A review of Park Avenue
by
Renee
Ahdieh
The marketing for this title has it pitched as Crazy Rich Asians meets Succession. I love both of those things (as book and movie for one and HBO series for the other), so as a marketing ploy, it worked. Did I enjoy it? For sure. Does it match that description? Sort of.
Jia Song is Korean American. Her immigrant parents came to New York and opened a bodega to support the family. But from a young age Jia knew she wanted to make it big - big enough to afford the Hermes Birkin bag of her dreams. To that end she studied hard and got her law degree. And now she's just made junior partner in a large Manhattan law firm. She feels firmly on the way to fulfilling her ambitions. Those plans may get an additional boost forward when one of the managing partners asks her to sit in on a meeting with potential clients. Though she's confused as to why she's been asked, Jia soon realizes why when she hears the name of the clients.
The Parks are a wealthy and powerful Korean American family who have a billion dollar company. The adult children in the family have approached Jia's firm because their father is divorcing their mother and they worry about the settlement he's trying to force through. Though Jia knows she's been asked to join the case because of her Korean background and ability to speak the language, she jumps at the chance to better her position in the firm, even if it means dealing with the difficult and challenging Park family.
How about that marketing hook? There are three wealthy adult siblings in the Park family, a father who is kind of a monster, and a billion dollars they're fighting over. So yes I can see the Succession comparisons. And yes, it's a very wealthy asian family. But those surface descriptions don't really capture what I think is at the heart of the novel. It's Jia's journey that centers the book as she explores the choices she's made and learns her trajectory may not be what she truly wants. And that's okay. I enjoyed spending time with Jia, her friends and family, and the Parks in all their messed up glory.