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Forgotten Country

by Catherine Chung (Goodreads Author)

3.51 of 5 stars 3.51 · rating details · 1,151 ratings · 286 reviews

A Booklist Top 10 First Novels of 2012 pick
A Bookpage Best Books of 2012 pick

On the night Janie waits for her sister, Hannah, to be born, her grandmother tells her a story: Since the Japanese occupation of Korea, their family has lost a daughter in every generation, so Janie is charged with keeping Hannah safe. As time passes, Janie hears more stories, while facts remain...more

Hardcover, 296 pages

Published March 1st 2012 by Riverhead Hardcover

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1st out of 30 books — 64 voters

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Fiction by Korean Authors and/or Containing Korean Characters

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Mar 02, 2012 Debbie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: lter, general-fiction, review-copy, 2012

Disclaimer: I received a free review copy from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer Program

I found this book extremely well-written, but I never really connected with it except on a very superficial level. Janie, the narrator, was very sympathetic but not very empathetic. She was very... flat. Her emotions and motivations never shone through the story. Hannah, her sister, was this great mysterious void, but once she showed up in the plot again shrank into the background.

Throughout the book, I wanted m...more

6 likes · like · see review

Mar 14, 2012 Allison rated it 5 of 5 stars

I received this book from a goodreads giveaway;

I was under the impression that this book was going to be about Janie's search for her younger sister, which it isn't really.
Instead, I was met with a young Korean-American woman, who reminisced about her times as a childhood and other family stories. (I am secretly grateful it wasn't a mystery novel after all.)
Janie's devotion to her heritage and family is tested, however its not really a book about how she came out stronger or better or smarter,...more

4 likes · like · see review

Sep 09, 2011 Seth rated it 5 of 5 stars

From the first chapter alone, it was clear that this book was going to be tremendous. I could not wait for it to come out. And, luckily, I didn't have to. I just finished a galley copy, and it is fantastic.
The writing reminded me of aspects of both Shaker furniture and Ishiguro's best works---it was perfectly crafted, dealing with big themes in an understated and unadorned but rich and beautiful manner. And the characters broke my heart in the best way possible.

11 likes · like · see review

Apr 29, 2013 Marcie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Unfortunately, the summary doesn't reflect what the book was really about; it plays up a mystery that doesn't even exist. I'd say a more accurate description would be a family struggling to regain connections when the father is diagnosed with terminal cancer. While I would expect a book that depicts a main character dying of cancer to be tremendously sad (which it was), there were several other unrelated stories that added to the overall bleak feeling I had when I finished the book.

Janie, the n...more

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Nov 26, 2012 Amy Bailey rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is tough. It's a very real and gritty portrayal of what, at first I didn't think was going to be a book about cancer, but it wound up being one. It was hard to read, but I think it was very realistically portrayed. I'm not sure there was as much of a resolution to the family dynamics as I would have liked. It seemed like there were some periphery issues that bubbled to the surface and then were dropped. The issue of the sister's disappearance, which seems to be the focus at the beginni...more

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Oct 13, 2012 Luane rated it 3 of 5 stars

An okay book about typical Asian family dynamics and the struggle between independence in a country founded on it and obedience, the cornerstone of Asian culture. There is the good sister who does as she is told, studies what is expected of her, and stays home to care for an ill father and help her parents return to Korea, the old country they escaped to avoid political persecution, all the while the obedient sister questioning the reasons she feels beholden to her family and the pleasure and sa...more

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Sep 19, 2012 Webster Library rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was amazing. It really opens your eyes to another culture and how someone moving to the United States from another country can be treated differently. The love of family or being a member of a close group can make you stronger or pull you apart when you are in a difficult situation.

The main character Janie is trying to get her doctorate in math. She was born in Korea and was transplanted to Michigan with her mother father and sister. The books starts out with Janie's sister Hannah disa...more

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Aug 01, 2012 Laurie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012, fiction, historical-fiction

This is the story of a South Korean family who flees to America amidst the Japanese occupation. It's not a mystery to find a missing sister as the Goodreads description may imply. Instead, it's more an internal search, possibly to get past the stories we tell ourselves, dealing with difficult things such as culture shock/cultural bias, estrangement and serious health conditions. There's a lot of reminiscent flashbacks and cultural stories to help fill out who the characters are.

