenzie, which I haven't started yet but I know from trusted sources I'm going to love it. Also, City on Fire by Garth Risk Hallberg, which I know is great but is a commitment, and I want to begin it when I have a long stretch of time!
Favorite book when you were a child:
All of Gerald Durrell's books, but it started with My Family and Other Animals. I love the extreme cultural cross-pollination that began when a Korean girl born and raised in Hong Kong read about a British family that moved to Corfu. I was obsessed with Gerald Durrell and kept writing to him to see if I could go work at his zoo in Jersey, although I didn't even really like animals.
Your top five authors:
Lorrie Moore, Mona Simpson, Michael Cunningham, Amy Bloom, Elizabeth McCracken.
Book you've faked reading:
Ulysses.
Books you're an evangelist for:
Rebecca Lee's book of short stories, Bobcat and Other Stories: mordant, potent pills. Also, Poison by Kathryn Harrison, a dizzyingly atmospheric historical tale. And The Dangerous Husband by Jane Shapiro, a wonderful, biting satire about a clumsy spouse.
Book you've bought for the cover:
I don't think I've ever bought a book for the cover!
Book you hid from your parents:
Scruples by Judith Krantz, a glorious, glitzy, page turner. Taught me about the all-important subjects of shopping and sex.
Book that changed your life:
The story that changed my life was "White Angel" by Michael Cunningham. (It eventually became the novel A Home at the End of the World, but I first encountered it as a story in the New Yorker.) I hadn't known that words could be combined like that, full of pirouettes and fireworks and life. It was dizzying and intoxicating. I was at boarding school at the time and still remember getting the New Yorker in my P.O. box, reading that story and wandering around, somehow thrilled and energized and vibrating from the power of language. It cemented in me my desire to become a writer. It gave me a bar to reach for.
Favorite line from a book:
So hard to pick. One that has always stayed with me for its musicality and simplicity is the first line from Ha Jin's masterpiece, Waiting: "Every summer Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu." That one line exemplifies the entire book's elegance to me.
Five books you'll never part with:
To be honest, I'm a little hampered by the fact that I'm in temporary housing and all of my books are in storage. I usually have my favorites on a shelf next to me. But here goes:
A Home at the End of the World by Michael Cunningham
Birds of America by Lorrie Moore
The Giant's House by Elizabeth McCracken
Love Invents Us by Amy Bloom
Anywhere but Here by Mona Simpson
The thing that all these books have in common was that I read them in my teens and 20s, my most formative years. They are the books that shaped the nascent writer and showed me what was possible with language.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Lolita. I read this in college for a class and was electrified by it. It was a visceral experience: I was in the library and opened the book. Then I was gone. The magic of language!