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Angie Kim’s debut novel, Miracle Creek, is a richly textured thought experiment disguised as a courtroom drama. The novel begins with the explosions of a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber (HBOT), causing the death of two of its six occupants. HBOT is a somewhat controversial method of treating a variety of conditions, including infertility and autism. Inside the chamber at the time of explosion, were two young autistic boys, TJ, and Henry, as well as TJ’s mother Kitt, a young infertile doctor named Matt, andTeresa and her daughter Rosa, a teen suffering from cerebral palsy. Killed in the explosion are Henry, age 8, and TJ’s mother Kitt, and what appears initially to be a tragic accident turns into an investigation of foul play. The HBOT chamber is owned and operated by Pak Yoo, an immigrant from Korea who is assisted by his wife, Young, and his 16 year old daughter, Mary. Mary and Pak are disfigured in the accident, as they were near the chamber when it exploded, and the young doctor, Matt, suffers the loss of his fingers. Pak is the first suspect in the investigation, but is quickly cleared due to lack of evidence, when a new theory arises, that the mother of the 8 year old Henry, Elizabeth Ward, planned the explosion in an effort to murder her son so as not to be burdened with his care taking.
The novel switches from trial scenes to flashbacks of the years leading up to the explosion, which prove to be crucial vignettes for character development. Each chapter switches perspectives between the trial participants, including the three members of the Yoo family, Matt, Matt’s wife Janine, Elizabeth, and Teresa. It becomes very clear that Elizabeth is not the only character with something to hide, as a consistent cycle of lies begins swirling, ranging from quite harmless to quite serious in each character’s effort to disentangle themselves from the explosion. It is revealed that Matt and his Korean wife Janine, who serves as an insurance advisor to the Yoos, are having infertility issues that are quickly precipitating the decline of the marriage, further exacerbated by Matt’s secret liaisons with Mary, the Yoo’s 16 year old daughter, the nature of which are concealed from his wife. The chapters about the Yoos reveal the struggles they have faced as immigrants, and the financial troubles that could beset them if they were found at fault for the explosion. Their family dynamic becomes fraught after immigration, as Pak’s desire to preside over the women of the house is disrupted by their superior command of the English language, and his wife’s growing weariness at the web of lies he spins during trial.
Teresa’s chapters are less frequent throughout the novel, but they offer a crucial insight into the drama playing out, as she is the sole character who attempts to understand Elizabeth’s predicament. The prosecutor, Abe, paints Elizabeth as a calculating and abusive mother, one who subjected her son to risky treatments, despite the fact that he was recently declared no longer on the autism spectrum. An important through line in the novel is this idea of a “bad mother”, as Elizabeth cares too much and is presumed to be a helicopter parent, and thus a bad mother, while her friend Kitt (mother of 8 year old TJ, and explosion victim), is less dedicated to actively pursuing treatment options, and is also deemed a bad mother. In Teresa’s chapters we learn of an exchange where Teresa and Elizabeth discussed how sometimes they felt like it would be easier if their children were not alive. They shared that in their darkest moments, they feared that the countless sacrifices they were making on behalf of their children weren’t worthwhile, and the guilt they felt in those moments of doubt. The prosecution seeks to use this conversation to prove that Elizabeth had wanted her son dead, demonstrating the ways in which the legal system and society at large transmute the truth in order to condemn mothers who they deem unworthy.
Amidst this choas is the troubling condemnation of mothers by their fellow mothers, which plays out in the pre-explosion rift between Elizabeth and Kitt. TJ is nonverbal, and shows almost no improvement as he is undergoing treatments and therapies, while Henry responds extremely well, and shows promising growth before his death. A main conflict that informs the precession of the trial is the competition between the two mothers, as before her death, Kitt accuses Elizabeth of pursuing unnecessary therapies and pushing her son too hard, while Elizabeth judges Kitt’s inability to stick to diets and therapies as well as her and Henry do. The novel explores the toxic culture of the ways that mothers compete over the rearing of their children, and the universal judgement they are met with, which feels especially potent toward mothers of the differently abled.
Inseparable from this conversation about judgement is the Yoo’s immigrant status, as their private sufferings and worst anxieties as Korean-Americans are broadcast eventually in the courtroom for judgment. Pak struggles on the stand, as his second language is a huge crutch for him in expressing himself, something which Angie Kim experienced herself as a Korean immigrant who was not familiar with English when she came to America. In an interview with NPR, Kim makes the connection between autism and immigration status, stating, “the other reason why I was so drawn to autism as well because I think especially for the children on the autism spectrum who are non-verbal, it makes me think back to that time when I myself felt so frustrated knowing that I had thoughts within me and saying hey, I’m here, I have opinions, I have thoughts…But not being able to articulate that and then being able to see in other people’s eyes that they think less of me because I can’t speak in that language.”
Kim is not only a Korean immigrant, but a former trial lawyer, and a mother of chronic disease suffering children, and this triad of sensibilities allows for clear and nuanced storytelling. Her expertise gives her access to the inner workings of all her characters, and brings them to life with believable and well-constructed arcs. When it is eventually revealed how the fire was started, it feels like less of a twist, and more like the completely avoidable conclusion of a sequence of events fraught with misunderstandings and mistruths. There are more than two victims in this story, and what is most frustrating is that almost every character could have changed the outcome if they had decided to reach out to another, to break down the walls standing between them. Kim has written a very powerful debut that manages to squeeze a great deal of philosophical and ethical questions into a propulsive and engaging novel.