News Tue Apr 14 2009

Nami Mun Interview

The Independent interviews author Nami Mun, whose novel Miles from Nowhere bears some autobiographical elements:

"...Ms Mun said she was spurred into adult education after a humiliating episode while working as a waitress, and eventually completed an English literature degree at Berkeley university.

"I was a minor and I worked really hard to get whatever I needed," she said. "I got a job as a waitress serving cocktails when I was only 15. I was serving these two guys and they had a bet on about me. They asked me a maths question - 'What do you call a line that touches but does not intersect a circle?' I'd left school after eighth grade and I was kind of embarrassed that I didn't know the answer.

"One guy bet that I'd know because I was Asian, while the other bet I wouldn't know because I was a waitress. I was so maddened by them that I signed up for my educational diploma," she said.

I think that's a bit of an unfair question... I went all the way through college calculus and could only guess the answer (and I'm shocked that, however wild the guess was, it was right).

— Veronica Bond / Comments (0)