This is beautiful...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Ciara rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012

the reviews & jacket copy for this book were very misleading. check them out--they say thatjanie's sister hannah mysteriously "goes missing" & in the process of searching for her, janie stumbles across a "family secret" about how every generation of her family "loses a daughter". i was definitely anticipating more of a mystery--about the lost daughters, about hannah's disappearance...about anything.

instead, this is a book about two adult daughters & a wife standing vigil while the pa...more the reviews & jacket copy for this book were very misleading. check them out--they say thatjanie's sister hannah mysteriously "goes missing" & in the process of searching for her, janie stumbles across a "family secret" about how every generation of her family "loses a daughter". i was definitely anticipating more of a mystery--about the lost daughters, about hannah's disappearance...about anything.

instead, this is a book about two adult daughters & a wife standing vigil while the patriarch of their family succumbs to cancer. had i known that, i probably wouldn't have read it. i prefer non-fiction to fiction anyway, & if i am going to read fiction, i want it to at least have some narrative tension. death is sad, cancer is sad, & the death in this book was especially unfortunate because the father was one of the few tolerable characters around, but ultimately, reading a book about a man dying after he is given five months to live is not exactly an exercise in appreciating narrative tension.

& hannah doesn't so much "disappear" as she just packs up & moves to california apropos of nothing (as far as her family can tell). she wasn't kidnapped or brainwashed or in an abusive relationship or anything. she just moved. i know i'm not exactly the poster child for healthy family dynamics, but i have definitely moved to other states without telling my family. i'm an adult, after all. hannah's move was a bit more dramatic because she dropped out of the college her parents were paying for & enrolled in UCLA & paid for it herself, but i think that shows gumption & independence more than it shows some kind of deep horrifying mystery.

plus hannah remains in touch with her friends, who give janie her new contact info. her parents pressure janie to fly to california & bring hannah home because of the father's cancer, & when janie finally relents, she has no problem tracking janie down & they have a perfectly normal sister hang-out until janie gets all pissed & tells hannah, "our parents are done with you. they don't want you to come home." i seriously flipped back a few pages to see if i had missed some kind of dramatic sleuthing where janie pulled some cloak & dagger moves to track hannah to her undisclosed location, but...nothing. she seriously just booked a flight & called her sister & said, "pick me up 3pm." i mean, basically. *yawn*

there's also a lot of exposition in this book, a lot of crap about the girls' childhoods that never really pays off. there's a long piece about janie's best friends in elementary school, the games they played together, & how their relationship changed after a classmate's father murdered a chinese american man. janie talks about how her classmates chased her one day, & one of them pushed her, & she hit her head on a wall & got a concussion & knocked out some teeth. it was all a very effective description of racism, & especially that particular anti-japanese/asian racism that infected rust belt cities in the late 80s & early 90s, but...none of it was really relevant to the plot. i don't know.

i did really enjoy the korean fairy tales that were woven into the story. they were beautifully written & employed with a light touch. i felt that they really did add to the manuscript. but the primary story suffered from an over-abundance of annoying characters & low stakes. (less)

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Jun 09, 2012 Lei rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-2012

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I was drawn into this book because I wanted to learn about how a family of immigrants from Korea would be different from a family of Chinese immigrants. I found that this book was not much about the issues that the family faces in adapting to America, but rather how they deal with their past. I was also surprised to find that a Korean family shares similar things as a Chinese family, like favoring sons over girls. The family is composed of two parents who had went through the Korean civil war, a...more

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May 24, 2012 Lauren Alleyne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Forgotten Country, is a novel that holds many stories. It is the story of two sisters who struggle to define themselves in relationship to each other, their family, and the cultures they’ve inherited and have grown up in. It’s the story of a family straddling two countries, languages, cultures, histories—of how they navigate what to hold on to, what to reach for, and what to let go. It is the story of two countries—America and Korea—with their separate and linked histories of violence, separatio...more

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Apr 22, 2012 christa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Janie takes her role as eldest daughter seriously in “Forgotten Country,” Catherine Chung’s debut novel about a family that comes to the United States, out-running potential political persecution in their home country, Korea.

Hannah, her younger sister, has a bit more moxie. When the family’s traditions start to weigh her down, she runs away to California without leaving a forwarding address. Janie’s resentment toward her grows when their father is diagnosed with cancer and eventually decides to...more Janie takes her role as eldest daughter seriously in “Forgotten Country,” Catherine Chung’s debut novel about a family that comes to the United States, out-running potential political persecution in their home country, Korea.

