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Title details for The All-American by Joe Milan Jr. - Available

The All-American

A Novel

by Joe Milan Jr.
Jason Vu
Audiobook
83 of 83 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
83 of 83 copies available
Seventeen-year-old Bucky Yi knows nothing about his birth country of South Korea or his bio-dad's disappearance; he can't even pronounce his Korean name correctly. Running through the woods of rural Washington State with a tire tied to his waist, his sights are set on one all-American goal: to become a college football player. So when a misadventure with his adoptive family leads the US government to deport him to South Korea, he's forced to navigate an entirely foreign version of his life. One mishap leads to another, and as an outsider, Bucky has to fall back on not just his raw physical strength, but resources of character and attitude he didn't know he had. In an expat bar in Seoul, in the bleak barracks of his Korean military, on a remote island where an erratic sergeant fights a shadow-war with North Korean spies, and in the remote town where he seeks out his drunken, indebted biological father, Bucky has to assemble the building blocks of a new language and stubbornly rebuild himself from scratch. That means managing his ego, insecurities, sexual desires, family legacies, and allegiances in order to make it back home-wherever that might be-and determine who he is to himself, who he is to others, and what kind of man he wants to become.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 3, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781696611053
      • File size: 279803 KB
      • Duration: 09:42:55

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Library Journal

      September 1, 2023

      Second-generation Korean American Milan (The Little Man Inside) introduces Yi Byeonghak, better known as Bucky Yi, a Korean American high school senior living in rural Tibicut, WA. After his mother's death, Bucky arrived in the United States as an infant, accompanied by his father. Now he lives in a trailer with his white stepmother, Sheryl, as his dad abandoned them years earlier. Bucky eats, sleeps, and dreams of football, desperately hoping to land a spot on a college team. Those dreams are destroyed when he gets into an altercation and it is discovered that his citizenship paperwork is incomplete. Bucky is unceremoniously deported and promptly conscripted into the South Korean army, after which new challenges ensue. Much of narrator Jason Vu's work has been in nonfiction, but he has found his niche here. He skillfully brings out the layers of emotion that power this story, including Bucky's teenage snark and overwhelming terror. Milan has peopled Bucky's adventure with sweet hostel managers, irreverent English-speaking expats, terrifying South Korean military officers, and Bucky's much-loved dysfunctional family; Vu performs verbal gymnastics to keep them all straight in listeners' minds. VERDICT A poignant coming-of-age story that raises questions about race, belonging, and the nature of family.--Laura Trombley

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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