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The novel, “O’Beautiful” by Jung Yun, may present fictional characters in a (technically) fictional setting, but it illustrates the true story of how a 2010s fracking boom transformed a North Dakota town into a cesspool of violence, corruption, land theft and drug addiction. Our protagonist, Elinor, is likely a fictionized version of the author. Through Elinor’s eyes, Yun shows readers how men prey on women, especially women of color. While the title references a song about the beauty of America, the narrative reveals the depth of American racism.
If you prefer a likeable protagonist and care far more about the exploration of the town than Elinor’s journey, this novel is not for you.
There are many flashbacks set outside the town. Yun dedicates much of the text to Elinor struggling as a victim of racism and the male gaze, and the conclusion of her story may feel unsatisfying. Some readers have interpreted her mindset as an unsympathetic victim complex.
Our review will help you decide if this book deserves its acclaim from critics, and if consumer reviewers are right to lampoon the author for rambling about racism.
‘O Beautiful’ Summary: A Life of Discrimination and Struggle
In this New York Times Editor’s Choice Book, ‘O Beautiful,’ readers are immersed in the difficult life of former model — now rookie journalist — Elinor Hanson. Elinor boards a flight to Avery, North Dakota near where she grew up, hired to write an article for the prestigious Spectator about how the oil boom has transformed the town.
Elinor is a beautiful Korean American woman in her early 40s, desperate to escape unwanted male attention that haunted her during her modeling career and continues to trouble her. She asks the man seated beside her on the plane to stop talking and allow her to rest. He becomes defensive and angry and molests her when she’s nearly unconscious after taking a sleeping pill. The reader learns this incident is one in a long line of incidents where Elinor has fallen victim to sexual abuse or racism.
The oil boom has brought thousands of men from all walks of life to Avery. The once quiet town is now congested and bursting with male testosterone. When Elinor witnesses the ugliness of men’s behavior toward women and the hateful discrimination many locals harbor against people of other races, she feels called to change the focus of her assignment.
Elinor experiences insecurity over her writing project, which was assigned to her by a former grad school professor she once had an affair with. She drinks too much and takes drugs to face her discomfort with her role in the writing project, and to cope with the harassment and discrimination she continues to experience as she travels around town interviewing people. The reader feels unbalanced from the get-go, hurled into the life of a woman who has become a victim of circumstance and substance abuse.
Promotional copy and reviews didn’t mention Elinor as having a victim mentality, although one reviewer labeled her as self-destructive. She turns to drugs, alcohol and self-pity to face the discomfort she feels in life and chooses to identify only differences between herself and others instead of noticing similarities.
Books Like ‘O Beautiful’
Identity, displacement, and belonging are at the heart of the novel. The story traces how a once familiar place transforms into something unrecognizable. While “O Beautiful” takes a fairly unique approach, it features thematic overlap with these novels:
At The Rauch Review, we care deeply about being transparent and earning your trust. These articles explain why and how we created our unique methodology for reviewing books and other storytelling mediums.
Audience and Genre: Readers Who Have Experienced Discrimination Will Best Understand Elinor
Women and readers who have experienced discrimination and mistreatment due to race, religion or sex will likely connect with Elinor’s experiences the most — if they haven’t been traumatized too much by personal experiences to read the book. These readers will understand what it feels like to be marginalized and how hard it is to cope with it. People who empathize with the plight of marginalized individuals will also find it engaging.
Although “O Beautiful” and the actual town of Avery, North Dakota are fictional, the story of the oil boom overwhelming that geographical area is factual. The Bakken formation has been mined via fracking for decades and, to this day, produces more than a million barrels of oil. Readers who have experienced a loss of their small-town lifestyle due to an influx of blue-collar workers or have had their properties largely destroyed by mining or oil exploration will be able to relate to the story.
People who discriminate against others and make excuses for why it is OK to mistreat people “not like them” will hate “O Beautiful.” Men who think it is OK to touch women without permission or violate them won’t like the book. People who think it is okay for mining companies to destroy beautiful places and exploit peoples’ properties will also dislike the book. Many readers will be turned off by Elinor’s substance abuse and victim mentality.
There was nothing stereotypical about ‘O Beautiful.’ It stands out on its own as unique and powerful.
According to an LA Review of Books interview, Jung Yun chose the first line of “America the Beautiful” as the book title because of its “grandness” and that the song originated from a poem written by a woman. The author also mentioned she likes to “put the screws to” her characters by placing them in dire situations to see how they behave. This technique helps her meet her aim of getting readers to understand the suffering too many women and people of other races and cultures endure in the United States.
