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Wait for Me An Na (2006)
Wait for Me, AN NA’s second novel, is a major
breakthrough for Korean-American young adult
literature. Na pushes the boundaries of conven-
tional Korean-American adolescence in every way
imaginable by portraying, among other issues, the
facade of a model minority protagonist, her handi-
capped sister, sexually experienced teenagers, and
the forbidden intimacy between a Korean Ameri-
can and a Mexican immigrant.
Mina Kang, a high school senior protagonist,
and her little sister, Suna, spend the summer at
their parents’ dry cleaning business. Mrs. Kang,
a Harvard-obsessed, overbearing Korean mother,
pushes Mina to be close with Jonathan Kim, a Stan-
ford-bound church friend. To stave off her mother,
Mina needs to stay suspended in her web of lies
about her academic standing and SAT courses, but
as the summer goes on she finds it harder to keep
her lies from unraveling.
Like most father characters in other Korean-
American novels, (Ronyoung Kim’s Clay Walls and
An Na’s A Step from Heaven, for example), Mr. Kang
cannot provide for his family so he needs their
help in running the dry cleaning business. When
he is injured, they hire Ysrael, but Mina’s mother
watches him like a hawk, yelling at her husband,
“You must keep your eyes on him. Some of these
young Mexicans steal and then they disappear”
(48). Mina and Suna run into Ysrael a few days

later at the library and begin to hang out with him

instead of studying. Mina envies his freedom and

confesses that she is suffocating under her mother’s

pressure and expectations. He encourages her to

live her own life, and she succumbs to him.

Suna also falls for Ysrael, but more as a little

girl’s first crush. She jealously watches her beloved

sister and Ysrael grow closer, to the point where

Mina decides to leave behind her family to follow

him to San Francisco. Unable to bear the thought

of losing both her sister and Ysrael, Suna takes

matters into her own hands. For the first time, she

has her own agency and purposefully sabotages

her sister’s plans.

Wait for Me is told primarily by Mina in the

first person, but every alternate chapter is a brief

aside from Suna’s perspective in the third per-

son. Through these private moments with Suna,

readers will see her on her own terms, instead of

through Mina’s lens.

An Na has taken great care to flesh out some

of the controversial issues facing Korean Ameri-

cans today, yet she does so without stereotyping or

generalizing. Though she places this prototypical

Korean-American family in Southern California as

the owners of a dry cleaning business, they strug-

gle financially. Though the family attends church,

Mina is not religious. Mrs. Kang is a prototypical,

Harvard-obsessed Korean mother, but Mina does

not live up to her mother’s expectations; in fact,

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