Korean Quarterly - Summer 2003

Not Overkill

Underkill
By Leonard Chang
Thomas Dunn Books
NYC, 2003
ISBN #0-312-30843-4

Review by Joanne Rhim Lee/Korean Quarterly

Leonard Chang continues his examination of working-class Korean Americans in
his new novel Underkill.  His previous novels include  Fruit 'N Food,
Dispatches from the Cold, and Over the Shoulder, the prequel to this most
recent novel.

Chang's protagonist, Allen Choice, is a Korean American man from the Bay
Area, a private patrol operator (actually a bodyguard) trying to work his
way up to private investigator.

Allen has never been a part of a Korean American community, or any sort of
family, for that matter.  His mother died during childbirth, and his father
died when Allen was only ten years old, in an incident referred to as "the
Mess," and covered in more detail in Over the Shoulder.  Allen has been
dating Linda Maldonado, a reporter for the San Jose Sentinel, but their
relationship has been strained recently, even on the verge of breaking up, a
possibility that Allen is desperately trying to prevent.

Underkill opens with the murder of Linda's brother, Hector.  Perhaps because
of his experience as an investigator and perhaps to lend moral support,
Linda asks Allen to fly down to Los Angeles after the funeral, a request he
doesn't even think twice about granting.  As an investigative reporter and
as a grieving sister, she is trying to figure out if Hector's death was
indeed a suicide, as the police have reported, or something more sinister.

Allen and Linda investigate the clues that emerge as they learn more about
Hector's life ---- friends, girlfriends, jobs, and his relationship with his
biological father, who abandoned the family when Linda and Hector were
children.  Allen quickly realizes that things are not so clean and simple,
and he and Linda end up in a great deal of danger, both with the police and
with the drug dealers that Hector was apparently associated with.

During this investigative work, Allen and Linda play a poker game with their
relationship, neither want to show their cards, both are waiting for the
other person to fold.  During one of their investigatory visits, they meet
Serena, Hector's ex-girlfriend, a self-confident, beautiful Korean American
woman who isn't shy about her attraction to Allen.

For Allen, this is all new; he has never dated a Korean American woman and
knows little about his Korean heritage.  He becomes defensive when someone
asks him why he doesn't speak Korean, turning the tables around and asking
why this man doesn't speak Polish, with a name like "Sherwin," Americanized
from "Czerwinski."  As for Allen's last name, his father looked up "Choi" in
the dictionary upon arriving in the U.S., and came up with "Choice."  Allen
has never thought this strange and wonders why anyone else would.

The route to the answers of the mystery of Hector's death takes us down new
roads:  secret raves, the underground drug world, and internet pornography.
Chang has done his homework here, and it's a fascinating and frightening
world that we enter with Allen.

Chang does a good job of keeping us guessing and also caring about his
characters.  Allen has been dealt a bad hand in the game of life, and he
deserves a break, both in his career aspirations as a private investigator
and in his personal life.  It's heartbreaking to see him have such low
expectations of himself and the people around him.  While Linda certainly
has redeeming qualities and is going through a rough time, she is stringing
him along and using him for selfish purposes.  He's the ultimate Mr. Nice
Guy.

There are two separate storylines in Underkill - the mystery of Hector's
death and Allen's personal issues.  While Chang does a good job of keeping
the first storyline going, he makes us care about Allen, and this is
ultimately the more compelling storyline.

Serena represents hope for Allen; she's kind, sweet, smart, motivated,
beautiful, and seriously interested in him.  She also just happens to be
Korean American, a fact that scares Allen a bit (a little Oedipus complex
going on here?)  He wants to go back to Linda because he's used to such low
standards.

And so Underkill is a romance as well as crime fiction.  It's a good read,
just what the title says ---- a murder mystery written with a deft touch;
certainly not overkill.

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