Perspective: From Elinor’s Lens, Distorted and Self-Protective
“O Beautiful” is told in third-person from Elinor’s point-of-view. This perspective worked, allowing readers to see the world through the main character’s distortions. Elinor sees everyone as the enemy and finds it difficult to trust anyone — not too much of a surprise given what she’s lived through.
She sometimes misses the point of conversations, which readers learn through dialogue. This confusion happens during a conversation with editor Lydia about her writing assignment, and again when she mentions the missing white woman, Leanne, to administrative assistant Shawnalee on the reservation. Elinor is often too lost in her own insecurities to analyze and appropriately respond to someone speaking to her.
Elinor finds it difficult to connect to others and purposefully interprets every interaction in a negative way that keeps her disconnected. Rather than accepting a person’s attempt to understand her or connect with her, she twists what they say or do in a negative way out of apparent distrust or fear of being hurt.
Three Cs: Compelling, Clear, Concise
Editorial Note: We believe these three factors are important for evaluating general writing quality across every aspect of the book. Before you get into further analysis, here’s a quick breakdown to clarify how we’re using these words:
- Compelling: Does the author consistently write in a way that would make most readers emotionally invested in the book’s content?
- Clear: Are most sentences and parts of the book easy enough to read and understand?
- Concise: Are there sections or many sentences that could be cut? Does the book have pacing problems?
Compelling: Reader Drawn into Story of a Victim of Extreme Suffering
Readers who have experienced discrimination or sexual/racial harassment will likely connect with Elinor’s plight. Empathetic Americans might connect to this story on some level because division and conflict between different races, political groups and genders is climbing to a dangerous level thanks to Trump and his twisted agenda.
There are flashbacks to events of abuse, discrimination and even rape. These traumatic events that continue to unfold in the story draw the reader deep into Elinor’s experiences. Everything that unfolds is deeply disturbing. Readers will want to know if Elinor will eventually find a pathway out of her misery. Some readers may become impatient with her heavy substance abuse and victim mentality.
Most female readers will relate on some level to Elinor’s suffering and may experience a mixture of anger and empathy over her predicament. Most women, myself included, have experienced mistreatment by men due to gender and are frustrated or angry about it.
Some men hit or threaten women or treat them like sex objects instead of human beings. Women are human beings, and many men remain clueless to this fact. It’s impossible as a woman to read about Elinor being molested, raped, harassed, insulted and manipulated without experiencing simmering anger. Nonetheless, Yun overkills the “evil men” theme, creating a cast of characters where not a single man is likeable.
Clear: High Number of Flashbacks Can Be Confusing at First, One Error Found
The text in “O Beautiful” flows and is easy to read. Jung Yun is a gifted writer. I never felt like I had to reread a sentence to understand what was happening. I sometimes found myself confused by the chronology, due to many flashbacks happening during most action scenes. Once I had an expectation that this would happen, I read through these sections with more ease.
Overall, St. Martin’s Press did an adequate job editing the book. I found only one error in “O Beautiful.” One incomplete sentence occurs at the bottom of page 203. At first, I thought a page was missing, but the next page starts with a new sentence.
I did not notice plot holes in the work. There are many competing themes, and some I would have liked to have seen explored in more detail. Some questions brought up during the story remain unsolved. Yun may have left this gap intentionally to keep the reader off balance and uncomfortable from beginning to end.
Concise: Sentence Structure and Book Length Worked
“O Beautiful” feels like an appropriate length at 306 pages. Every scene hammers home Elinor’s life-long struggles, as well as the racism, misogyny and the pressure cooker environment the oil boom brings to the once small town of Avery. In an interview with Elizabeth McKenzie on YouTube, Yun said she left out more than 200 pages of text that didn’t fit.
The pacing of the book works. The vocabulary and sentence structure work. There isn’t anything about Yun’s writing that makes the story difficult to follow. It keeps readers turning pages from beginning to end. The ending is a bit abrupt and disappointing. More is written about that later in this review.
Character Development: Characters Reader Can Visualize Through the Protagonist’s Distorted Lens
Characters in the book are intriguing, multidimensional and realistic. Jung Yun brings to life people readers can visualize. A disproportionate number of characters are portrayed as mean or evil. Readers meet men who are crude, manipulative or violent. Because Elinor seems to dislike almost everyone, even people whose intentions seem honorable, I began to distrust her perspective.
