Secondhand World

Secondhand World is a 2006 novel by Katherine Min.

Background
Min was a Korean American, and this was her first novel.

Plot
The story, set in Upstate New York, and in 1976, is about Isadora Myung Hee "Isa" Sohn, an 18-year old Korean American teenager. The beginning of the novel reveals that Isa lived after a house fire which killed her parents. Isa's burns extend over 30% of her body.

Isa retraces events. Her father had been a soldier involved in the Korean War and faced shell shock as a result. Her mother had burn injuries from a fire that happened when she was a child. Her brother, Stephen, died at age 4, and this causes her parents to have isolated themselves more. The main character had been the victim of racial bullying in her childhood. The novel reveals that she became involved with "Hero", an albino boy who, along with her friend Rachel, convinces her to run away from home.

Isa learned that her mother was romantically involved with a college professor and was unfaithful to her husband. The mother had been taking poetry classes at that college. Upon learning of the affair, Isa informed her father. She learns that her mother had set the fire in an act of murder-suicide, after learning from her father's journal that, despite being emotionally devastated, he had not been the person who set the fire. Isa ultimately forgives the people who wronged her. Isa's name is a reference to Isadora Duncan, who is her namesake.

Reception
Deborah Vankin of the Los Angeles Times described it as "A pretty novel with something to say". She argued that the storyline is "worthwhile" though she argued the story is "disjointed" with the book being "simply about too much" with "external situations" being "forced". Vankin described the book as "Rick Moody’s “The Ice Storm” meets a vintage version of “Crash.”"

Kirkus Reviews states that Min used "stringent attention and honesty" in crafting the characters and setting.

Publishers Weekly stated that Min had been "spot-on" in demonstrating "an outsider family's tight-knit alienation". PW stated that the storyline "lurches and meanders".