My Korean Deli Book Review

Amazon Best Books of the Month, March 2011: In this laugh-out-loud funny memoir, Ben Ryder Howe, a burned out editor at the Paris Review, spends his days concealing his apathy from his eccentric boss (George Plimpton!), avoiding the short story slush pile, and anticipating the day he will move out of his in-laws' Staten Island basement. When Ben's wife insists they buy a deli for her mother, he is skeptical but somehow energized by the risk involved, envisioning himself behind the counter at a profitable little deli providing bohemian customers with gourmet groceries. Instead, he ricochets from the magazine by day to the struggling deli by night, where his regular customers drink beer in the aisles, his mother-in-law, the "Mike Tyson of Korean grandmothers," squares off with Mr. Tortilla Chip, and his pistol-packing employee, Dwayne, conducts X-rated phone calls with his girlfriends while ringing up customers. Howe's daily interactions with a unique cross-section of humanity and his self-deprecating humor infuse My Korean Deli with insight, hopefulness, and addictive entertainment.--Seira Wilson

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My Korean Deli: Risking It All for a Convenience Store

Buyer's Reviews
I was predisposed to like this book because I come from a family of Asian drycleaners. Much of Howe's descriptions and stories hit close to home - the long, soul-breaking hours, the lack of vacation of any kind (who will watch the shop???), the co-dependent family members who work there (to keep costs down and workman's comp costs down), the demanding customers, and the dangerous late night trips home with bundles of cash through sketchy neighborhoods. Been there, done that.

And yet when you have limited English and only your strong back and stronger will, you take on the significant risks of small business such as the deli, the drycleaner or the gas station as it is a path to financial success that is open to you.

Kay, Howe's mother in law, is the archetypical tough nut who suspiciously peers over the counter of a Korean grocer in a large urban city. This story puts a face on the kinds of struggles, the kinds of risks, the kinds of grueling physical labor people go through to make a go of it, while telling humourous, if slightly horrifying, stories of what it actually means to be behind that counter.

Howe does a great job of using humor to tell the backstory behind what it takes to deal with the deliverymen and all their tricks, the store's crumbling infrastructure, the crazy customers, the rude customers, the staff, some of who need psychological help and most dangerous of all the City Inspectors. I laughed loudly at his stunned reactions to what he was seeing happen in front of him. (And I remember thinking thank goodness the drycleaners closes at 7 pm!)

I do wish he had a stronger finish. The individual voices began to fade in the last quarter of the book. Perhaps this was by design to bring things to a close but I felt like towards the end he faltered on his original premise of the quirks and strengths of the individual players and their contributions to the strength and health of the deli.

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