The novel has a huge cast of characters, most of whom receive significant development. Here’s a quick breakdown of some supporting cast members:
- Richard, the professor who sexually harasses Elinor and gives her the assignment to report in Avery
- Maren, Elinor’s sister, who is cheating on her husband with a blue-collar worker
- Dani, Marin’s friend, whom Elinor judges for having sex with a man she just met at a bar
- Shawnalee, an indigenous female administrative assistant who criticizes Elinor for focusing her journalism on a white woman who went missing years ago, as opposed to the indigenous women who disappeared recently
- Lydia, Elinor’s editor, who is also critical of covering the missing woman as the main angle of the story
- Nami, Elinor’s Korean mother who abandons the family, including her children’s white father
- Amy Mueller, whose husband sold their mineral rights to an oil company, resulting in rigs being installed next to her house
Characters are developed through flashbacks, dialogue and character interactions. Elinor converses with people at bars or at various locales where she’s able to interview them for her article. The technique of interviewing people works well for bringing the reader onto the scene of understanding the explosive dynamics of too many new people converging on Avery.
Elinor seems desperate to shift her life’s dynamics but is caught up in a net of victimhood. Her father expected her to do whatever he said. Her mom was a victim of her husband’s controlling and manipulative behavior. Elinor has become accustomed to being manipulated by men and thinks there are no other alternatives. She takes it and takes it and reflects on what she’d like to do or say, but she never gets the nerve to fight back.
About two-thirds of the way through the book, a shift occurs. I wanted to jump up and shout during the scene when an impatient driver behind Elinor in a traffic jam pounds on her car window. The woman taunts her when she’s in the middle of a cell phone call (one pertaining to a lawsuit female victims are filing against Richard) and she refuses to leave after Elinor asks her to repeatedly. In her anger, Elinor wrenches the car door open, hitting the woman in the face. As the woman holds her head, Elinor says, “Go away. I’m going to hurt you if you don’t go away.” The woman finally leaves. This altercation was the first time in the book where Elinor appeared strong and stood up for herself.
In a January 1, 2022 interview with Gracie Jordan of the Los Angeles Review of Books, Jung Yun mentioned that she felt involved with Elinor’s character. She went on to say that she wrote Elinor’s thoughts and experiences through a journalistic perspective to keep her own life from intruding too much. However, Yun expressed her disdain for male rudeness during this interview. She said, “You can take a walk down a street in lots of different places and be subjected to the catcalling, the lowering of the windows, and the quote-unquote ‘friendly’ hellos and greetings that you don’t want because you’re just trying to walk your damn dog.”
Yun’s character, Elinor, felt real, but her negative experiences seemed overexaggerated. Perhaps the author’s negative outlook caused her to blow her main character’s experiences out of realistic proportion.
Story: A Victim Slowly Learning to Stand Up for Herself, But You Might Find the Ending Disappointing
Editorial Note: This section contains major spoilers.
“O Beautiful” draws readers into Elinor’s life of suffering and discrimination. Her unlikeable and negative personality may lead some readers to give up. She drinks, smokes and uses drugs to escape from her misery. These addictions cause her even more suffering. She seems hell-bent on being a victim for more than half of the book.
The ending was just OK. It was disappointing that Elinor wasn’t actively involved in accusing the man who victimized her on the plane once she runs into him at the bar. I wanted her to say more. Even to throw the first punch. Instead she descends into a shocked trance.
In the final chapter, Elinor reconciles her feelings over her mother’s decision to leave their family. This development felt believable because there are several stretches of internal dialogue about why Nami left scattered throughout the book. Further narration implies Elinor will stay in Avery and go back and talk to Shawnalee at the reservation. This narrative signal seemed to cement that Elinor was committed to changing the direction of her life and was ready to attempt to connect with someone. The reader doesn’t see enough of this sudden semi-optimistic outlook to trust it that Elinor’s future will brighten.
‘O Beautiful,’ the first line of the ‘America the Beautiful’ song, struck me as a book title laced with irony. The book shows how ugly once lovely places are becoming because of industrialization and corporate greed, how ugly people can act, and how ugly life in this country can be for marginalized individuals. And it is only getting worse…
Prose Style: Flashbacks Woven into Action Scenes
The ratio of showing versus telling works for me. Action keeps readers turning pages, and intermittent flashbacks to previous victimization allows the readers to have context into how Elinor is reacting to what’s happening in the moment.
The author skillfully uses action and dialogue to hammer home themes Yun wants to emphasize in ‘O Beautiful.’
In the quote from the book below, Elinor speaks to the discomfort she feels receiving male attention now, compared to during her modeling career days.
“She used to revel in attention, good or bad, but forty-two and twenty-two are so different.” She’s not the same stupid girl she used to be.”
