Necessary Roughness

Necessary Roughness by Marie G. Lee is a young adult fiction book originally published in 1996. The novel is a drama that focuses on the Kim family and their teenage son Chan as they move from Los Angeles to Iron River, Minnesota. Like Chan, Lee is Korean American, and she grew up in a small Minnesota town similar to the fictional town of Iron River. The book explores themes related to The Difficulties of Coming of Age, Navigating Cultural Difference, and The Personal Impact of Faith.

This guide uses the Kindle version of the novel, published in 2011 by HarperTeen.

Content Warning: This novel contains depictions of racism, sexism, and anti-gay bias, including racist, sexist, and anti-gay slurs that are reproduced in the guide only in direct quotes.

Plot Summary

The novel begins with the main character and narrator, Chan Kim, stewing in the back of his family’s car. The Kims—Chan, his twin sister Young, his mother, and his father—have sold the family grocery store and departed from their tight-knit community of Korean immigrants in Los Angeles to the small town of Iron River, Minnesota. Uncle Bong, Chan’s father’s brother, is an ambitious but unreliable man who franchised a store called Froggy’s Express in Iron River, then quickly abandoned the endeavor for another scheme back in Korea. Chan’s mother (whom he calls O-Ma, equivalent to the casual “mom”) then discovers that Chan’s father (who insists on being called Abogee, equivalent to the more formal “father”), paid for the Froggy’s franchise, and they now find themselves responsible for this Midwestern convenience store. As Chan reflects on his life in LA, where he’s lived since the family emigrated from Korea when he was three—his secret girlfriend, his soccer team, and his best friend Manuel—he gets angry with his father all over again. Chan and Abogee butt heads constantly, and though Chan loves his straight-A, flute-prodigy sister, he resents that he’s seen as more of a problem child in the family.

The Kims arrive in Iron River and are refused an apartment by Bong’s old landlord, who informs them that Bong was behind on rent. In a motel room that night, Young and Chan hear their parents have a heated exchange over finances and how much Abogee should be helping his brother. The next day, the family rents the top floor of a house owned by Mrs. Knutson, a kind widow. Chan is excited to have his own room, even if it is a partially unfinished attic. The next day, Chan, Young, and O-Ma visit Iron River High School to enroll the twins in their junior year. Young expresses concern over the family’s financial situation to Chan. Chan flips through Abogee’s Korean-English Bible, which is beat up and covered in notes, as he is constantly rereading it. The first day of school goes horribly for Chan and Young, who are the only Asian kids in the entire school. A few weeks later, Chan is approached by Mikko Ripanen, the principal’s son and the junior quarterback, about trying out for the football team; Iron River doesn’t have soccer, and the football team’s old kicker is out for the season with an injury. After initially refusing, Chan attends his first football practice. The head coach is Mike Thorson and the assistant coach is Kearny, who immediately begins heckling Chan about his masculinity when Chan doesn’t tackle a dummy properly. Jimmi Beargrease, an Indigenous player, has taken over the role of kicker in their starter’s absence. Rom Kreeger, Jimmi’s best friend, is a star lineman on the team—Chan thinks of him as The Monster because of his huge build and cruel tendencies. Back home, O-Ma and Mrs. Knutson develop a friendship as they constantly cook together, making meals that are a mix of Mrs. Knutson’s Minnesotan recipes and O-Ma’s Korean tastes. Chan tells his family (and Mrs. Knutson, who eats dinner with them) that he’s trying out for football, and Abogee forbids it because he needs Chan to work at the store on weeknights. O-Ma intervenes and suggests they revisit the topic if Chan makes the team.

