‘The Sense Of Wonder’ Marries Basketball, Love And K-Dramas

Matthew Salesses’ new novel The Sense of Wonder took eight years to write and was written in two parts. One part of the beautifully-crafted novel reflects the author’s love of basketball, while the other honors his affection for Korean dramas.

Writing about basketball came naturally. Salesses went to basketball camp while growing up and played games through college, but he admits he didn’t have the skills needed to play in the NBA. “Also, I had trouble trying to find people I could model myself after,” said Salesses, who was adopted from Korea at the age of two.

Along came Jeremy Lin, the Taiwanese American professional basketball player, whose success sparked the term “Linsanity.” Lin’s success was an inspiration to many Asian Americans and he inspired Salesses to create the character Won Lee in The Sense of Wonder. Won is a Korean American basketball player dubbed “The Wonder” for his on-court success. Won’s girlfriend Carrie is a k-drama producer whose sister is diagnosed with cancer. Carrie introduces Won to the world of Korean dramas. In real life the author learned about k-dramas from his wife.

“My wife had cancer at the time, so I put that in the book,” said Salesses. “One of the things we did a lot together was watch k-drama. The kinds of narratives you see in k-drama—with fate and coincidence and people getting better or falling victim or falling into things they aren’t in charge of or able to change—that seemed pretty analogous to my situation, so k-dramas worked their way into the book. So, I had two separate, but related books and I had to figure out how to make them work together as one book.”

He connected the worlds by alternating chapters between the novel’s “real-life” basketball drama and Carrie’s drama-filled work in the k-drama industry, infused with some magical k-drama storytelling. It makes for an interesting mix.

“I do think they’re pretty related, especially that time during ‘Linsanity,’ I felt a lot of possibility in the world, as if anything could happen,” said Salesses. “That’s the feeling I often get when I’m in love or watching a k-drama where people are falling in love. It’s sort of like opening to a whole other world and what’s possible.”

The novel’s k-drama storylines, featuring ghosts, curses and fortune telling, might seem familiar to k-drama viewers and could easily be mined to create future fantasy k-dramas. “I love the magic of it,” he said. “I am very romantic, so I really like the romantic quality of it.”

When Salesses began writing the k-drama part of his book, k-content was not as popular in the US, so he decided to include an introduction.

“I gave a primer for the k-drama tropes and how k-drama works,” said Salesses. “The whole book is in a way trying to teach someone how to appreciate a k-drama. If you read the book and enjoy it you’re probably in a good position to enjoy k-dramas, if you have not done so already. In a way it’s not the same with basketball. I don’t know if somebody reading this book will want to watch basketball. The basketball seemed like the stuff of the book and k-drama seemed more about how the book was told.”

Twenty years ago Salesses made his first trip to Korea after his adoption. He was curious about his heritage and he didn’t find many examples of Korean culture in the US. There were few Korean restaurants. Kimchi was not sold in supermarkets. There was no k-pop. Obviously, things have changed.

“Now everybody knows BTS,” he said. “All the kids in my daughter’s class know about BTS, so when she talks about k-pop they know what she’s talking about. It’s kind of amazing.”

The expanded access to Korean content is a good thing, he figures, and not just for Asian Americans. “The different kinds of stories we get access to now—and are becoming more popular— will teach us to appreciate more different kinds of stories in the future and broaden our understanding of what’s possible in the world.”

While basketball and k-dramas provide the mediums through which he relays The Sense of Wonder, the story ultimately delivers a universal message.

“It’s a book about possibilities and love and wonder and the way in which certain kinds of stories,” said Salesses. “Especially ones that we are not familiar with inspire a sense that more is possible, more than we think is possible.”

An assistant professor of creative writing at Columbia University, Salesses is the author of several fiction and non-fiction books, which earned him critical acclaim. One of his novels, The Hundred Year Flood, was inspired by the time he spent in Prague. “The Hundred Year Flood is a much more traditional narrative,” he said. “It’s a love triangle, in which two lovers get stuck in a large flood that really happened in Europe.”

In another novel, Disappear Doppelganger Disappear, he created a Korean American character who finds that he has a doppelganger, but that his doppelganger has disappeared. “He is trying to figure out what happened to him, he’s trying to solve the disappearance of himself.”

His next book is about an Asian American revenge cult. “There’s been this cult taking revenge on people who do bad things,” he said. “So, this young girl, 11 at the beginning of the book, finds out that her parents are part of the cult. She is being bullied so she starts to desire revenge.”

The Sense of Wonder is a funny, emotionally compelling and romantic tale of k-dramas, love and basketball. Released on Jan. 17 it has already been optioned for a film or drama adaptation. It will be interesting to see how various parts of the novel work on screen.

“Most of all I tried to tell my agent that the thing I would love the most is if the k-dramas were made into k-dramas,” said Salesses.

The Sense of Wonder is published by Little, Brown and Company.