Hannah, her younger sister, has a bit more moxie. When the family’s traditions start to weigh her down, she runs away to California without leaving a forwarding address. Janie’s resentment toward her grows when their father is diagnosed with cancer and eventually decides to return to Korea, where treatment options surpass what can be done for him in Michigan. Janie tracks down Hannah on the coast and the sisters have a fight. Hannah is incredulous because her sister doesn’t understand her position; Janie freaks because Hannah was so selfish to leave the family wondering about her safety and whereabouts, so she lies to her. Tells her their dad is sick, but that their parents don’t want her around.

Then Janie puts the stall on her grad school-level studies of mathematics -- following her brilliant father’s footsteps, though it doesn’t come as naturally to her -- and travels to Korea with her parents.

Back in Korea things seem better for her father. Days are spent taking walks and tending to the garden. Greeting family members they haven’t seen in two decades. Stories of the past -- how her father and older escaped when the rest of the family was murdered, the wooing stages of her parent’s relationship -- are revealed, as well as the story of the family’s early days in America and the racism that they were greeted with, including vandalism and schoolyard abuses.

The side stories and folklore are well-done quick-hit snippets with tons of punch. And the characterization of Janie as a do-gooder adhering to a traditional family role and taking on the part of both son and eldest daughter, are well-done. She’s completely selfish and unlikable, but not unknowable. There is a balance here that makes it possible to feel empathy for her, even in lying to Hannah in what could potentially mean the difference between being allowed a sobbing death-bed scene. Hannah, too, is well played. She wants to buck these traditions and resents the way her sister has failed to develop as an individual, rather than just a role in the family’s structure. While she’s more relatable, she is also pretty selfish.

The story goes off-roading in the latter half: An added bit of familial drama that explains strained relations, a revelation that seems mis-timed and understated in its set up, making it jut from the novel’s flow like a double-jointed limb. It’s followed by a scene involving Janie that also feels ill-conceived in a novel that already has enough dramatic moments, it doesn’t require unsolicited sexual advances from a thesis advisor to add to her characterization or add salt to the plot.

Some of this is really sink-into-able, but it also really drags with a sick bed scene that turns the father into something akin to the killer in horror films, always popping up for one last gust of terror. (less)

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Mar 21, 2012 Kathleen Hagen added it

Forgotten Country, by Catherine Chung, Narrated by Emily Woo Zeller, Produced by Audiogo, downloaded from audible.com.

Jamie, the protagonist of this story, is Korean, grows up in a Korean family who leave Korea suddenly when she is about twelve and move to the U.s. Their Korean names are dropped for American names. Hence she becomes Jamie, her younger sister becomes Hannah. Jamie is the older daughter who feelsthe pressure to protect her parents and her sister. Hannah on the other hand, doesn’t...more

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Mar 20, 2012 Thorn MotherIssues rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2012, adoption-reading-challenge

Just a gorgeously written book with organic twists and turns, deep characters all over the place. Janie immigrated to the US from Korea as a child, and now she's working on her PhD and her parents return to Korea when her father is stricken with a health crisis, while her younger sister has run away and wants nothing to do with the family. Janie's grandmother had told her that each generation of her family loses a girl, and much of the book has to do with the governing stories people tell themse...more

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Mar 10, 2012 Karen White rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club-group-reads

I received an ARC of this book as a participant in BOOK CLUB, a joint venture between Linus' Blanket and Devourer of Books.

Riverhead books describes Forgotten Country: “Weaving Korean folklore and history within a modern narrative of immigration and identity, Catherine Chung delivers a fierce exploration of the inevitability of loss and the conflict between loyalty and freedom. Forgotten Country marks the debut of a graceful, astonishing new voice in fiction, one with a quiet ferocity that will...more
I received an ARC of this book as a participant in BOOK CLUB, a joint venture between Linus' Blanket and Devourer of Books.

Riverhead books describes Forgotten Country: “Weaving Korean folklore and history within a modern narrative of immigration and identity, Catherine Chung delivers a fierce exploration of the inevitability of loss and the conflict between loyalty and freedom. Forgotten Country marks the debut of a graceful, astonishing new voice in fiction, one with a quiet ferocity that will break your heart.”

This book explores the relationships in a Korean family, immigrants to the US, and the repercussions of their adjustments to the new culture that they try to embrace as well as the difficulties they left behind. As the book begins, Janie, the eldest child (now an adult) struggles to accept her sister Hannah’s willful disappearance, as her father’s health fails and her parents decide to return to Korea.

