The Last Story of Mina Lee

Margot’s arrival in Koreatown contrasts greatly with Mina’s. Their reactions foreshadow their vastly differing perspectives on America, American culture, and how they hope to live their lives. Margot doesn’t like Koreatown and can’t understand why anyone would live there. It seems to her that it is a piece of America that manages to be un-American. Everywhere she goes in Los Angeles, she sees people who seem like real Americans to her: “Many of them—with their blue eyes and tall noses—appeared intrinsically attractive because even white people who weren’t supermodels were at least white” (15). In Koreatown, she sees reminders of all the things that frustrated her about her mother and her culture. When Mina arrives at Koreatown, she is comforted to find that there are other immigrants like her. Koreatown is a refuge from the America that she will grow to hate.

These first two sections introduce the thematic tension between movement and captivity. Mina comes to America to escape war-torn Korea, but her pursuit of freedom leaves her feeling trapped in a country and society that do not want her. When Margot considers how stationary her mother has always been, she thinks: “Movement for her mother was essentially an experience of loss that Margot, American-born, could never imagine” (16). Margot finds freedom in movement, even if she seeks geographical solutions to problems with other causes.

The author revisits the trip to Las Vegas several times throughout the novel, using it to reveal new information one small piece at a time. The trip represents Mina’s tragic life in microcosm. She goes to Las Vegas because of Mr. Kim’s invitation, against her better judgment, even though she does not like traveling. He abandoned her 26 year prior, and she goes because she needs to prove to herself that their love was real. She sits in a hotel room waiting, not trapped, but at the mercy of someone else’s schedule. Once again, Mr. Kim offers her an opportunity, and once again, he disappoints her by depriving her of it. Margot doesn’t know the purpose of the trip. She is unaware that she is waiting for a father that she will never meet. The trip ends in disappointment, vindicating Mina’s mistrust of travel, relationships, and hope.

Much of the novel’s tension results from secrets that the characters keep from each other. Margot doesn’t know much about her mother’s history, and Mina rarely offers details about her past that will make her vulnerable. The author establishes quickly that the language barrier between Margot and Mina makes it hard for them to communicate, but in some ways it also protects them from painful conversations that would require greater fluency.

For most of the novel, Margot is unaware that she has a dead sister. Mina doesn’t know that Margot had a brief relationship with Jonathan, a relationship that broke her heart. Margot doesn’t know that her mother had a relationship with a married man who became Margot’s father. Mina thinks it is better that Margot never know the truth.

This inability—and unwillingness, at times—to communicate painful truths is a recurring theme. In Margot’s early conversation with Miguel, they talk about his decision not to tell his family that he is gay, even though he believes they know. He tells her, “Sometimes, agreeing to the same lie is what makes a family a family” (13). The lies that the families in the story agree to are lies of both commission and omission.

Further complicating the information flow between Margot and Mina is their literal inability to communicate fluently in each other’s respective language. Margot thinks, “Language itself was a home, a shelter, as well as a way of navigating the larger world” (43). Because she and her mother cannot communicate linguistically to their full ability, they cannot take refuge in the same shelter, and they must navigate the larger world in different ways.

The characters’ attempts to protect each other—and themselves—from unshared information dovetail with one of the novel’s other themes: regret. Throughout the story, the characters reflect on the choices they should have made, or the things they should have said. By the final page, it is too late for most of them to make those changes. Margot’s investigation will eventually free her emotionally, but it will also show her how little she and her mother did to get to know each other better.

Mina has few positive experiences in the novel. One is her interaction with the Sikh driver. He recognizes her as another displaced person in America. Driving a cab is demanding work often performed by immigrants. He doesn’t charge her for the ride. Perhaps he also understands what it means to be unwanted in America, and he doesn’t make her feel that way. Neither do Mr. Kim and Mrs. Baek. Their small kindnesses—and in Mr. Kim’s case, what will prove to be small flirtations—make her feel more welcome. However, they also alarm her.

Mr. Park presents as a potential antagonist early on. He is narcissistic, classist, and racist, and he will show that he sees himself as entitled to the company of women—particularly if they are his employees. He embodies parts of Korean culture—according to Mina—that she wants to avoid. By setting the toxic Mr. Park and the kind Mr. Kim in the same supermarket, the author foreshadows the clash between them that will put Mina in crisis later.