Thinkers & Drinkers Book Club: American Hagwon
Join us for the first meeting of The Thinkers & Drinkers Book Club as we dive into one of the year’s most anticipated releases: American Hagwon by Min Jin Lee.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Pachinko comes a sweeping, deeply intimate masterwork of family, sacrifice, and ambition. American Hagwon follows the Koh family across continents - from Seoul to Sydney to Southern California - as they rebuild their lives in the wake of financial crisis and betrayal. As parents adapt to a strange new land, their children navigate the overwhelming pressure to succeed, driven by the belief that education is the ultimate key to security.
📅 When: Tuesday 24 November | 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM
📍 Where: Bookazine Landmark
🍿 Prep: Read the book! Don't worry if you haven't quite finished, but we don't shy away from spoilers!
Special Perk: Enjoy 15% off your copy of American Hagwon using the code BOOKCLUB (online only)!
We'll discuss questions like:
Parental Sacrifice & Ambition: How do parents in the novel define success for their children, and how do the children internalise or reject those definitions?
The Pursuit of Education: Education is often viewed as both a pathway to freedom and an intense burden. How does the novel critique or celebrate the sacrifices families make for educational achievement?
The American Dream across Generations: Compare John and Helen’s definition of success with that of their children (Bo, DH, and Mido). Does success mean the same thing to each generation?
Why you should join:
Engaging Conversation: Unpack key themes of diaspora, class mobility, parental expectation, and identity.
Community: Connect with fellow readers in a welcoming, friendly atmosphere.
Still not sold? Here's what the critics are saying about American Hagwon - and you can join the conversation!
“Some books are very worthy but held at arm’s length. This one demands to be pressed into friends’ hands.” - New York Times Book Review
“Lee’s most compelling achievement is the way she makes education stand in for this larger immigrant struggle. Every move, degree, exam, job, and school becomes an attempt to secure something more stable for the next generation…Set against the 1997 Asian Financial Crisis, with its mass layoffs, bankruptcies, and rising unemployment, the novel’s fixation on education and economic security feels especially urgent. Lee ultimately shows how economic instability can turn education from an intellectual pursuit into a survival strategy.” - Chicago Review of Books
“A simultaneously sweeping-but-intimate novel about the complexities of immigration, the fragile promise of America and the purpose of education, American Hagwon is also a classic page-turner populated by characters who are hard to leave behind at the end of 600-plus pages. It's an overwhelming reading experience, one that appeals to the head as well as the heart…Lee is so deft that she conjures epiphanies out of the simplest material. I wish I could read to you the very last sentence of American Hagwon to demonstrate her mastery, but, instead, I'll just say that the simple possessive pronoun "his" unexpectedly appears in that sentence and its effect is spiritually redemptive and emotionally shattering. What a novel.” - Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air, NPR
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