All the World Can Hold by Jung YunMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
🌅 I saved this novel to read in September. I thought it was fitting to recall the prevailing attitude of the country and the world during that time, over two decades ago. However, reflective as it was, I expected 9/11 to play a more significant role. This novel wasn’t above fireworks despite the story taking place during the aftermath of 9/11. All the World Can Hold lent itself more to quiet introspection. Jung Yun sets her characters adrift, literally, on a five-day cruise to Bermuda, just one week after the 9/11 attacks. The backdrop is striking: a ship suspended between destinations, mirroring passengers who are suspended between the lives they have and the lives they long for.
The book follows three central perspectives:
• Franny, a Korean American woman navigating tension with her family during her mother’s 70th birthday cruise.
• Doug, a washed-up TV actor reluctantly attending a reunion for the 1970s Love Boat–style show that defined his career.
• Lucy, a young Black woman torn between the security of a prestigious career in tech and her passion for painting.
Each is burdened with grief, regret, or yearning, and Yun’s restrained prose gives their inner lives weight. I found the 9/11 thread present but subtle and never sensationalized, more of a quiet current influencing the way each character processes their own personal crises. The cruise ship became a fascinating stage: both festive and claustrophobic, ordinary and surreal.
That said, the novel isn’t without flaws. While the prose is elegant and the themes powerful, the narratives often feel disconnected. Aside from one fleeting dinner scene, the three characters don’t meaningfully intersect, leaving the book reading more like three novellas loosely bound together. Lucy’s arc felt underdeveloped, with her motivations and emotional trajectory less fully realized than those of Franny or Doug. Pacing can also drag, especially when each voice shift disrupts the momentum. And the ending, I found that rather than resolving character arcs, Yun leaned heavily into a reflective commentary on 9/11, which undercuts the intimacy they built earlier.
Still, there are moments of brilliance. Doug’s reckoning with the ghosts of fame is quietly poignant. Franny’s family dynamics cut deep, textured with cultural specificity and long-buried resentments. And Yun’s writing shines when she captures the liminality of both ship life and emotional life—the feeling of existing between identities, eras, or choices. As one line puts it, “Sometimes breakthroughs don’t come in the form of grand gestures, but in the words left unsaid for too long that finally slip free.”
Ultimately, I found All the World Can Hold to be more contemplative than plot-driven. It was slow-paced and frustrating, as I prefer stories to have a clear resolution at the end rather than just lingering. But if you enjoy layered character studies and elegant prose, it offers plenty to appreciate. I truly appreciate NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for providing me with the ARC in exchange for my unbiased opinion. I expected more from reading the book description.
⭐️⭐️⭐️ (3 stars)
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