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Aug 14, 2011

Julie rated it:

I loved this book, which concerns the lives of two people, deeply impacted by horrors of war, in this case, the Korean War. There are other characters in the book, some of them quite major and others not, all of which are keenly depicted. I found myself alternately rooting for and despising the main characters. They are very, very real, and I was absolutely compelled by their trying to make their way through a life and make sense of themselves and their worlds in the aftermath of a war in whi More...

1 comment like (2 people liked it)

Dec 21, 2011

Albert rated it:

Gut wrenchingly sad and modestly joyful in alternating scenes. A racing crescendo bounding toward and end, but backward and forward in time. I stretched the reading of this book out too far, but still felt its grip as if I had never put it down.

It's for people with a bleak outlook on life and think that there may not really be happiness outside of leaving this world. It's for people who think that the world is comprised of half truths and lies with certainty found only in the end.
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1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Mar 16, 2011

Jill rated it:

This is a Pulitzer-prize caliber, epic and gripping novel that reveals the secrets and horrors that haunt those who are affected by war: an 11-year old war refugee, an American GI serving in Korea, a Presbyterian missionary who runs the orphanage, and more. Beautifully written, it packs a strong emotional punch; it focuses on the Korea War but the events could well take place in virtually any war. For those who revel in masterful literature with deeply flawed but authentic characters or for tho More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 11, 2012

Ruth rated it:

A dying Korean-american woman searches for her missing son across continents, accompanied by this guy whose relationship to her becomes more clear as their backstories are told, as well as the story of the other woman who is the link between them. It was a page-turner but I wouldn't really recommend it without reservation b/c it's so violent, large parts of it taking place in Korea during wartime. I am always torn when I'm reading things like this b/c I know it's important to acknowledge that More...

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Jul 10, 2011

L rated it:

I feel horribly guilty rating this book only a three. It is well written, compelling, and extremely thought provoking. But it is also probably the saddest book I have ever read and because of that I can't say that I "liked" it. The Surrendered is told from the point of view of three different characters: primarily June, a young girl who fled war torn Korea with her family to become a successful antiques dealer in New York; Hector, a soldier who is responsible for burying the dead, More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 03, 2011

Nikitabanana rated it:

In “The Surrendered,” Chang-Rae Lee examines the ruinous effects of the Korean War on two survivors: a child, June, who loses her entire family in the flight of civilian refugees southward down the Korean peninsula, and, an American soldier, Hector Brennan, caught in the same retreat.

“The journey was nearly over,” the book begins; a curious start for a long novel that is more about endurance than endings. During this first chapter, we’re introduced to June Han, a complicated personali More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 22, 2011

switterbug (Betsey) rated it:

There are a few prized novels in memory that ransacked me raw and bare while simultaneously enveloping me whole and full. This is a glittering example of one, a slow burn of a book that ignites slowly, gradually, like kindling around a giant bole. For the first half of the book, I admit, I wasn't seduced. I wasn't taken or thrown or fiercely engaged. For approximately 200 pages I held on ambivalently. Even my reader's body language was telling--the pages at arm's length, the angle of my body twi More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 04, 2011

Linda rated it:

Well. Hard to say exactly what I thought about this book. OK-- I thought many parts were beautifully written. I also thought it was way too long, yet the character development was way too thin. For having so many pages, the author didn't seem to know what to do with them. Three stars is maybe a little harsh, but the book wasn't worthy of four, so, without a half star option, three it is.

The book started out strongly-- you really felt that you were in the rice paddies, on the tra More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2010

Dee rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Nov 10, 2010

Mary Ellen rated it:

This was a book I'd expected to love, but didn't. I would give it 3.5 stars, were that possible. The prose is often lovely, but other elements of the book are weak.

Structure: The novel bounces back and forth among points of view as well as historical periods: 1950s Korea, 1980s New York and New Jersey, 1930s China.... It begins with 11-year old June and her younger siblings, refugees from fighting in the Korean War. This chapter was one of the most compelling in the book. The n More...

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May 28, 2010

Eugenia added it

What happens to life after you survive the atrocities and randomness of war? Chang-rae Lee examines the deep intricacies of this question and its ramifications in THE SURRENDURED, portraying three survivors (Korean War, China-Japan War) whose lives mesh at an orphanage somewhere in South Korea after liberation. From that common crossroad, the lives of Sylvie, a missionary wife, Hector, a G.I., and June, a Korean orphan, are forever intertwined, shadowed by pervasive doom pitted against the human More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 08, 2010

Kelly rated it:

This book is about June, Hector and Sylvie, who are connected by their experiences during the Korean War and the atrocities each experienced.

This book jumps back and forth in time and from person to person, so it can be confusing. (If you pay attention, you'll be fine, but I'd recommend not reading this when you're tired or distracted.)

