We often hear about the lack of representation of the AAPI community in the media, but there is little to no discourse about this problem in literature.
Frankly in Love, written by David Yoon, captures the intricacies of culture clash that many Asian-Americans can relate to, and navigates the complications of adolescence through the eyes of Frank Li. Frank Li is a second-generation Korean-American high school student in Southern California. The plot holds classic coming-of-age struggles related to identity and romance but also depicts the inner conflict that Frank experiences from his parents’ traditional expectations and cultural identity.
The book description reads, “Frank Li is a high school senior living in Southern California. Frank’s parents emigrated from Korea, and have pretty much one big rule for Frank – he must only date Korean girls. But he’s got strong feelings for a girl in his class, Brit – and she’s not Korean. His friend Joy Song is in the same boat and knows her parents will never accept her boyfriend, so they make a pact: they’ll pretend to date each other in order to gain their freedom. Frank thinks fake-dating is the perfect plan, but it leaves him wondering if he ever really understood love – or himself – at all.”
As I read Frankly in Love, I came to understand that this book was more than just a YA fake-dating-trope romance with characters that happen to be Asian-American. The book engages in socioculturally relevant topics, such as classism, xenophobia, and different intersections of privilege. Furthermore, Yoon does not hesitate to dive into heavy issues like diaspora, racism, and identity crisis, while still validating the oppression that Frank experiences. The representation of Korean-American culture, as well as the depiction of the struggles that are almost universal in the experiences of second-generation children of immigrant Asian parents, was extremely refreshing to read in the form of contemporary fiction. The thoughtfulness and personal touches to Frank’s voice in the novel also adds a more sentimental feel throughout the plot. Combined with dry humor, sarcasm, and the honest realities of culturally different approaches to the spheres of family, friends, and school life in his debut novel, I believe that Yoon is an amazing and ambitious writer. For a funny and easy read that will pass the time while eloquently delving into deeper issues, and offer a unique form of East Asian representation, I would definitely recommend this book. This is by no means meant to be an intense or difficult novel, and it is important to keep in mind that the target audience of this book is the adolescent and young adult demographic so the writing tends to take on a much more informal and simple tone.
Nonetheless, some areas of weakness that are worth mentioning is that the main character, Frank Li, is by no means flawless, and evidently tends to make choices that display questionable morals without much elaboration on Yoon’s part. Examples of this include cheating, emotional immaturity, and sexism. At times, Frank’s voice also tends to come off as an excessive and cringe-worthy attempt to be quirky, which tends to disrupt the flow of the writing. This may discourage some readers. Furthermore, there are mentions of LGBTQ rights, but the author fails to properly navigate this deeply complicated issue through his characters, leading to tones of tokenism that may contribute to a more problematic narrative. The use of ableist slurs and the implicitly sexist depictions of some of the female characters (in an objectifying manner that is very characteristic of many male authors) are also worth mentioning.
As someone who has loved reading their entire life, one thing that I always longed for was the representation of Asian or Asian-American characters in stories. This only became stronger as I came to grow into my cultural identity. Frankly in Love provided me with a sense of connection to the characters in a way that I haven’t experienced. From its ability to honestly portray the gritty ups and downs of the diaspora struggle, I was able to make connections and insights in my own personal life. One scene that stood out to me was a chapter that included heavy Korean dialogue between the parents of the main characters. It was centered around the conflict of the disparities in immigrant experiences amongst families, with some working in small businesses and others falling to corporate life by attending universities and finishing school in America. Delving into classism and the hardships that come from the different paths that first-generation immigrant parents take, the anger and bitterness from the pain of assimilation was something I empathized with to the point where I teared up as I read it. And it can be argued that this emotional experience was more prominent because I read it in my mother tongue. The portrayal of the nuances of Korean culture amongst adults, especially from the observations of a Korean-American adolescent, was one that closely mirrored my own.
Overall, I personally enjoyed the depiction of complex parent-children relationships from the product of cultural differences. I also think that Yoon did a great job respectfully fitting in cultural identity struggles into his book. Although this book might not be a wholly revolutionary story, and might come off as cliche at times, it holds very inspiring and insightful moments.
