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First printing - full number line. In great condition with a taped spine end. First printing - full number line. In great condition with a taped spine end. See less
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In Full Bloom Paperback – January 27, 2004

3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 15 ratings

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In Caroline Hwang's debut novel, In Full Bloom, all Ginger Lee wants is a promotion at the fashion glossy A la Mode magazine.  All her mother wants is a nice, professional Korean son-in-law.  Unable to keep her mother at bay, Ginger reluctantly agrees to let her play matchmaker. 

At work, Ginger's efforts at advancement are thwarted by style fiends better practiced in the art of office warfare.  Away from the job, she's surprised that her arranged dates are rejecting her before she gets a chance to reject them.

With wry humor, lively dialogue, and a compassionate take on being a single woman under a traditional mother's matchmaking thumb, this insightful debut is both a deliciously scathing portrait of life behind the catwalk and an endearing tale of a delicate mother-daughter bond.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

...a hilarious look at the relationship between a chic, young Korean-American and her mother... -- Bookviews.com

About the Author

Caroline Hwang is a magazine editor and writer whose work has appeared in Glamour, Redbook, Self, Newsweek, Mademoiselle, CosmoGirl, and YM. She is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania with an M.F.A. from New York University.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Plume (January 27, 2004)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0452284880
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0452284883
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.69 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    3.5 3.5 out of 5 stars 15 ratings

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Caroline Hwang
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3.5 out of 5 stars
15 global ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on February 4, 2004
    I celebrate the fact that a female Korean-American author created a voice for Korean-American women. However, I was dismayed to find that her book's title character reinforced many stereotypes: designer label junkie, superficiality, flighty, and most of all...weak.

    It seemed as if the author was more concerned with dropping designer named clothes rather than flushing out her character's motivations, interests, and strengths. I found that the main character was overly superficial and her personality did not lead me to feel compassion for her, so I ended up quickly losing interest in her.

    What irritated me the most about the way Caroline Hwang created the story was the way she made the Korean-American woman to be so weak and subservient to EVERYONE: her mother, her coworkers, her friends, her boss...she let everyone take advantage of her while making excuses for this behavior. Why make the main character so passive? How long can you keep reading until you realize that, halfway through the book, this main character has done NOTHING to absolve her weaknesses.

    While I understand that the clashing relationship with her mother takes a huge chunk of the storyline, I would have liked to see more interaction with other young Korean-Americans. Must we reinforce the stereotype of the asexual Asian that American movies and television already show?

    To sum it all up, I was very excited to see a new Korean-American author attempt to portray the current cultural situation of Korean-Americans. However, I was ultimately disappointed to find that this book chose to highlight the negative stereotypes rather than offering a creative and varying view of Korean-Americans today. While I did not expect Hwang to represent and capture every detail of Korean-American culture, I would have liked to relate to SOMETHING in her characters and book. Maybe her next novel will fare better.
    13 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2017
    Love this writer. Wonderful story for anyone searching for answers within their career, love life, family, or life in general. Both fun and deeply revealing. A great read!
  • Reviewed in the United States on June 28, 2005
    This is one of those books that took me forever to get through. This novel has some redeeming qualities, it is funny at times, but ultimately it is a let down. Ginger Lee, Caroline Hwang's protaganist in her novel "In Full Bloom" is a late 20-something fashion assistant at A la Mode magazine, a job handed to her by her best friend in college, Sam. While Sam is a cut-throat professional, Ginger herself shows a serious lack of drive and ambition. With those qualities alone, I would expect myself to relate to Ginger (haha). Overall, however, I did not find Ginger to be a very likeable character.

    While throughout the length of the novel she gripes about how racist (perhaps, ignorant moreso) white people are towards Asians in America, she herself stereotypes and bashes people of her own culture. She won't date Korean men because they are all chauvanists, and for some reason she's always pictured her husband as a white guy. Granted, Ginger is an American-born Korean woman, not feeling entirely at home with Koreans or "white" America. But instead of embracing her mixed upbringing, she just complains. The reader is hoping that at some point Ginger will embrace (or at least come to terms with) her own culture (Korean American) and become proud of her heritage. However, we never witness Ginger grow as a character, she is pretty much in the same boat at the book's finish as she was in the beginning. Nothing is resolved in the end and the book feels incomplete. This, for me, was "In Full Bloom"'s downfall.

    Hwang's writing is not terrible, but the transitions from present tense to flashback sequence are not very solid and I found myself sometimes confused by a scene that had actually taken place in the past and I was reading it as if it was the present. This happened on more than one occasion where I had to re-read a page in order to follow what was happening or get a grasp on whether the event was taking place in the present or the past. This really wasn't such a big deal, just a minor gripe on my part.

    In conclusion, if you are reading this book for a quick chick-lit fix, then you might want to give it a shot, however, if you are looking for something with a bit more substance I suggest looking elsewhere.
    4 people found this helpful
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