Ben Ryder Howe

As someone who married a man who owned two fast food restaurants, I really related to Ben Howe's story. He perfectly captures the craziness, the back-breaking work, insanely long hours, the horrible bureaucratic obstacles and yes, the occasional rewards of owning your own small business in America.

Howe tries to balance his work as an editor at the Paris Review, and the contrast between that world of the Upper East Side in NYC and the Brooklyn neighborhood where the Korean deli is located show more perfectly mirrors the patchwork of life in New York. His vivid portrait of his boss, George Plimpton, is so intriguing. What I know of Plimpton has mostly come from his reports of his own adventures (Paper Lion, etc.), so this look at him from Howe's point of view is fascinating.

Then there is Howe's Korean mother-in-law, Kay. Howe's wife Gab wanted to buy a deli for her mother to thank her for the sacrifices she made to educate Gab, sending her to college and law school. While WASPy Howe doesn't quite get this, he supports his wife, and they extend their living in his in-law's basement to buy the deli for Kay. Kay and Ben clash immediately while trying to find a deli to buy, and when they do buy one, Ben is way too slow to pick up the nuances of working the cash register. He is relegated to stocking shelves.

The deli is a meeting place for various characters in the neighborhood, some who hang around all day and night. Howe usually worked the late shift, so his customers were the creatures of the night. He grew to tolerate, and respect, these people, even while they exasperated him. One employee, an African-American man named Dwayne, came with the store, and while he was a good employee, always showing up for work, he frequently offended customers of the store with his language. In a book filled with colorful, interesting people, Dwayne is perhaps the most interesting. He knows everyone and everything about the neighborhood, and is a single dad trying to raise his daughters.

Immigrants are the backbone of this nation, and Howe tells Kay and her husband's story with honesty and respect. Where they came from, how hard they worked to get to America and make something of themselves, it is a tribute to the people who work long, hard hours, doing work that many people refuse to do, that explain how many cultures come here and make a success of themselves for their families.

Howe nails the difficulties of owning your own small business- the strain it puts on a marriage, the constant money worries- it's a 24/7 responsibility, much like having a child, which Ben and Gab are also struggling to do. His tales of the deli, what it means to the neighborhood, to his family, and eventually to him, give the reader a real appreciation of small business owners. I loved his story of Gab trying to get from Queens to Brooklyn during a horrible snowstorm, and of keeping the store open during the big blackout.

Howe is a gifted writer, and this book is one I would highly recommend. It's a great American story. show less

My Korean Deli is a self-absorbed, egotistical piece of literary sh*t. This carelessly thrown together selective memoir is not at all deserving of the attention it garnered over a year ago. Howe's condescending narrative almost makes you want the business to fail (which it does in less than two years). The author comes across as a whiny, over-privileged, uninspired yuppie "slaving" away at a cushy magazine editing job while moonlighting as an incompetent convenience store owner. There's show more nothing "Korean" about the deli other than his wife and mother-in-law. It's a run-of-the-mill convenience store in Brooklyn selling typical convenience store products like beer and potato chips. There's little insight into Korean business practices or even his wife's family's culture other than Rowe's consistent petty judgmental reminder of his mother-in-law's imperfect English and stubborn work ethic. As Rowe even points out in the epilogue, it almost seems like he bought the store just so he could write a book about it later; you know, the time he was "slumming it". I wasted my time on this garbage of a book. Don't make the same mistake I did. show less

I would be willing to bet that there is no another book like this one. Howe combines his roles in an extended Korean family, editor at Paris Review and newly minted deli clerk in an up and coming area of Brooklyn. He combines all of these disparate pieces of his life in a very entertaining peek at each facet of his existence. I loved each piece of it even though none of them apply to my own life. I found the lives of his in-law Korean family fascinating - completely alien to my life but show more relevant since an extended Korean family has taken over our local grocery in rural New England. I loved how he was at first paralysed when working the register at the deli and then how he came to thrive on all the interactions. The sections about the Paris Review and George Plimpton were also great fun, especially his journey to the Chicago book fair. This is a page turner. show less

Perhaps many people will laugh at the aspects of Korean culture which Howe highlights in his memoir, but what I found most fascinating about this book is his portrait of the late George Plimpton and the literary magazine he made his own. Howe's reflections on immigrant culture, WASP culture and their differences and similarities also struck me as heartfelt and perceptive.