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A Novel
by Joe Milan Jr.
"Only a novelist as gifted as Milan Jr could have transformed this nightmare tale of a world lost into profoundly moving meditation on nationhood, belonging and the possibility of rebirth … with this incredible debut Milan has rocketed himself into the literary stratosphere." ―Junot Diaz, author of The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
A debut novel grappling with contested American identity, masculinity, and deportation, told in one of the most memorable adolescent voices in contemporary literature.
In rural Washington State, Bucky, a Korean American high school senior, trains hard to pursue his only ambition: to play college football. But when the US government deports him to South Korea, he finds himself alone in a country where he can't speak the language (he can't even pronounce his "paper name," Yi Beyonghak), is conscripted to the army, and is obligated to pay off the debts of his long-missing bio-father.
From a hostel and expat bar in Seoul; to rural South Korea, where his bio-father is drowning in alcohol; to a remote island where a crazed sergeant still fights a bitter war with North Korean enemies, Beyonghak battles a morass of bureaucracy and betrayal in order to find his way home. Along the way, he must face down essential questions about who he is to others, and the type of man he wants to become.
"It's dark stuff, but Milan sustains in his narrator an amusingly bewildered, blundering, bumptious voice along with a leavening sense of absurdity. There are echoes here of Heller's Yossarian and even of the 1966 film The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"The setup is convincingly Kafkaesque (if devoid of absurd humor), and Milan skillfully captures Bucky's increasing disorientation. This is a memorable riff on identity." —Publishers Weekly
"With lean, propulsive prose. A true and specific story of Asian American identity and adoption, football fantasies and immigration detention nightmares. Joe Milan Jr. is a writer with guts and talent." ―Jean Chen Ho, author of Fiona and Jane
"A funny and heartbreaking novel that gets to the heart of our post-national world... revealing the human consequences of white altruism and cultural myopia." ―Jess Row, author of White Flights
"Only a novelist as gifted as Milan Jr could have transformed this nightmare tale of a world lost into profoundly moving meditation on nationhood, belonging and the possibility of rebiose, Joe Milan, Jr. has created an unforgettable character in American fiction, Beyonghak 'Bucky' Yi, a 'stranded townie' whose gifts as a running back may just be able to change his life for the better. Part high-drama, part dark comedy of the absurd, The All American is as wonderfully entertaining as it is moving, and I simply could not put it down. I suspect that you won't be able to either." ―Andre Dubus III, author of Gone So Long
"The All-American is a potent, spellbinding novel about the meaning of family and the pull of hrth … with this incredible debut Milan has rocketed himself into the literary stratosphere." ―Junot Diaz, author of The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
"An explosively powerful, unpretentiously original, darkly comic novel about dreams fulfilled by the most unexpected, convoluted and crookedest path. In this universe, there are no model minorities, no redemptions, neither heroes nor villains, only those who strive against the odds of underprivilege. Milan's refreshingly different voice and narrative keeps you reading to the sweetly bitter and weirdly hopeful end." ―Xu Xi, author of Habit from a Foreign Sky
"The All-American is a compulsively readable page turner that continues to surprise. The novel burns with major themes and issues central to America. At heart are the central questions: Who gets to be American, and what does it mean to belong to a country?" ―Krys Lee, author of How I Became a North Korean
"The All American is an irreverent, bold page-turner exploring what happens when inconvenient parts of your identity come searching for you. This self-assured, engrossing debut is one of those rare first novels that breathes new life into the journey toward self-revelation. Solid and endlessly rewarding." ―Mat Johnson, author of Invisible Things
"The All-American has the speed, power, and vision of a superior running back. Milan Jr. renders Bucky's odyssey with extraordinary energy and urgency." ―Christopher Bechelder, author of The Throwback Special
This information about The All-American was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Joe Milan Jr. is a second-generation Korean American and taught in Korea for nine years. An assistant professor of creative writing at Waldorf University, he lives in Forest City, Iowa.
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