BookDragon Blog

In Overdrive: Frances Park’s Sweet Road to Success

What began as a short story has quickly become Frances Park’s breakout novel. When My Sister Was Cleopatra Moon (Talk Miramax Books) – about two very different sisters, one a wildly independent free spirit and the much younger sister who worships her – has brought the Korean American writer into every living room across the country, via Good Morning America (April 4, 2000), even landing her larger-than-life on one of the giant multi-story screens in Times Square.

I met up with Park in the basement of the Dupont Circle building that houses her other passion besides writing – Chocolate Chocolate, a gourmet sweet store which she runs with her younger sister, Ginger. Like her character Cleopatra Moon, Park is a head-turner, and those that recognize her are happy to say hello, especially the men.

Poised, confident, and striking, Park, 45, takes the adulation in stride, even laughing at the insistence of one passerby who insists he is the president of her fan club – indeed he’s carrying multiple xeroxed copies of an article about the two Park sisters. I don’t ask why.

Instead, we get down to the nitty gritty quickly, talking about our remarkably similar pasts of growing up Korean American in predominantly “white” DC suburbs, of always being the only “Oriental” – siblings don’t count – and trying so hard to fit in as teenagers.

Not until her 30s did Park confront her Korean heritage, and take a closer look at her bicultural makeup. While she still insists that she is not particularly “Korean,” what she writes about definitely is. In addition to Cleopatra Moon, Park has published two children’s books with sister Ginger, Freedom Trip: A Child’s Escape from North Korea, about their mother’s experiences during the Korean War, and The Royal Bee, about their grandfather’s search for an education.

Her upcoming children’s books, also co-written with Ginger, include Yum Young Wants a Bagel, about a Korean boy in search of a New York bagel, The Have a Good Day Cafe, about a Korean American vendor,and Good-bye, 382 Shin Dang Dong, a coming-to-America-story inspired by the Park family’s own immigration.

In addition, a new co-written adult novel, To Swim Across the World, a fictionalized account of the Parks’ parents coming together from very different worlds, is due out next April from Talk Miramax.But back to Cleo …

I’ve read that Cleopatra Moon is a semi-autobiographical work. How are you and Ginger similar to Cleopatra and Marcy. How are you different?
When I wrote Cleopatra Moon, it was fast and furious and I didn’t stop to think the characters were us or not us. I just wrote it. I’m not one to analyze my work. I just like to read and write, for the beauty of the language. But I knew I’d be asked questions about this. The answer that’s evolved is that the characters are more or less composites of my sister and me, rather than I’m her or she’s her, because neither of us are these characters. The similarity is that Cleopatra Moon is more the perception that my sister Ginger had of me, and still has of me back then. I myself don’t think that I saw myself in that light. Ginger was an idolizing younger sister who felt that being with me empowered her so she catapulted me to this status. Cleopatra Moon drives a sexy red Mustang … I had a sky blue Pinto. But in Ginger’s mind, it was a sexy sports car. And she still tells me stories about back then, and I think, that was me? So I think I exaggerated that whole thing and flushed Cleopatra out that way. I think some of Cleopatra’s anger was mine, but she was a lot braver. In real life, Ginger and I never talked about the difficulties we had as young women until we were well into our 30s. I didn’t realize this when I was writing it, but the book is Ginger’s voice as a young woman. She did follow me around and track me down at friends’ houses. The innocence is very much her, the worshipping is her.

In the book, in certain insightful moments, Cleopatra is very aware of her Korean “alien” status. I’ve read in numerous interviews that you do not identify strongly with being Korean, having grown up as part of the only Korean family in a very white neighborhood in Springfield, Virginia. Were you as aware as Cleopatra growing up of being “foreign”? How did it affect you?
I was aware always, especially in public. It affected me very deeply. I never talked about it. I never talked about it until my 30s. It does something to you when you’re just never comfortable. When I was in elementary school, I was an overachiever. I was very popular and athletic and very studious. Somewhere along the line, as a young teen, all the sudden people didn’t look at me as being the leader, the popular one. They didn’t gravitate towards me anymore. I became very aware of being different and became very awkward. I went very inward. I was writing poetry and living in my own world. One day, it was as if being so quiet in me created a wild streak and it burst out without any warning. I didn’t want to study, didn’t want to work, just wanted to go out and have fun. Because that made me feel – although I wasn’t aware of it then – that I belonged, that people accepted me. …[click here for more]

Author interivew: “In Overdrive: Frances Park’s Sweet Road to Success,” aOnline website, July 15, 2000

Readers: Young Adult, Adult

Published: 2000