"Susan Choi's characters are at their best when unhinged. Undone by love, lust, revenge, torture, paranoia, mad hope, hopelessness-this is when they really come to life. Choi's novels are also at their best in the midst of all of this emotional chaos. Her plots can be melodramatic, plucking these characters seemingly out of nowhere and putting them in the right circumstances to blossom into their maddest selves, but this also gives her novels a certain bravado and, at times, an unexpected grandeur."
"Choi's characters need not have rigorous backstories or fully fleshed-out pasts; in fact, the more unmarked and unexplained their arrival, the better. The proximity to such incomprehensible, even unlikable characters is essential for the kinds of studies in desperation that Choi offers: She pulls us into the world of characters we may not particularly like or agree with, sweeping us up into a maelstrom of big, dramatic emotions."
The novel follows a small, unhappy family torn further apart by tragedy and serious life challenges. Characters who previously came alive through unhinged passion and melodrama are rendered with greater control and restraint. At 464 pages the work is expansive and ambitious, centering on death of a parent, thwarted family relationships, chronic illness, and North Korean spycraft. Intrigue and melodramatic potential remain, but emotional chaos yields to a sober, deliberate tone. The result emphasizes gravity and seriousness over the messy, propulsive madness that energized earlier character studies, producing a novel that is ambitious and restrained.
Read at The Nation
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