My first, emotional response to the book was very personal. One of my housemates and very good friends in college was Korean. She had emigrated with her family to the US at the age of 12 in the mid ‘70s. Reading this book made me feel so sad and horrible -- that perhaps there were things that her family left behind in Korea (for good or bad) that I never knew to ask about. All I remember her ever talking about was that they were so undernourished when they came to the US that the food here was completely overwhelming (and she hated the stretch marks on her body that came from the ballooning of weight once she started to really eat). But the positive side of her story, and what makes me ache for Janie and her family in FORGOTTEN COUNTRY, is that my friend emigrated to Queens, NY where they lived and worked in a huge Korean community. Her mother actually never learned to speak English because she didn’t have to. Her dad was successful and happy working in the Fashion District in Manhattan, primarily with other Koreans. And the kids managed to straddle the worlds, going to high school and then college with people from all over. I think that the isolation that Janie’s family faced was devastating to all of them, but in different ways. I have another closer friend who moved her from the Netherlands at the same age; they lived in Northern CA and only knew one other family from Holland there. She had a really difficult time adjusting, and her family always felt isolated and different. 

This book goes beyond the immigrant experience, however. It pries open the fist of family secrets, of adolescent woes, of family that intrudes without supporting, in a way that is universal. The weight of the secrets add a layer of melancholia over the book, but there is enough love and hope to keep it from being overwhelmingly sad.

Throughout the book, Chung weaves Korean folklore into the family’s story. Several of these stories really struck me, especially with how they expressed the feeling of abandonment that Janie and Hannah feel. Janies relates two stories their mother had told them as children. The first is a story of a seal woman, who unknowingly marries the man who had stolen her skin and trapped her on land. The second tells the tale of a heavenly maiden who married a man who’d stolen her clothes keeping her on earth. Both seal woman and heavenly maiden leave their husband and family when the betrayal is discovered. Chung writes: “Growing up, Hannah and I had played at being seal-women. We’d played at heavenly maidens. We’d played at abandoning each other, over and over again.”  A chilling picture of this dysfunctional family.

The other story that really got to me was one that a professor of Hannah tells her. She finds a bird that cures itself of a deadly fungus disease through self mutilation: “Later she learned that if the bird had neglected to tear out a single feather, or left a single claw, the disease would have returned. But each rotten part of itself grew back new, and the bird lived and recovered, and flew away.”  Hannah’s mother’s unbelievable response is: “I’m glad you are here. And I am glad you have learned how difficult it is to survive.” What an incredible, disturbing metaphor, and how telling the response!

I highly recommend this book. It's not a light, fun read, but one that will stay with you and make you think.

(less)

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Mar 08, 2012 Gaby rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: asian-american-fiction, literary-fiction, amazon-vine

An engrossing read, Forgotten Country addresses a wide range of complex topics while remaining a family drama first and foremost. Catherine Chung weaves in these larger historical events. It seems that each of the three generations undergo major upheaval and loss whether from Japanese invaders, political factions within Korea, an authoritarian regime or from the North Korea-South Korea conflict. Chung weaves the history of the country in with the history of their family so we slowly learn how th...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Cameling rated it 4 of 5 stars

Family. The intricacies of family relationships. Our families can define us, our families can destroy us, our families provide us with the roots with which to ground us, and our families love us. But for all the complexities behind family relationships, for all the cruelty and anger we harbor against some of them, there are ties that continue to bind and support us in times of need.

Hannah is missing and her parents expect her older sister, Janie, to find her. Nobody knows where she has gone or...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Emily rated it 4 of 5 stars

