He Spent the Pandemic in a Coma. Can He Rebuild His Life?

New York Times

05-03-2025

Nearly half a decade after the W.H.O. declared Covid-19 a pandemic, I've found that recalling the contagion's early days is a struggle. Instead of blurring together, the memories have fractured into a dangerous mound of shards I'd prefer to leave undisturbed. So how invigorating it was to read Jinwoo Chong's wise and poignant sophomore novel, 'I Leave It Up to You,' which features a protagonist who has no memories of Covid's first two years at all.
The book is a welcome twist on the quickly established (and frequently disappointing) 'pandemic novel' subgenre. The story follows Jack Jr., a 30-year-old who wakes up in a hospital bed in late 2021. He's confused: The last he remembers it was October 2019. Also, why is his attending nurse, Emil, wearing a surgical mask and a plastic shield over his face? Even more pressing: Why does Jack Jr. have so many tubes shoved inside his body? Where is his fiancé? What has happened to Jack Jr. and, more important, his life?
Those answers will come later. Once released, he returns to his family's home in Fort Lee, N.J. It's an unexpected arrangement — Jack Jr. has spent the past decade estranged from his parents. Though his departure left plenty of open wounds, he is welcomed into his old life almost as if no time has passed at all, easily slotting back into the family's routines and returning to work at Joja, the Korean-Japanese restaurant opened by his father. Jack Jr. must now contend with his past — both the family he left as well as the world-altering years he missed entirely — and begin recalculating what his future could be.
Chong, who is a sales planner for The New York Times, writes mouthwatering descriptions of food, and his peeks behind the curtain at the gargantuan amount of work that goes into running a restaurant will give readers a new respect for their favorite neighborhood spot. But the novel's most memorable pleasures lie outside the kitchen. It is, for example, Jack Jr.'s reconnection with his 16-year-old nephew, Juno, and his courtship with Emil where 'I Leave It Up to You' finds its firmest footing and most unexpected charms and laughs.
Juno and Jack Jr. have a fascinating and frequently uproarious dynamic: Here's a gay uncle who's been asleep for two years and a teenage nephew who came of age during the pandemic. Their memories of each other are woefully half-formed but filled with an easy, if clumsy, kind of love.
And then there's Emil. He's a white man who's never had sushi embarking on a relationship with a Korean man who works in a sushi restaurant. And he's suffering the inverse of Jack Jr.'s tragedy: Jack Jr. was asleep for two years, but Emil, haunted by his time caring for and losing Covid patients, finds rest almost impossible. Despite the awkwardness of their hospital room meet-drab (something his family accepts with perhaps a little too much ease), their relationship flourishes. Their story line felt like a gift to the reader; finally we can see something lovely emerge from such a dire time. That sense of comfort is characteristic of Chong's writing throughout the book. Even when there are dramatic turns — like the return of Ren, the Chekhov's Fiancé of Jack Jr.'s past life — he keeps the story at a gentle simmer.
Modern life, especially since the pandemic, feels like a cascade of increasingly miserable tragedies. 'I Leave It Up to You' is about finding — or rediscovering — the people who make the hardships worth enduring. More than once exhausted characters say, 'We are all just trying to stay alive.' Among their heaviest burdens are their memories of the past, but how lucky they are to wake up each morning with the chance to forge a new future.