My Korean Deli is a story about being down and out and trapped in absurdity' as we all end up at some point in our lives' though maybe not behind the register at a Brooklyn deli. But it's also about families' class' small business' and the quest for authentic experiences in an increasingly unreal city.
It starts when Ben Howe's wife' whose parents immigrated from Korea' decides she needs to repay her debt to them by buying them a deli to run. Howe' an editor at the prestigious and rarified Paris Review' reluctantly agrees to help in the venture. The problem is that they can no longer afford to buy an apartment' so Ben and his wife Gabrielle move into the basement of Gab's parents' Staten Island home' also a way station for a perpetual flow of Korean immigrants. By day' Howe commutes into The Paris Review offices in George Plimpton's apartment overlooking the East River' and at night heads to Brooklyn to slice cold cuts' peddle lottery tickets and sell coffee in 8-ounce blue and gold cups bearing the logo "We are happy to serve you!" The book follows the store's lifespan' starting a few months before the purchase and ending with the family's agonized decision to get out. Along the way' Howe allows digressions into the past' painting a cacophonous group portrait of two families with shoots across society' from the Brooklyn ghetto to Seoul to Brahmin New England. The deli is where the so-called "Two Americas" actually meet. Howe's wife's family' the Paks' embodies one kind of America' a country of new immigrants looking forward to the future' while the Howes came to America on the first boat from England and look backward for good. Throughout' Howe juxtaposes these two groups' outsiders versus insiders' new talent versus old money' the deli with The Paris Review-culminating with George Plimpton's untimely death. The store is the arena in which they collide. Owning the deli becomes a transformative experience for everyone involved as they struggle to keep the deli-and themselves-from bankruptcy while sorting out issues of class' intermarriage values' work' and personal identity.
