Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park

Before the opening of Oxford Soju Club author Jinwoo Park gives a kind of guide on how to read the book. The main characters, he says, are different aspects of the Korean expatriate experience “the one who tries to assimilate, the one who tries to be the model minority, and the one who rejects all of the above and tries to be Korean”. So if many debut novels are in someway autobiographical then Park, a Canadian Korean, is making that idea explicit. This understanding does not make this espionage caper any less enjoyable but it does provide readers with a key to understanding of some of the book’s metaphoric resonance.

The Oxford Soju Club of the title is a Korean restaurant in Oxford opened by an expatriate Korean called Jihoon. Jihoon’s backstory, how he ended up running a restaurant in Oxford cooking his mother’s recipes will play out through the tale as will the backstories of the other two main players. These are North Korean agent Yohan who is trying to deal with the death of his mentor Doha, and Korean American CIA agent Yunah who has been surveilling Yohan with her partner and who finds the body of Doha.

This is first and foremost an espionage thriller with not only North Korean and American agents but a South Korean operative at work on the streets of Oxford. The action revolves around the consequences of Doha’s death but also the attempt to kidnap North Korean spymaster Dr Ryu who has a strong connection to Yohan. That action keeps coming back to the Oxford Soju Club, a place where all of the Korean characters come for a taste of home. And those meals, and to some extent their preparation, are lovingly described by Park.

Oxford Soju Club is a novel steeped in Korean culture. But with K-everything is becoming popular, particularly a certain Canadian flavour (thinking here particularly about properties like Kim’s Convenience and K-Pop Demon Hunters with its Canadian director), it is likely that many readers will now be able to sink into the book’s specificity. And that specificity is important when considering the options of all of the main characters. From the stories of Jihoon and his assistant, who has announced that he is moving back to Korea because that is where they both belong, to those of Yunah’s family who run a bakery in America and are active congregants of the Korean church, to Yohan’s dislocation from his North Korean identity.

While Oxford Soju Club may not be the most sophisticated espionage novel, Park sets up enough mystery to keep the pages turning. And he uses this framework to deliver a heartfelt consideration of Korean identity as it is expressed and experienced by those living outside of Korea.

Oxford Soju Club by Jinwoo Park

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8.0/10