Six Questions with Novelist Angie Kim
We talk about "Miracle Creek," her next book and writing about the pandemic
Angie Kim’s Miracle Creek is one of those books I started recommending before I finished it because I knew I would need to talk about it with someone. (If you have read it, please respond to this email.)
In the two months since I finished it, I’ve recommended it dozens of times. Want a novel that explores the immigrant experience in America? Loved Big Little Lies or Little Fires Everywhere? In the mood for a twisty courtroom thriller or a story filled with small-town secrets? Miracle Creek is your book.
The novel, told from multiple perspectives, opens with a hyperbaric chamber, nicknamed “miracle submarine,” exploding in a fire that kills two people. The chamber, owned by a family of Korean immigrants, provided experimental treatment to children with autism and adults struggling with infertility. On each “dive” in the chamber, the patients received extra oxygen in a treatment known as hyperbaric oxygen treatment, or HBOT.
From the book’s opening pages, it’s clear the fire at the facility was intentional — and over each chapter, Kim reveals the secrets each suspect is hiding as they testify at a trial.
Kim graciously agreed to talk with me about Miracle Creek and her work in progress. Our conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.
How did you come to write Miracle Creek?
I was a lawyer, a management consultant and an entrepreneur. Then I stayed home with my three boys and started writing. I wrote an essay for The Washington Post about crying in Whole Foods while struggling to manage my sons’ allergies, celiac disease and ulcerative colitis.
I moved to essays and short stories, and then after that, I really wanted to tackle the novel because I felt like I needed more space to explore all of the complexities of the HBOT story, which is what I was interested in writing about.
As for research, I drew on my lived experience. The “miracle submarine” is a real thing. HBOT is something I did with one of my kids. I also talked with friends who have children with cerebral palsy or other special needs to understand that experience. And the immigration strand of the book was taken straight from my own life, my experience coming from Korea to the U.S.
Without spoiling anything, did you go in knowing who set the fire?
No, I did not know the ending. I didn’t realize who set it until I was about halfway through writing. I spent about six months free-writing just to get to know the characters as first-person diary entries.
And then, when I started drafting, I wrote chapter-by-chapter, scene-by-scene. I don’t like to focus on the next chapter until I’m done with the current chapter. I knew the shape of the book. I had an outline that said, “at the end, we find out.”
It didn’t all come together until I was right on the cusp of writing the reveal scene. I had to have faith that it would come to me.
Can you speak to the challenges of writing a novel from so many perspectives?
That was one of my favorite parts of writing the book. The challenge was getting the voice right, especially since they’re not first-person voices.
Each chapter was from a different character’s perspective. Once I was done with the chapter, while my writing group was reading it, I was able to take that time to get in the next character’s head. I call it method writing, like method acting. I went to a performing arts high school, and I majored in theater. Acting work is focused a lot on that kind of character work, and so it felt very similar to that experience. Part of that process involved going back to a previous chapter and reorienting myself to the characters, rhythm and their diction.
Can you share some information about what you’re working on now?
Sure, it’s called The Happiness Quotient, and it’s about a 13-year-old nonspeaking boy who’s biracial, living in Northern Virginia. He goes on a walk with his father at the beginning of the novel, and only the boy returns home. Because he is not speaking, he can’t tell anyone what happened. The story is told from the perspective of one of his siblings, his brilliant older sister home from college due to the pandemic.
What’s it like writing about the pandemic while living through the pandemic?
It was the only way I could write. I tried writing without the pandemic, and I couldn’t do it because it felt so foreign. I couldn’t even remember what it felt like. I was having a hard time writing, and setting the book during the pandemic made it easier because I was able to imagine this family that’s similar to my own in a superficial way. I always thought, “once I’m done with the story, I can always take that the pandemic setting out.” But actually, I think that there are a lot of things about the story that resonate when set during this time.
Finally, any books you want to recommend?
In general, Trust Exercise by Susan Choi.I love the way that it plays with genre. You start it and think it’s almost a YA romance. It has that kind of appeal, and then it becomes something completely different. All three sections of the book are so different, and I love books like that.
Jennifer Egan’s A Visit from the Goon Squad is probably one of my favorite books of all time. Precisely because of all of the different voices and different characters that are interlinked. I love books like that, where there are pieces that fit together into a jigsaw puzzle.
And I love The 19th Wife by David Ebershoff, which is historical fiction, so it’s totally different. (Disclosure, David is the editor of my new book.) I love The 19th Wife because it takes two different stories from two different elements that fit together. It was sort of my role model.
If you like Miracle Creek, I would recommend Joanne Tompkin’s What Comes After. There’s a sort of mystery that undergirds the story but isn’t the point, or not the full point. It’s almost a Trojan Horse to get into the lives of the characters.
Thanks to Angie for taking the time to speak with me. You can follow her on Instagram and Twitter and purchase Miracle Creek here. I also highly recommend her recent Washington Post essay on anti-Asian harassment.
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