Chabot Spectator

Issue date: 3/29/07 Section: The Scene

Media Credit: Jack Barnwell Author An Na (at right) discusses her books with Carolyn Arnold, Chabot's director of instituional research, following Na's public reading during College Hour on Tuesday, March 13. Na is a noted author of two young adult novels, Wait for Me and A Step from Heaven.

Lies, the snare of living with them, and the challenge of stopping them. These issues sum up the sweetly worded but mind-dumbing novel Wait For Me.

An Na, the author of this book, discussed her latest creation with Chabot students and staff during College Hour on March 13.

Wait For Me is the story of Mina, a high school girl that lies to her mom about getting good grades. Mina's mom, who is referred to in the book as "Uhmma" (Korean for mother), wants Mina to attend Harvard, the best university in Uhmma's eyes.

Mina believes she must keep up the pretense of being a straight A student in order to satisfy her mother's great expectations.

Mina forges good grades, steals money from her parents' laundry business, and plans to run away from home.

Only Mina's concern for her middle-school-aged sister, Suna, complicates Mina's plans. Suna is a child with hearing problems. Looked down upon and a grief to her mother, Suna is however pitied and loved by her older sister.

Wait For Me is organized in pairs of episodes. Mina's thoughts and actions form a single episode and it is followed with a shorter episode focusing on Suna.

A heavy dose of romance is also included in the novel. Ysrael, a migrant worker from Mexico and an aspiring musician, awakens Mina's passions as she deals with a male friend that has a crush on her.

A caution to potential book readers: the descriptions of "love" may raise some eyebrows. For example, An Na pens lines such as, "I pressed my face into his neck and tasted the salt of his skin."

It is the romance plot that pushes this novel a bit into to the realm of fantasy literature. Both Mina and the younger Suna fall in love with Ysrael, as if other men are completely non-existent. He's like a modern knight in shining armor to both of them, arriving at the scene to save them from their misfortunes.

Mina, burdened to the breaking point by her self-inflicted life of lies, sees Ysrael as a way out and makes him her confidant, telling him the truth about the good grades she forges to please her mother.

Thus, Wait For Me is an accurate description of the thought patterns of regretful liars and of fanciful dreamers. They hope for a time to live in truth and in reality but are inclined to wait for tomorrow instead of awakening today.

While reading this book, you may be disgusted at how long you must wait to see if Mina will get her act together. Its 170 pages with plenty of line spacing move quickly through the mind, but still, An Na's siren song of a story does feel a little drawn out and may cause some drowsiness. If you want a smooth and comfortable book to put you to sleep, then read Wait for Me.

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