Miles from Nowhere

Written by Nami Mun

Narrated by Ali Ahn

Miles from Nowhere is the stunning debut novel from Pushcart Prize-winning author Nami Mun. Growing up in the Bronx during the '80s, Korean immigrant teen Joon is forced out on her own as her family crumbles around her. From there Joon comes of age on the streets of New York, balancing on a tightrope between living and surviving while displaying equal measures of street smarts and naivete. Over time, Joon comes to understand herself and her place in the world.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Feb 27, 2009
• ISBN: 9781440708626

Reviews for Miles from Nowhere

[elvisettey · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mun’s novel defies a traditional storyline again and again, with its episodic breaks that lead the reader to realize that there is little coherence to the life of Joon, the daughter of middle-middle class immigrants who choses to break from the literally sick life she lives at home, abandoning painful coherence for the often-unpleasant upheaval of the streets of New York. In each episode, we find Mun trying on a new self, seeing how much of her still-nascent self (Joon is only 13 at the outset of the book) she is willing to sacrifice in any given situation: her autonomy? Her body? Her family? Her sobriety? Her children? These are the challenges we meet in the episodes; there are no Dickensian light-hearted romps through poverty here. This is the glittery, slick world of the early 1980s, and this is its beyond-seamy underbelly.

[rincey_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well, I didn't hate the book. It is beautifully written, but I just cannot get into books where I have no sympathy for the main character. I started to when they talked about her relationship with her parents, but in the end I couldn't really get into it. It's a quick read and I did feel bad for these people, but it just didn't hit home for me. Maybe I'm just heartless.

[kelslynn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The thirteen-year-old Korean narrator of this episodic novel runs away from home, living hand to mouth on the streets of New York City. Joon moves into the world of runaways - living in shelters, becoming addicted to drugs and alcohol, inhabiting the world of the hopeless. Yet through it all, she maintains her resilience, honesty and even honor in her search for something better than what she has known.Miles from Nowhere is a depressing if realistic book, but there were times when Joon's innocence and the people she encountered made me smile.

[ijustgetbored · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Mun’s novel defies a traditional storyline again and again, with its episodic breaks that lead the reader to realize that there is little coherence to the life of Joon, the daughter of middle-middle class immigrants who choses to break from the literally sick life she lives at home, abandoning painful coherence for the often-unpleasant upheaval of the streets of New York. In each episode, we find Mun trying on a new self, seeing how much of her still-nascent self (Joon is only 13 at the outset of the book) she is willing to sacrifice in any given situation: her autonomy? Her body? Her family? Her sobriety? Her children? These are the challenges we meet in the episodes; there are no Dickensian light-hearted romps through poverty here. This is the glittery, slick world of the early 1980s, and this is its beyond-seamy underbelly.

[kidzdoc_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Miles From Nowhere is an unblinking, stark and disturbing story of Joon-Mee, a Korean girl who emigrated with her family to the Bronx and ran away at age 12 after her father left her and her mother to fend for themselves. The novel takes place in the late 1970s and early 1980s, at a time when NYC was an especially dangerous and unforgiving place to live. Joon encounters a variety of fellow misfits, who provide her with shelter, support, drugs, and loveless sex, and works as a prostitute, drug dealer, petty thief, and escort girl. Somehow she maintains enough optimism and manages to keep her head barely above water despite her precarious existence, believing that she can "choose my own beginning, one that was scrubbed clean of everything past."Much of the story is told in a matter of fact fashion, as she describes her life and those around her without much introspection or insight into the pain she must have experienced, which made the novel less depressing and more readable than it could have been. The ending, though, was quite surprising, and the story ends rather abruptly, which was less than satisfying. However, it was a fast paced and captivating read, and is definitely recommended.

[staciele · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I received an ARC of this book from First Reads. This book will be available in January 2009.This was a fast read, but an extremely depressing story. Joon is a teenage runaway in NYC in the 80's who falls into prostitution, drugs, and alcohol. She is frequently beaten, homeless, and continues to make poor decisions. Aside from all that, the reader is still drawn to Joon and her story is hard to put down. You want to think that she will kick her drug habit, find a job and maybe even reconnect with her parents. I won't spoil the storyline, but will say she does find some comfort by the end of the story in someone least expected. There is a hope for Joon at the end which is much needed. The story at times turned vulgar and gruesome. Joon confronts abortion as well as serious "cutting". These were the most difficult for me, personally, to read through. One passage I connected with was this...He had no idea that grief was a reward. That it only came to those who were loyal, to those who loved more than they were capable of. The story was one that I wanted keep reading, although the storyline wasn't enough to make it a fabulous read for me. The writer has a great talent for making the scenes believeable and visible to the reader. I appreciated the writer's talent to tell Joon's story in such a painful and poetic way. I do think this will be a much talked about book in 2009.

[ntempest_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A story of a young immigrant girl whose dysfunctional family life leads her to hit the streets in an attempt to fend for herself. We witness her slow acceptance of harsher and harsher conditions and her gradual willingness to take on more demeaning work in order to survive. She eventually begins to whore herself, to take drugs--all the things she thought she could avoid. But through it all, she holds onto a sense of hope and a desire to drag herself back up to a better way of life. Shows the how resourceful people can be. I enjoyed this, though it was fairly dark and depressing at times, but often found the peripheral characters to be more colorful and intriguing than the protagonist.

