My Korean Deli – Book Review

Ben Ryder Howe’s memoir, My Korean Deli: Risking It All For a Convenience Store, was a delightful, fun and, at times, poignant read. 

Ben is a self-described WASP, of Puritan lineage so pure that he can trace his ancestors back to the Mayflower.  His wife, the daughter of Korean immigrants, has a remarkably different upbringing, family and cultural traditions—differences that he both relishes and suffocates under as the couple live “temporarily” in the basement of his in-laws’ Staten Island home.  Kay, his Korean-born mother-in-law, wants to open a deli in Brooklyn.  They decide it will be a family project, and invest $120,000 in a Boerum Hill deli that resides between the projects and gentrified new developments in the neighborhood.  The deli takes over their lives -- morning, day and night shifts turn their schedules and family life upside down, while they soon realize that bringing in over $2,000 a day in revenue is a mere fiction.  There are bills to pay, back taxes, shady regulars and the occasional fine for accidentally selling tobacco to minors. 

Ben’s other life is more WASPy, in location, culture and attitude:  he’s an editor at George Plimpton’s fabled Paris Review.  The scenes with George are full of personality, revealing a lonely, aging man, who still wants to be the life of the party, if not New York’s literary scene.  Ben must juggle his ‘day job,’ (which to many would be their dream job), and his ‘night job,’ pulling in shifts at the deli a world away in Boerum Hill.  By day, he’s reading short stories plucked from the enormous ‘slush pile’ of unsolicited manuscripts in the downstairs section of Plimpton’s posh townhouse.   At night, he’s holding down the deli fort, hoping the regulars won’t disrobe in the aisles, watch horror movies for two hours on the deli TV or get in drunken brawls with Dwayne, the deli’s own bouncer/long-time employee who’s always packing heat.  It’s an amusing and absorbing tale of two cultures—and one that’s not without sadness and pain. 

But in spite of the pathos, there are a lot of ripe details and stories that are deliciously retold.  Howe’s writing style is humorous to a fault, and at times I found myself laughing out loud. He also managed to make a book reading with Jamaica Kincaid and Robert Pinsky sound as suspenseful and exciting as a high-speed car chase—I kid you not.  

I would definitely recommend My Korean Deli – I was sad when it was over; I wanted it to keep on going…wanted there to be a second adventure.  Maybe running a Korean nail salon will be next?  Rating:  ****1/2