Patricia Park's new YA novel captures the complexities of race and adolescence

NPR's Book of the Day

NPR

Books, Arts

4.2 • 672 Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2023

⏱️ 11 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Imposter Syndrome and Other Confessions of Alejandra Kim follows a Korean-Argentinian teen's journey to understanding who she is. Through the comfort of her multicultural home in Queens to the hallways of her ultra-woke, elite prep school in Manhattan, Alejandra grapples with academics, the politics of school lunch, and even a microaggression from her own teacher. As author Patricia Park tells Here & Now's Robin Young, it's a story about how quickly the world is changing – and how conversations about race are or aren't keeping up.

See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.

NPR Privacy Policy

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Kea Miyakena Tis. This is NPR's Book of the Day. If I had the ability to exact a supernatural
0:10.2	revenge on an enemy, I don't have a lot of enemies, but go with me here. My revenge would be to
0:16.5	send them back to puberty, so they have to survive being a teenager again. I know everyone's
0:22.8	adolescence isn't the same, but I think we can agree that it can be a challenging and
0:28.3	uncomfortable time, to say the least. Alejandro Kim is living through that moment. She's a Korean
0:35.2	Argentine teenager living in Queens, New York, trying to survive
0:39.4	her last year at a prestigious prep school, dodge the microaggressions, and find a place where she
0:45.3	fits in. Imposter syndrome and other confessions of Alejandro Kim is the new YA novel by Patricia Park.
0:52.9	Here she is with Here Here Now's Robin Young.
0:56.0	In the U.S., national security news can feel far away from daily life.
1:00.8	Distant wars, murky conflicts, diplomacy behind closed doors.
1:05.3	On our new show, Sources and Methods.
1:07.4	NPR reporters on the ground bring you stories of real people
1:10.7	helping you understand why distant events matter here at home.
1:15.0	Listen to sources and methods on the NPR app or wherever you get your podcasts.
1:20.8	Many young people today are navigating a brave new world with gender, non-conforming bathrooms, an alphabet soup of respect, LGBTQ, Bipak,
1:30.5	black, indigenous, or people of color, Latinx, oops, your best friend prefers Latino.
1:36.3	Oh, have we got a book for them?
1:38.0	Hilarious, heartbreaking, accepting.
1:40.5	It's from Patricia Park, who made a splash with her 2015 debut novel, Re-Jane.
1:45.3	Charlotte Bronte's Janeair set around a Korean-American orphan from Queens.
1:49.7	Our interview is at Here Now.org.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.