[bbexlibris · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Joon sees herself as a regular Korean girl until her father leaves her mother, then her mom ignores her- to the extent of not talking to her, acknowledging her and pretending to be dead. Obviously a cry for help that a very young girl can only handle for so long. Joon goes to find her dad and try to get him to return, he turns her down as greener pastures seem to be calling his name. Soon after that, out of desperation Joon runs away. Her life on the streets goes from dark to darker and then when you think it couldn't get any worse it goes to darkest.There is plenty of sexual stuff, drugs, well really substance abuse of every type is discussed and abused in this book. Drug activity is high, very high, talk of shooting this, smoking that, cutting, being high, and all this as a young teen. Each time the reader can see the surface and almost feels allowed to come to breathe air, Joon dives down deeper to the despair of the reader.Well, I don't know what that description does for you, but if you don't like reading the description, don't read Miles from Nowhere. However to its defense, it is different than any book that I have been able to finish to this day. Several times I just couldn't handle the intensity of its graphic nature and had to skip a page, but I kept coming back because Nami Mun is an amazing writer, really she is great, almost humorous at times.I would love to read a lighter book by her, and really hope she chooses to go that route next time, more cultural and less mental illness-teen pregnancy-suicideish. Yes, so I did think her writing was very good, however not good enough for me to feel that I can recommend this with a clean conscience. I can't. I just say sit this one out and wait on what she brings to the table next time. That is my opinion anyway.

[reina10_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Although an easy read, this is a complex story of a girl trying to find love while search to find her place in the world. From the beginning, the story captivates your imagination. The author convincingly tells the story of a girl named Joon, and her struggles to overcome a dysfunctional upbringing, feelings of abandonment, and life on the streets of New York. At the age of 13, Joon's father abandons her and her mentally ill mother. Because of her mental illness, her mother is not able to emotionally cope with her husband’s departure. Consequently, she shuts down emotionally and is not able to take care of Joon. Perceiving her mother’s emotional shutdown as another form of abandonment, Joon leaves home and begins her life on the streets. She survives all kinds of horrible situations- everything from prostitution to drug addiction- as she tries to understand her past. This narrative is the story of millions of kids living on the streets, but at the same time it is beautifully unique. Some reviewers criticize the book, because some parts don't fall neatly into place, and the reader is left to wonder about what happened. I did not mind this because life does not always fall neatly into place, and many times we are left without answers.

[trishnyc · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Miles From Nowhere tells the story of 13 year old Joon who runs away from a troubled home. With her father abandoning the family, her mother becomes mentally and emotionally absent. As Joon tries to find her place in the world, she increasingly feels no connection with her mother. She eventually decides to run away from home and the book details her life on the street and her struggle for survival. Shortly after leaving home, she ends up in a homeless shelter where she meets some very colorful characters by the name of Wink and Knowledge. The way in which these two character were introduced, I assumed that they would be an integral part of her life. But just as quickly as they are introduced, they are out of her life without much explanation. Joon then drifts from place to place and situation to situation without finding any permanance. She works as a dance hostess, an Avon lady and a bevy of other random jobs. Somewhere along the way Joon picks up a nasty drug habit. She tries to quit but finds herself drawn back by her boyfriend and continues to spiral deeper and deeper into a narcotics fueled existence with its attendant consequences.This a heartwrenching story because Joon is a victim of neglectful parents. One is exceedingly moved by the things that such a young child is forced to undergo all because her parents are lost in their own worlds. Her childhood is destroyed and she is forced to raise herself into adulthood. The vast majority of Joon's life is spent in hopeless and bleak conditions. One of the main flaws of the book is that it is told in an episodic manner and this literary device eventually weakens the story. One is never able to fully connect with the story because just as you begin to get into some area of her life, you are immediately thrust into another chapter that deals with something unrelated. I think that the book may have also benefitted from having each chapter dated so that we are able to tell when exactly in her life the tale being narrated fits in. At the conclusion, the book just ended. There was no real wrap up, it was just over. But as much as the end left something to be desired, I appreciated the fact that Joon does not have a rags to riches end. Her future is uncertain but hopeful. You see that she is beginining to make strides into a better life but she is still perched at the edge.

[tara35 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Miles from Nowhere is the story of Joon, a Korean-American teenage runaway living on the streets of New York in the 1980s. Miles from Nowhere is not easy reading, as young Joon works for little money at horrific jobs, and winds up living in squalor with people she cannot trust, doing drugs and hoping for more out of life. This hope is present throughout the novel and we begin to see what could be a better life for Joon. I think what is most mystifying from the outside in terms of teen runaways is why they have left home in the first place. I suppose my opinion is that a person would have to be pretty emotionally and/or physically terrorized to decide that living on the streets is a better option. I wish that aspect of Joon's life had been explored in more detail. This is a beautifully written novel, but I found myself comparing it to a memoir about a similar book I read about a teen runaway in New York. I'm sure that's not a fair comparison, but it seems in this case, for this subject matter, a memoir simply resonated more with me as a reader.

[efoltz_5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A teenage girl runs away from home after her father leaves and she realizes her mother can't function without her father. She encounters drugs, sex and an assortment of interesting people.

[sfisk_8 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

A fast read, somewhat stark, again the scenes and imagery are all too familiar, having lived in NY during the 80's.