Having read the blurb and back cover, I expected this book to be about Janie's search for her sister, Hannah, and the unraveling of the curse that causes their family to "lose a sister in every generation since the Japanese occupation" of Korea. However, the book was much more about the family relationships and the father's cancer diagnosis and gradual decline. This is unfortunately the second book I have read this week about which the advance information implied a mystery to solve that was not...more Having read the blurb and back cover, I expected this book to be about Janie's search for her sister, Hannah, and the unraveling of the curse that causes their family to "lose a sister in every generation since the Japanese occupation" of Korea. However, the book was much more about the family relationships and the father's cancer diagnosis and gradual decline. This is unfortunately the second book I have read this week about which the advance information implied a mystery to solve that was not delivered by the novel. On a related note, I wish publishers would just be honest about what the book is about. Most of us would read it anyway and for those who would not, I would think you'd prefer they skip it than have a negative feeling about your house or your author. /rant
What this book did deliver was a touching and poignant relationship between father and daughter and between the two sisters. Both sisters had notions about each other, who was more loved, who was more free to be themselves, who had it better growing up, that turned out to not necessarily be the case. Their father's illness caused them to become closer and face some things about their relationship and also about themselves that they had been hiding from. I found Janie, the first person narrator to be genuine and relatable with actual flaws and a dynamic arc.
The writing is beautiful and elegant, elevating the miserable and depressing parts about the father's illness and the sisters' ugly arguments. It also lends the anecdotes of past events (which there are many) a dreamlike and parable-like quality, which I would characterize as very Eastern.
One other mildly irritating thing was the lack of proper names. Mother, Father, Grandmother, Uncle, "Big Cousin"...we never learn their real names. The narrator tells long anecdotes about her family referring to them only by their relationship to herself. At times this is awkward and confusing, particularly when telling a story that involves "my mother's grandmother" and "my grandmother's mother", who are, of course, the same person, as well as "my mother's grandmother's sister." Had the author given these people names, it would be more clear to the reader whom was being spoken of. We never even learn the narrator's last name.
Besides this and the fact that there isn't really any resolution to the curse of the multiple lost sisters, I enjoyed reading about Janie and Hannah and their family. I was thrilled to learn more about Korea and the Korean way of life, which I don't know much about. My favorite parts were when Janie related some fable her parents or grandmother had told her when she was a child.
I would recommend this book to fans of novels about family relationships, but not those who are expecting a good mystery.(less)

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Apr 24, 2012 Monica rated it 5 of 5 stars

I love this book although it was quite depressing. I could relate to janie bc im a daddy girl and has done my best to please him but hannah reminds me of my sister who left home to find herself and grew from it. The auntie i dislike bc she reminds me of people who does something for someone only to throw it in their face inorder to get loyalty from that person. This book reminds me that life is a special gift and that we must waste no time crying and fighting over issues that can be resolved wit...more

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Mar 01, 2012 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction

Oh my GOD. So good. Bleak but beautiful. Wow.

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Jan 01, 2012 Gail rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a touching family story of separation (both from country and family) and of connection. Janie is the Korean/American daughter who always tries to do the right thing and who tortures herself for mistakes made. Her younger sister Hannah leaves the family without notice. The family is reunited and back in their homeland of Korea to await the father's death. We are gently led back in time to know the family's history in Korea and of their move to Michigan.
I enjoyed this book and getting to...more

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Nov 11, 2012 Handan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: just-for-fun

This is a neat little story, and I mean "neat" in the sense of orderly, not nifty. That's not to say I didn't enjoy the read; I rather did, actually. Chung's skipping about between Janie's past and present, as well as the insertion of stories of the siblings in her family's past, worked for me. I'd be interested in going back and tracking the storylines, if I had time. This was the first time in a year or so I chose an "adult" non-fiction, but I see no reason this couldn't be recommended to the...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Mara rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: family, fiction, sisters, cancer

At the outset, this book seems to be about a fairly ordinary Korean-American family. Although the younger sister has left town without telling her family where she's gone, her actions seem like an understandable act of rebellion (as opposed to the mystery the jacket-blurb would have you believe). In point of fact, she is relatively easily found and returned to the family fold, although the real reasons she left are frustratingly left un-fleshed out.

Soon after we meet this family, however, it see...more

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Apr 20, 2012 Amanda Caldwell rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: asia, 2010s

It was decent. It's like an Amy Tan novel meets The Weird Sisters. It reminded me a lot of The Weird Sisters. And by saying it was "like an Amy Tan" novel, I mean it wasn't like an Amy Tan novel but it felt like that's what the author was really aiming for. The ending was totally flat, I turned the page thinking there was more because it was like it just literally ended out of nowhere. Poof! It's over. I don't regret reading it, but it could have been better. The characters weren't likable, not...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not what I expected, but a good read. Most of "Forgotten Country's" descriptions include these details: young, Korean-American woman has to track down her sister, after said sister (who has always been somewhat more aloof than other members of the family) takes off and will not visit or speak with her parents or sister. Although this is true, I kind of felt like the bigger story was more about this young woman and her relationship with her parents. Like many young adults, Janie (her American nam...more

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May 05, 2013 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars

There were aspects of the book I did enjoy and others I didn't, but for the most part, it was a well written and enjoyable read.

