It was something, I guessed, in the primal plan, something like a complex figure in a Persian carpet.
—Henry James, “The Figure in the Carpet”

The search for an enigma catalyzes the revelations of character in “The Figure in the Carpet.” Too often, writers learn not from James but from his character Vereker. They learn not the use of a macguffin to expose character flaws but, rather, that fiction might have a pattern. Likewise, revelation and discovery are key to the novel. The forced manifestation of an imposed pattern is merely boring and academic. Patterns can be put to work, however. Suki Kim’s pattern of Korean immigrants—her delivery truck drivers, pool hall sharks, vegetable stand owners, and over-achieving second-generation kids —creates a fresh New York, one of which we’ve not read much and that, in our daily lives, we take for granted. The InterpreterLog in