Chapters 1 & 2 (pages 1-16) Summary

Henry Park is the son of Korean immigrants. Though he was born in the United States, he has never felt completely American and he has never felt completely Korean. Henry struggles with issues of personal identity at a time when he is having difficulty in his career and in his marriage.

The narrator, Henry, thinks about the day his wife Leila left him. The day she leaves him she gives him a list of traits she believes make up who he is. At the airport, Henry notices that while Leila has packed many things, she takes nothing that he ever gave her. She gives Henry the list and asks that he wait until he returns to the car to read it. Henry reads the list twice and he notices that she must have worked on it over a long...