Necessary Roughness

“‘WELCOME TO MINNESOTA, LAND OF TEN THOUSAND LAKES’

‘Land of Ten Thousand Hicks, I’ll bet,’ I muttered to Young as the car crossed some unseen dotted line. ‘Land of Ten Thousand Hillbillies’”

At the beginning of the book, Chan is angry and resentful of the Kims’ move to Minnesota. He has a closed mind about what Iron River will be and he already hates it for what it represents to him. He preemptively insults Minnesotans because he anticipates feeling othered. This sets up his character arc of finding belonging in an unlikely place, and of rising above the cultural differences between his three homes—Korea, Los Angeles, and Iron River.

“Mrs. Knutson offered us some Spam sandwiches. At first O-Ma and Abogee declined—no, no, too much trouble; we don’t want to eat up your food—but the third time Mrs. Knutson offered, they pounced. Abogee said to us that Spam is considered a delicacy in Korea. Young gave me a look. We knew Spam was made of rodent parts.”

This interaction shows the intersection between three identities: Mrs. Knutson serves Spam because it’s made locally and widely available in Minnesota, while Abogee remembers it as an imported delicacy, valued for its relative scarcity. The kids, being from LA, think of Spam as a cheap, highly processed food, and Chan regards it with a comically exaggerated disgust. Chan and Young reject both Spam’s connection to Minnesota and its value in their father’s Korean perspective. An important aspect of culture, the author uses food throughout the book to represent how characters interact with their backgrounds.