In this scene, Elinor reflects on her sister Maren’s affair with a blue-collar worker and how her friend, Dani, allowed another man to fuck her in the bathroom. She thinks that how they behave and how she once behaved may adversely affect how men treat other women. Even though her reaction seems a bit extreme, it shows that she’s beginning to see outside of her own pain and try to conclude how her and others’ actions affect outcomes. “…when she imagines her younger self walking into a place like this, inviting everyone to take her in, she’s flooded with panic at the thought of who else that affected, who it could have hurt.”
Elinor has been drinking and doing drugs and neglects to notice her meeting with editor Lydia is not simply a voice call but is on FaceTime. This scene, which opens with Elinor talking with Lydia’s secretary, shows how out of her element she is with her writing project and her life. “’Yes, but wasn’t this…wasn’t this supposed to be a phone call?’ Elinor touches her hair, which is still wet from the shower. The comfortable gray T-shirt she changed into is freckled with holes.”
Dialogue: Distorted Point-of-View and Angst
The weaving of dialogue and prose work well in “O Beautiful.” An action scene with dialogue unfolds. Then Elinor shares flashbacks and internal dialogue that puts what is going on into context from her point-of-view.
The dialogue feels realistic and creates a lot of tension in the book. It’s rarely difficult to tell who is speaking.
Dialogue also helps readers recognize Elinor’s distorted view of the world and her inability to relate to others.
Setting: A North Dakota Small Town’s Shift from Quaint to Overrun by Outsiders
The main setting of “O Beautiful” is the once rural town of Avery, North Dakota, now home to tens of thousands of blue-collar workers who have arrived due to the oil boom. Some scenes include flashbacks to Elinor’s life in New York.
The small town portrayed as bursting with outsiders felt authentic. Yun painted ugly pictures of the ruin the oil companies brought to the once beautiful countryside and to peoples’ lifestyles. She portrayed the chaos that ensued with so many different types of people coming together in an area that couldn’t provide adequate housing or a sustainable way to expand.
Jung Yun grew up in Fargo, North Dakota and created Avery from her memories of small North Dakota towns she visited. Some of the characters she created were based on real people.
It’s not clear exactly which year the events of the story take place. According to many sources, including a BBC News segment, the boom Yun references began around 2006 and peaked around 2012. In the story, there are setting details that imply the story takes place in 2010 or later. For example, characters use FaceTime, which became available in 2010 and didn’t reach ubiquity until 2011. It’s safe for readers to assume the story takes place during or near the 2012 peak.
Rhetoric: Unrealistic Portrayal of All Men as Evil
Yun’s book illuminates, through main character Elinor’s point of view, how difficult life can be for women and people of other races. The author portrays this message through live scenes and flashbacks where Elinor recalls traumatic events.
Themes of racism and misogyny were central to the story. Another theme explored is the trauma the oil industry inflicted on small towns in North Dakota and other geographical areas in the United States when tens of thousands of men from all walks of life converged on a place. Other themes explored are environmental destruction and exploitation of land and residents, class conflict, substance abuse and victimization.
Yun portrays a grim picture of humanity, particularly men. Readers meet dozens of men in this book. They are manipulators, molesters, rapists, porn addicts, aggressive, angry and/or violent. The predominance of bad male characters struck me as overexaggerated and unrealistic. Elinor, and likely the author, have strong biases against men.
Cultural and Political Significance: Rights of Minorities and Women Threatened in the US
“O Beautiful” feels super relevant in 2025 and this second Trump presidency era when the rights of women and minorities in the United States are being threatened.
This book will resonate stronger with anyone who has experienced discrimination or witnessed it happening to others. People who want to see companies acting environmentally responsible will also relate to the story.
More than any other book I’ve encountered, misogyny is under a microscope in “O Beautiful.” Also highlighted is the suffering homeowners often endure when companies or the government intrude on their property.
Critiquing the Critics: Praise from Critics, Some Unfair Complaints from Readers
Elizabeth Egan’s New York Times review described “O Beautiful” as “Mesmerizing and timely.”
“An absorbing and poignant novel with wonderfully complex characters and no easy answers,” according to a contributor for Kirkus Reviews.
The San Francisco Chronicle included the title in their “15 Best Books of 2021.” In this article, the staff describe “O Beautiful” as “A gripping page turner…The characters and setting are cinematically rendered, and the writing is just sublime.”
The critics weren’t troubled by Elinor’s character flaws or the overtly negative portrayal of men. Consumer critics sometimes found these issues problematic. Both classes of reviewers were impressed by Yun’s skilled writing.
Many Amazon and Goodreads reviews praised ‘O Beautiful.’ Readers enjoyed the literary writing and the conflict happening in the developing town of Avery. Most readers found Elinor’s character unlikeable. One reader described Elinor as worthy of “loathing AND compassion.” Many felt drawn into her story and that Yun’s skilled writing accomplished this commitment to keep reading. Some deemed Elinor to be a complainer and found it annoying that she was so upset by male attention. One reader who gave the book a one-star review grew frustrated with Elinor identifying all men as jerks.
