Park, Yongsoo

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Park, Yongsoo

PERSONAL: Born in South Korea; married.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Akashic Books, P.O. Box 1456, New York, NY 10009.

CAREER: Writer, screenwriter, and movie director.

AWARDS, HONORS: Van Lier fellowship, Asian-American Writers' Workshop.

WRITINGS:

Boy Genius (novel), Akashic Books (New York, NY), 2002.

Las Cucarachas (novel), Akashic Books (New York, NY), 2004.

Also screenwriter, director and editor of film Free Country, 1996.

SIDELIGHTS: Yongsoo Park's debut novel, Boy Genius, follows the life of a character known appropriately as "Boy Genius," who as a child gains fame throughout Korea on a television show where he uses his wit and intelligence to issue political diatribes against communism. After the assassination of Korean President Park's wife, he is replaced, leading him and his family into poverty. The family eventually moves to New York, where the boy's parents are murdered. When he grows up, he decides to undergo plastic surgery to become more like a Caucasian. He eventually achieves success again, only to discover that President Park had his family murdered, which sets him on a path for revenge. Calling the novel a "surreal debut," a Kirkus Reviews contributor went on to write that "Park is clever and caustic in depicting America's treatment of its minority underclass."

In his second novel, Las Cucarachas, Park tells the story of Peter Kim, a twelve year old who, along with his family, is going through a series of crises. When someone steals his Atari game machine, Peter, and his pseudo-gang the Warriors—which includes his friend Fatty—go on the hunt for the thief or thieves, which leads them on a series of adventures. Writing in Booklist, John Green commented that "Peter's witty inarticulate narration, filled with '80s slang and racial stereotyping, rings true." A Publishers Weekly contributor called the book "painfully honest and often wickedly funny."