Expatriates (Lee)

The Expatriates 
Janice Y.K. Lee, 2016
Penguin Publishing Group
336 pp.
ISBN-13: 9780525429470


Summary
Sex and the City meets Lost in Translation. —The Skimm

Janice Y. K. Lee explores with devastating poignancy the emotions, identities, and relationships of three very different American women living in the same small expat community in Hong Kong.

♦ Mercy, a young Korean American and recent Columbia graduate, is adrift, undone by a terrible incident in her recent past.

♦ Hilary, a wealthy housewife, is haunted by her struggle to have a child, something she believes could save her foundering marriage.

♦ Margaret, once a happily married mother of three, questions her maternal identity in the wake of a shattering loss.

As each woman struggles with her own demons, their lives collide in ways that have irreversible consequences for them all. Atmospheric, moving, and utterly compelling, The Expatriates confirms Lee as an exceptional talent and one of our keenest observers of women’s inner lives. (From the publishers.)

Author Bio 
• Birth—1972
• Where—Hong Kong, China
• Education—Harvard University
• Currently—lives in Hong Kong

Janice Y. K. Lee was born and raised in Hong Kong and graduated from Harvard College. A former features editor at Elle and Mirabella magazines, she currently lives in Hong Kong with her husband and children. (From the publisher.)

More
Janice Lee was born in Hong Kong to Korean parents and lived there until she was fifteen, attending the international school. She then left for boarding school in New Hampshire, where she learned the true meaning of winter.

From there, she moved south to Cambridge, MA, where she spent four years at Harvard, developing a taste for excellent coffee, Au Bon Pain pastries, and staying up all night, sometimes indulging in all three at the same time. She also pleased her parents by meeting, on the very first day of school, the man who would become her husband.

After graduating with a degree in English and American Literature and Language, she relocated down to New York where she got her first post-college job fetching coffee as an assistant to the beauty editor at Elle magazine. After a few months booking massages learning about the cosmetics industry, she heard about a job in the features section and was able to switch departments and return to her true roots, being happily inundated with books on a daily basis.

She then moved to Mirabella magazine where she did more of the same. As much as she enjoyed her job, she eventually came to realize that if she stayed on this career track, she would have no time to write her own book, something that had been a goal of hers since elementary school.

Taking a deep breath, she quit to freelance, think about writing, and eventually ended up at the Hunter College MFA Program, which at the time was headed up by the wonderful Chang-Rae Lee. She spent most of her time in grad school writing short stories, some of which got published, but most of which are still languishing in various states of completion on her computer.

She was about to graduate with no definite plans when she received a letter from Yaddo, the artists’ colony, saying that her application for a summer residency had been approved. She also found out she was pregnant with her first child.

At Yaddo, she started to organize her thoughts into what would become The Piano Teacher. After she had her first child, she put away the book for a year, adjusting to her new life as a mother. Then she had another child and picked it up again. Then she moved to Hong Kong. When she found out she was pregnant with her third and fourth (twins!) she had all the incentive she needed to finish the book, seeing as how she might not have any time to do anything ever again.

Five years after she started it, she had a good first draft and sold The Piano Teacher two months before she gave birth to the twins. When she told her mother she had sold her first novel, her mother asked whether Janice's husband had been the buyer. Really. (From the author's website.)

Book Reviews
A female, funny Henry James in Asia, Janice Y. K. Lee is vividly good on the subject of Americans abroad.... [The Expatriates is] vibrant social satire: Inside these dark materials lies the sharpness of a comic novelist, and Lee’s eye for the nuance and clash of culture, class, race and sex is subtle and shrewd.
New York Times Book Review


At turns illuminating, entertaining, cringe-inducing, piercing . . . With meticulous details and nuanced observations, Lee creates an exquisite novel of everyday lives in extraordinary circumstances.... How Lee’s triumvirate reacts, copes, and ventures forth (or not) proves to be a stupendous feat of magnetic, transporting storytelling.... Mark my words: The Expatriates will appear repeatedly on year-end award nominations and all the 'best of' compilations."
Christian Science Monitor


