'Re Jane' cleverly recasts Jane Eyre as a Korean American from Queens
If nothing else, choosing to retell a revered classic as a first novel requires either supreme spunk or reckless fatuity. For Patricia Park 鈥� who happens to be a thesis-advisee and prot茅g茅e of National Book Award-winning author Ha Jin (who also provides the first glowing blurb on the book鈥檚 back cover) 鈥� her nimble debut is more daring success than imprudent misstep.
Let鈥檚 start with the clever title, Re Jane, with its tri-fold interpretations: 1. An identification of our heroine; 2. A succinct statement that the narrative is 鈥渁bout Jane鈥�; and 3. An homage to literature鈥檚 most famous Jane 鈥� as in Eyre.
Jane Re (Re being a 鈥淲estern perversion鈥� of the common Korean family name Ee 鈥� including Lee, Yi, Rhee) is just out of college, living back at home, and hoping to find a job outside the family business. Jane is a 鈥淜orean-ish鈥� orphan 鈥� she鈥檚 honhyol, that is, half Korean, half Caucasian American. She鈥檚 lived most of her life with her maternal uncle, his wife, their two children, in the Korean enclave of Flushing, New York, where 鈥測our personal business was communal property.鈥� Instead of going to Columbia University 鈥� a decision her family never overlooks 鈥� she chose to forego the stifling financial obligations and graduated instead from CUNY Baruch. Her promised Wall Street job has fallen through, so she鈥檚 back working at her hypercritical uncle鈥檚 grocery store.
She鈥檚 survived by following the rules of nunchi听 鈥� literally "eye sense," an untranslatable Korean 鈥渁bility to read a situation and anticipate how you were expected to behave.鈥� Longing for independence, her life is choked with tap-tap-hae, 鈥渁n overwhelming discomfort pressing down on you physically, psychologically.鈥�
When a friend hands her an employment ad for an au pair job, Jane initially balks, but she鈥檚 increasingly frantic to catch her breath and goes for an interview anyway. Although located in neighboring Brooklyn, the Mazer-Farley brownstone is another world. Beth Mazer is a brilliant feminist scholar and professor. Ed Farley is still ABD (All-But-Dissertation) and also teaches. Their daughter Devon is a precocious 9-year-old with an impressive vocabulary to complement her adult-like conversational skills. The family's "Village Voice" listing opens with the statement: 鈥淲e wish to invite into our family an au pair (i.e., a live-in 鈥榖abysitter鈥� although n.b. we take issue with such infantilizing labels; seeing as the term has yet to be eradicated from the vernacular, we have opted 鈥� albeit reluctantly 鈥� to use it in this text for the sole purposes of engaging in the lingua franca)鈥�."
The verbiage quickly exceeded the space limit, thereby dropping one of the prime job requirements 鈥� to be a Chinese speaker and to encourage Devon鈥檚 language skills as she is a Chinese adoptee. In spite of the 鈥渕iscommunication,鈥� furthered by Beth and Ed's inability to tell the difference between Chinese and Korean 鈥� and Beth鈥檚 ensuing 鈥渕ortified鈥� apologies of 鈥溾��Please don鈥檛 think I鈥檓 one of those people who assumes鈥欌�� 鈥� Jane moves in.
Reader, you might think you know what happens, but you鈥檇 only partially be right.
The "madwoman in the attic" tutors Jane weekly in her fourth-story office 鈥� her "retreat from the nonsense of the world," a space that later seems so callously violated. She exposes Jane to 鈥渋ntertextuality,鈥� 鈥渉egemony,鈥� 鈥減ost-structuralism,鈥� and alerts her that 鈥淸b]eauty is a social construct that forces females to pander to the male gaze.鈥� The not-so-suffering husband feeds Jane middle-of-the-night hero sandwiches with unlikely combinations like prosciutto and figs. Devon, Jane's young charge, mirrors much of Jane鈥檚 sense of other, of not belonging even among family and friends.
Just before 9/11, Jane flees the inevitable complications of her new household for her birth city of Seoul when her grandfather dies. The novel鈥檚 second half follows Jane trying to find her place 鈥� again 鈥� among extended family, new friends, and a society into which she was born but not necessarily accepted. Her longing to belong eventually brings her back to New York, where unfinished conversations, expectations, and relationships must be confronted and translated anew.
Queens-born-and-raised Korean American Park moves between two cultures with agile empathy. Her own experiences as a hyphenated American sensitively enhance her characterizations of Jane鈥檚 mixed-race status and Devon鈥檚 transracial adoptee challenges. Through Jane鈥檚 return to Korea, Park addresses the immigration conundrums of evolving language and transitioning culture between those who left, and those who stayed 鈥� mixing sharp insight, droll wit, and bittersweet irony.
Park鈥檚 novel is so much more than a mere retelling of "Jane Eyre," that to label the book as such feels like a limiting disservice. Readers should feel free to take this "Jane" as is 鈥� an astute, resonating, humorous, discerning, original debut.
Terry Hong writes 听, a book blog for the .
