50 pages • 1 hour read
Janice Y. K. LeeA modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Janice Y. K. Lee is of Korean descent and was born and raised in Hong Kong. She attended Harvard University and lives in New York with her husband and children. The Expatriates is inspired by her knowledge of Hong Kong and its culture, as well as her experiences of motherhood. Her work is critically acclaimed for her observations of human nature and her nuanced portrayals of culture clashes. In interviews, Lee has spoken about her global upbringing and the difficulty of pinning down one single identity: "I myself have trouble telling people where I’m ‘from’ as that has so many layers and meanings, but as I’ve grown older, I’ve appreciated that I have many different perspectives which have helped me to see things from many different angles” (Sarabyn, Kelly. “Interview With Janice Y. K. Lee, Author of The Expatriates.” Book Club Babble, 2016). These angles are apparent in her work, where characters navigate the different lenses of nationality, social class, and ethnicity.