A nuanced reminder of how shockingly easy it can be to lose everything in a moment and of how to reinvent one’s life after a fall.
San Francisco Chronicle


One chief pleasure of The Expatriates is watching how the lives of Hilary, Mercy and Margaret converge and are changed by that convergence, and how they each metabolize grief. A more subtle yet lingering benefit is getting to know Lee's acutely observed Hong Kong, a city on the cusp of change that must eventually affect the lives of expatriates and locals alike.
Los Angeles Times


Powerful [and] nuanced...poignant and compelling.... The Expatriates moves with urgency, but also takes time to slowly reveal a complex story. Lee’s storytelling is intricate, precise and rich enough to keep the reader seduced until the end.
Seattle Times


One of the novel’s strengths is Lee’s exploration of the sometimes subtle interplay between different layers and types of privilege; another is her empathy for the loneliness that her characters must endure. The result is a shrewd and moving study of how race, gender and education constrain the options that life gives you.
Financial Times


We imagine we know these [expatriate] women, who are distanced from their work, friends, and family, but we don’t. Janice Y. K. Lee does. Set in Hong Kong, The Expatriates looks inside the lives of three women...all in crisis, all needing one another in ways they, and we, can’t imagine.
Vanity Fair

 
A novel about displacement and belonging.... A thoughtful portrait of motherhood trade-offs, the book also offers sharp insights into the tensions between moneyed expats and the impoverished locals who serve them. (The Best New Books)
People


We found ourselves racing through this exotic, sexy, heartbreaking book.... We couldn’t wait to find out what happens to each of the women.
Glamour


Janice Y.K. Lee’s absorbing, poignant novel...[is a] nuanced story of the ordinary heroism needed to move past some of life’s worst experiences. It’s a great read and a testament to the strength and resilience we all have.
Redbook


After...The Piano Teacher, Lee returns with a captivating book about three American women living in an expatriate community in Hong Kong. She explores their experiences with love, loss, and uncertainty about the future and the unexpected ways their lives intersect.... [C]ompelling.
Publishers Weekly


Like Jodi Picoult and Kristin Hannah, Lee is a perceptive observer of her compelling characters and brings them vividly to life in this moving novel
BookPage


Hong Kong sets the stage for stories of expatriation, cultural divide, and, most strikingly, the varying ways in which grief causes isolation.... An unfortunate side effect of unraveling tragedy is that these characters are lost in reflection, and so there's not much present action and the narrative is often lacking immediacy.... [Still, it is a] richly detailed novel.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. SPOILER ALERT: DON’T READ AHEAD IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED THE NOVEL.

2. Have you ever lived outside your native country for an extended period of time? If so, how did your experience compare with Lee’s description?

3. Would you be interested in living the expatriate life in Hong Kong? What about it appeals to you? What aspects would you find difficult to accept?

4. Do you think Margaret is a good mother? Why or why not?

5. Is Mercy solely to blame for what happened in Seoul? Is she as unlucky as she believes herself to be?

6. Does Margaret initially feel a connection to Mercy because she herself is a quarter Korean? When we are in an unfamiliar environment, do we naturally gravitate toward those most similar to ourselves?

7. Is Charlie a missed opportunity for Mercy or would the relationship not have worked out anyway, given Mercy’s luck?

8. Did your opinion of Mercy change over the course of the novel? Why or why not?

9. What is your take on the anonymous discussion-board post describing Hilary’s initial relationship with Julian as similar to "trying on a coat"?

10. Overall, do social media outlets like Facebook, Instagram, and message boards such as the one Hilary haunts make people more or less connected with their fellow human beings? What are their pluses and minuses?

11. Did David ultimately help Hilary to overcome her indecision about adopting Julian? What do you think David will do at the end of the book? Will he be a happier person?

12. Would a child have healed David and Hilary’s marriage or was the rift between them already too great?

13. If you are a mother, do you feel that having a child is a transformative experience? Can a woman who’s not a mother understand the depth of Margaret’s loss?

14. What aspect of The Expatriates most resonated with you? Why?

15. Where do you see each of these three women in five years?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

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