I was annoyed that some readers despised Elinor simply because she didn’t want male attention. Many women, me included, don’t appreciate weird comments, unwanted touching and catcalls out the car window from men. It felt like the reader wished men would give her attention and was reacting out of jealousy more than anything else. I also disagreed with readers who slapped up one- or two-star reviews simply because they didn’t like Elinor.
Editorial Note by Joseph Rauch, Editor-in-Chief: Jung Yun reviewed her own book on Goodreads and gave it a five-star rating. In this article, “Should Authors Rate and/or Review Their Own Books on Goodreads?,” I explored her specific case and the moral grey area of the overall issue.
Book Aesthetic: Clear Sense of Setting and Literary Style, But Perhaps Misleading from the Real Meat of the Book
The “O Beautiful” cover includes what appears to be a watercolor painting on the front, portraying a country home with an upside-down flag displayed in the window, a road, two oil derricks and two pipes with flames at the top in a brown open field. More than 75% of the watercolor on the cover is sky and clouds. The cover blends the artistic and the commercial.
The front cover includes a quote from The New York Times at the top and a book club logo to the middle right. The back cover includes quotes from The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews and San Francisco Chronicle’s Elizabeth Greenwood. The back cover also includes a story description.
The cover seems misleading, portraying the oil boom in the small town but not the central themes of racism and misogyny. Readers won’t understand the significance of the upside-down flag until they read the book, but seeing it may lead them to want to know what it’s about.
Reviewer’s Personal Opinion: Mistreatment of Women Not OK
As a woman who suffered sexual abuse and assault during childhood, I found “O Beautiful” traumatic to read. It angers me to no end to hear about the Jeffrey Epstein case and the dozens of young girls from multiple countries that were sex trafficked by him and his organization. It angers me that women are considered so insignificant and unworthy and the men involved in this criminal organization so rich and influential, that the truth is being hidden from the public eye. Treating girls and women like this isn’t OK. It’s a disgrace and a testimony to how broken America has become.
Elinor is a victim of misogyny and racial discrimination as an Asian (half Korean, half white) woman. Through Elinor’s point of view, readers experience men treating women as sex objects instead of human beings. Men in this book see nothing wrong with taking what they want for their own pleasure or making rude comments without even considering the woman’s feelings. They act as if women are on earth for the sole purpose of being objects for whatever distasteful things they want to say or do to them.
It frustrated me that Elinor didn’t try harder to escape her circumstances. She makes terrible choices such as taking sleeping pills on a flight, smoking in a non-smoking room, and getting sloppy drunk at bars. Even more annoying is how she feels sorry for herself afterward as if she has no responsibility for the outcome. I could have stayed lost in my childhood woes, but no thank you. I wanted to live, not let all that crap get the best of me!
People living on the land exploited by the oil companies were also victims. Even though the town of Avery is fictional, North Dakota’s Bakken formation exists in real life. There is still more than a billion barrels of oil a day being gleaned from this formation today. I felt sorry for the residents because they were truly helpless. Amy Mueller’s husband signed the agreement with EnerGia and after he died, she ended up having active oil wells outside her door and was unable to sleep due to the 24/7 noise. And living anywhere near those wells is perilous.
Richard annoyed me the most, although I found all the male characters despicable. I was especially bothered when I learned (spoiler alert) that Richard didn’t give Elinor the writing assignment because of his hip replacement but because he hoped she wouldn’t join the sexual harassment lawsuit pending against him. He clearly thought that the world revolved around his desires and wants.
We live in a time where women and people of other races and cultures are losing their rights in the United States. I think it’s important that people in this country realize what we’re losing before it’s too late.
‘O Beautiful’ Review: Realistic Dialogue, Gripping Narrative and Relevant Themes
“O Beautiful” deserves heavy praise for the writing style, realistic dialogue, unusual and unique characters and the variety of deep themes explored. The .5 deduction is for the unrealistically negative portrayal of all men in the story. Life is not black and white, and not all men are evil.
Buying and Rental Options
E-Commerce Text and Audio Purchases
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Physical Location Purchase and Rental Options
“O Beautiful” is readily available in libraries and mainstream and independent bookstores. It is classified as literary fiction, Asian American literature, Pacific Islander literature and contemporary fiction.
Digital Rental Options
“O Beautiful” is available in most libraries and can be found in audiobook and e-book format on library apps such as Libby and Overdrive.
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