Chan and Mikko grow closer as practices continue, and a few weeks later, Chan is officially named kicker of the varsity team. Abogee responds to this news with silence, which Chan angrily ignores. As football season approaches, the team adds morning practices. Rom bullies Chan and makes racist comments toward him on and off the field. Jimmi also insults Chan and lets him get badly tackled during practice. Undeterred by their torment, Chan runs extra laps with Mikko after every practice. He notices Rainey Scarponi, a black-haired, blue-eyed girl who plays tennis. Young is excited to join Iron River’s marching band, which plays at every football game. The football season begins, and Iron River loses an away game. Shortly after, three boys attack Chan in the locker room after practice. They strip, bind, and blindfold him using his own clothing. Chan is left with a sprained ankle, but he doesn’t tell anyone about the attack. He is determined to stay on the team and still wants to find out the perpetrators’ identities.

After weeks of Abogee’s hard work, Froggy’s Express opens. Chan overhears a tense exchange between Abogee and a delivery man who tries to drop off pornographic magazines that Bong has been selling at Froggy’s. Chan and Young also have a strange exchange with a customer who asks if they’re selling “that huh-huh stuff” (114). Abogee gets angry when Chan tries to give Mikko a free piece of candy.

With Chan’s help, the football team wins their homecoming game. He is thrilled to go to the homecoming dance with Rainey and kisses her there. Next week, Rom makes the football team watch back-to-back Jeane-Pierre Vandervanter movies specifically to provoke Chan, who is eventually incensed by the movies’ racist undertones and Rom’s racist comments. Chan demonstrates that he can break a piece of wood in half because of his own Taekwondo training, but he leaves shortly after, feeling dissatisfied and embarrassed. After Chan tells Coach Thorson that his father can’t attend the junior Father-Son dinner, the coach visits Froggy’s Express and praises Chan to Abogee. Abogee agrees to attend the dinner, where Chan receives an award, and his father, in a rare moment of support, nods and smiles with pride.

Young asks permission from Abogee to date Mikko, and her father completely shuts the idea down, prompting a fight between the two over Abogee’s Korean values and Young’s desire to be more like the other American teens in Iron River. Chan helps the team win an intense conference championship game by kicking with Taekwondo-inspired bare feet. That night, he and Young play cards and reflect on how they’ve grown to like Iron River; the new town has given them a chance to grow that Los Angeles did not offer.

After Young fails to come home for dinner, a police officer knocks on Mrs. Knutson’s door and delivers the devastating news that she died in a car crash. Chan struggles to face his twin’s death, pushing Rainey and Mikko away. To support their family, Korean friends and relatives, including Bong, come to visit. At Young’s funeral, Chan places her flute with her in the casket, knowing it’s what his sister would want.

Mikko informs Chan that, before the Kims moved to Iron River, Bong had been selling drugs from Froggy’s Express; it appears he fled town because police were set to raid the place. Chan tries to bring this up to his dad, but Abogee ignores him. Coach Thorson reaches out to Chan because he has stopped attending practice, and Chan accidentally tells Coach Thorson about the attack in the locker room. Coach Thorson insists upon learning the names of the perpetrators, and Chan tells him it was Rom. After Abogee finds Chan in his room with Rainey, they have a devastating fight about Young’s death in which Abogee laments that he is left with Chan rather than Young, and Chan blames his father for moving them to Iron River in the first place, indirectly causing Young to die.

After a dream in which Young cheers for him on the sidelines, Chan returns to football practice and begins living as he believes Young would want him to. He stumbles upon his father burning offerings for Young on her journey to heaven, and Abogee talks honestly about his spiritual beliefs. This moment allows Chan and Abogee to connect in the aftermath of their fight. Jimmi apologizes to Chan for knowing about Rom’s plan in the locker room and not doing anything about it; he reveals that Rom punched him in the face for refusing to participate in the assault. As the state championship game approaches, Chan asks that his parents attend, and they agree. Just before the game, the senior quarterback asks that the team pray together and includes a tribute to Young in his prayer. With his parents and Mrs. Knutson in the crowd, Chan makes the winning kick of the state championship game, hearing Young’s signature high-C note on the flute, a gesture she made for him at every game as a part of the marching band. He brings his trophy to his sister’s grave and is delighted when it begins to snow because he gets to experience Young’s first snow with her.