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Book Summary and Reviews of The All-American by Joe Milan Jr.

The All-American by Joe Milan Jr.

The All-American

A Novel

by Joe Milan Jr.

  • Critics' Consensus (15):
  • Readers' Rating (25):
  • Published:
  • Apr 2023, 304 pages
  • Rate this book

About this book

Book Summary

"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.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"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.

Reader Reviews

Write your own reviewwrite your own review

Rosemary C. (Golden, CO)

Intense and Absorbing
A gifted writer tells a compelling story, funny at times as well as heart-rending. His YA novel creates a very human character to explore Asian American identity and adoption and immigration nightmares. I was immediately pulled into the intense and absorbing story told from the point of view of a young man.I think this would be an interesting novel for book groups to read and discuss.

Arden A. (Longboat Key, FL)

How Deep are the Roots
There are many books that as you read, you kind of have a sense of where it is all going. Not so with this first novel by a very talented wirier. Bucky is a Korean born high school football player whose perhaps unrealistic goal of college and professional ball are dashed when he suddenly finds himself deported to the country of his birth, which despite his appearance, he finds foreign to him and whose people speak a language he cannot. It is also a country that requires its young men to serve in its military, and the fact that he cannot even pronounce his Korean name is a forewarning of the high hurdles he must clear during this journey.

The author leads us through Bucky's difficult rite of passage, while developing compelling story lines about each character he meets along this long and dangerous course.

I loved this book and would recommend it highly. It would be an excellent book for book clubs, since the contrasting cultures lend themselves to interesting discussions.

Junko W. (Pahoa, HI)

Bravo!
Bravo, Joe Milan Jr! I loved The All-American. This is the story of a young Korean adoptee's strange and wonderful journey from an American high schooler, Bucky, to an adult Beyonghak Yi. From Bucky's dream of playing college football to the reality of being thrown into a society where he does not even speak the language, we follow Bucky through many trials and tribulations as he negotiates his new life in Korea. I hate to say anymore except enjoy!

Melissa S. (Rowland, NC)

No Land To Call Home
Talk about a novel that delivers the unexpected! Joe Milan Jr.'s The All American proves itself hefty enough to hold its own amongst many accomplished American emersion authors. I found myself gripped from the first chapter. Bucky, Sheryl, Bobby, and Uncle Rick set the tone of American poverty, grime, and grit while the slums of Korea and poor military ocean villages continue that tone throughout the rest of the novel. Under all the grit and dirtiness lies a young man who thought he knew his path in life as an American and then one day, in a flash and completely as a result of someone else's poor decisions, finds himself a man/kid without a national identity in a foreign land that he must accept as his own.
Milan's style is one of ease. The reader gets lost in the story and plight of the main character without getting bogged down in the details of culture and language and environment – even though those are all a major piece of what makes this novel such a success.
By the end of the novel, the reader realizes that Bucky's life in America (free) and his life in Korea (captive) merge on many levels. The reader also realizes Bucky would probably never fulfill his full potential as a man and discover his true identity without the life altering trials he endured as Kojangi.

Sandra Z. (Silverdale, WA)

The All American
The first sentence from Chapter One of The All American begins with a description of a mobile home park buried in Lion Mountain. But Lion Mountain is only the beginning of an unforgettable, suspense-filled, descriptive journey that had me anxiously sitting on the edge of my chair. I genuinely enjoyed the entire book. I am so impressed with how the author included meaningful characters throughout the entire book, and he never let the reader forget the character's position, nor what that character meant to him. I would definitely recommend this book to be read and to be discussed in book clubs. Discussing the book in a book club would provide an opportunity to explore one's own emotional, physical and mental strength, as the events occurred in the book, especially if one is asked "what would I have done in that same situation?" I found it to be an enjoyable, entertaining and gratifying book with well thought out twists and turns that will keep you entertained throughout the entire book.

Louise E. (Ocean View, DE)

An Absorbing, Enjoyable Read
The All-American is an interesting and enjoyable Young Adult book. The story is about Bucky, a high school student, who was deported to Korea, a country he doesn't know as he moved to the United States as a baby. His experience in the United States seemed realistic, not sure about his experience in the Korean military though. This is current events in the United States. My niece's friend was deported without his family to the country of his birth and had a similar experience.
Bucky was a resourceful guy who in a roundabout way got his wish to play football. The story was well written, absorbing, and from a teenage boy's point of view. It is interesting how he applied what he learned in football to help himself with his current difficulties in life. I'm not a football fan and I still enjoyed the story. I think you will too!

...19 more reader reviews

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Author Information

Joe Milan Jr.

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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