The characters were okay, they weren't likable, but they were unlikeable either. I think that if I had been able to connect to the characters a little better, the story would have had a different impact on me. Janie was a character who was difficult to like and because the story revolves through her perspective, it definitely influenced how I felt about the book. Her c...more

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Nov 17, 2012 Cheryl rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book was at times harrowing in its unflinching look at Korean family relationships and how they were affected by history. It's almost too much for a single novel to contain every traumatic historical event for the past 75 years--from Japanese atrocities to repatriation of Korean-Americans, but the limited space of a single book forces Chung to keep returning the focus to nuclear family relationships, especially the troubled relationship between the two sisters. This is all well-covered terr...more

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Feb 16, 2012 Sara Kovach rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2012, a-to-z-challenge, a-to-z, historical-fiction

Forgotten Country is a very emotionally moving novel full of heartbreak, betrayal, forgiveness, reunion, and death that spans many generations and two countries - America and Korea.

At the heart of this novel are two sisters born in Korea and raised in America by immigrant parents. Younger sister, Hannah, mysteriously leaves, and Janie has the burden and responsibility placed on her by her family to find her and bring her home. The girl's father has become ill, and the urgency to bring Hannah ho...more Forgotten Country is a very emotionally moving novel full of heartbreak, betrayal, forgiveness, reunion, and death that spans many generations and two countries - America and Korea.

At the heart of this novel are two sisters born in Korea and raised in America by immigrant parents. Younger sister, Hannah, mysteriously leaves, and Janie has the burden and responsibility placed on her by her family to find her and bring her home. The girl's father has become ill, and the urgency to bring Hannah home is intensified.

All I can say is WOW! I read this novel straight through - only stopping to eat, sleep, and shower - and struggled to do so then!!! What a powerful story. So much wrapped up in the pages of this book - so much history - both for the country of Korea and the family involved. The family's past is so entwined in the history of Korea, and it follows them to America. The family dynamics is a very integral part of this novel, especially the connectedness with the generations that remain in Korea - grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.

I so felt for Janie. So many layers to this character. She has so much responsibility on her shoulders - placed there not only from herself, but her family as well. Her parents never had a son, so felt the pressure to take up many of the duties that a son would have. Always looking after her sister, following in her father's footsteps in her graduate studies, always doing as her parents asked.

Hannah was so different from her sister. She is so distant, so foreign throughout most of the story. Although her story is very deep, it is not until the end that we get to understand just where she is coming from.

Living in America we often take for granted how families work. The culture described in the pages of this book was very fascinating for me to read about - so different from anything I have personally experienced - very informative. The author's writing style makes this story so inviting and easy to read. It is hard to believe that this is her debut novel. I look forward to more from Catherine Chung.(less)

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Mar 09, 2013 Kelly Davis rated it 3 of 5 stars

(3.5 stars)

Forgotten Country is the story of generations' worth of family tragedies, from the death and destruction of the Korean War through modern-day struggles with loss and grief. Chung's prose will draw you into the tumultuous circle of the protagonist's close-knit family and the series of misfortunes that makes up their past and present. The relationships are beautifully rendered, especially between main character Janie and her father. Janie's struggle to learn that living your life to ple...more

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Aug 07, 2012 Jenny Paxson rated it 4 of 5 stars

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About Catherine Chung

Catherine Chung lives in New York, where she is working on a new novel and a collection of essays. She can often be found eating ice cream, petting other people's dogs, or wandering around with her nose in a book.

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Quotes from Forgotten Country

“Each life contains as much meaning as all of history.” — 6 people liked it

“My father told his acquaintances about that for years, even though both Hannah and I had given up on wormholes and the Child Genius series very soon afterward. That must have made my father sad, as it had made him sad when we stopped being excited about family vacations, when we stopped being open about our interests, and left home and pursued lives of our own. It was just regular growing up, of course, the kind everyone does, but it still made him sad, I know, like the memory I have of the time he dropped me off at the train station when I was going back to Chicago. I could see him through the window of the train, but he couldn't see me through the tinted glass. From up in the train, he looked so small. If he'd seen me, he would have smiled and waved, but he didn't know I could see him, and the sadness on his face was exposed to me then. He looked lost. He stood there on the platform a long time, even after my train started pulling away, still trying to catch a glimpse of me waving back.” — 3 people liked it

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12189193-forgotten-country?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328313794l/12189193.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/12189193-forgotten-country?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Forgotten Country by Catherine Chung[/url]

Forgotten Country

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