This is not a happy book. It's not as depressing as you'd think, but there are times when I had to make myself stop reading and walk awa More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Apr 05, 2010

Alice rated it:

To what extent do we surrender to the trajectories of past experiences? When we move from a place of belonging to a place of not-belonging, what happens to our psyches?
June Han Singer, successful antiques dealer in New York City in the mid-1980s, is dying, but she has some unfinished business to resolve. She tracks down Hector, a hard-drinking janitor in New Jersey, and pays him to help her find her prodigal son. June and Hector have a shared past, and that past gradually emerges in this sk More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 02, 2010

Felice rated it:

I think I have read one of the novels that will be on everyone's top ten list next fall, The Surrendered by Chang-Rae Lee. Are you thinking that given Lee's track record: Native Speaker, A Gesture Life and Aloft that I am going out on a tiny, tiny limb? Well I would agree with you if The Surrendered was the spare, wonderful portraits that those novels were, but it is not. Surrenderd is a Grand Scale novel. It is a quest for redemption, a search for survivors looking for forgiveness..

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5 comments like (6 people liked it)

Dec 05, 2009

Kellyreaderofbooks rated it:

The Surrendered starts off with a young Korean girl named June trying to make her way to her uncle's house during the Korean War. She's been newly orphaned, and at the age of eleven is now the sole caretaker for her seven-year-old twin siblings. The Surrendered is also the story of Hector, a young American man serving in the army during the War. And then there's Sylvie, a middle-aged American woman who (along with her husband, Ames) is in charge of a Korean orphange right after the war. There's More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

May 27, 2011

Danica rated it:

I'm going to metaphorically summarize this novel for y'all, mmkay?

A young woman is a victim of a rampaging herd of fat space cows. After recovering in the hospital she takes to eating ceiling plaster and sticking her finger in the socket at every opportunity. She also abuses her son, which indirectly leads to his tragic death. Her father is a PTSD victim and cleans latrines for a living, reliving vivid hallucinations of the time he accidentally killed his own father. The young woman More...

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Nov 01, 2010

Meaghan rated it:

I got this book as an ARC from Penguin books. I have to say that I really enjoyed reading this book. It is told from the point of view of 3 people: June, Hector and Sylvie. The book goes back and forth from present time to the past. June is a young girl who lived through the Korean war and ends up at an orphanage and eventually grows up to have a boy and lives in America. In the present part of the book June is actually very sick with cancer. Hector is an American soldier during the war and even More...

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Feb 15, 2010

Jodi rated it:

Thanks to First Reads, I received a free copy of this book to read! This book gripped me right from the beginning with the story of June and her orphaned younger brother and sister! Such a tragic story! Then the book moved back and forth in time between June, Sylvia and Hector who all met up at an orphanage in Korea. All three of the main characters have a sad life and as their stories intertwine, their stories continue to be sad. I wish I could have read more about how June got to the orph More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Nov 26, 2011

Michelle rated it:

It’s the feel horrible book of the year! I’m not one who minds a bit of tragedy and/or darkness in a novel, but this takes it to a whole new level. There is no redemption for the characters. People die, often senselessly always brutally. And every plot point ends in sweeping disaster. Despite all this, it’s not even the atrocities of Very Horrible Events (take your pick...) it’s the atrocities of everyday kind of living that are gut-wrenching. Some of the most heartbreaking scenes for me were no More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

May 12, 2010

Jennifer (JC-S) rated it:

‘She was running for the train.’

June Han has forged a life thousands of miles from her birthplace: she has built a business in New York, borne a child, and survived a husband. Thirty years after her escape from war-ravaged Korea, and dying, it is time for her to confront aspects of her past. June’s story in Korea involves two others: Hector Brennan, an American soldier who saved June’s, and Sylvie Tanner a missionary’s wife, whom they both adored.

This is a complex More...

3 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 05, 2010

Geri rated it:

I had good feelings about this book as soon as I started it. Actually..I had good feelings about it before I started it. Don't ask me why..it was just a feeling. I liked the thought of reading about three so very different characters who's lives would touch each other for almost 30 years...I was curious about a story which would span continents. I was not let down...my feelings turned out to be correct...to a degree.

Surrendered...what was surrendered?

June. Orphaned at 1 More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 28, 2011

Beth Anne rated it:

ebook.

this book depressed me. it was full of awful characters, who did awful things, with awful results. nothing redeemed these characters. as the stories unfolded, and you found out the true history of each of their lives, i disliked them even more.

it's hard to like a book where you dislike everyone.

true, i had some feelings of sadness for both june and hector (not so much sylvie)...at different times in the novel...it didn't overshadow the looming iniquitousnes More...

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Aug 13, 2010

Anne rated it:

This one was a conundrum. The protagonist was a little more de-centered than in other Lee works, but still, everyone in this amplified arena was driven by a secret, or secrets, as per Lee's MO. Also, everyone very alienated. This is the first crack at a "world historical" story he's taken on(to my knowledge), as it begins at the tail end of the Korean War, with mass death, chaos, orphaned children. It's about the inner lives, tangential intensities that take over, and missed connection More...

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Jul 29, 2010

Rose rated it:

This book is heart-breaking and poignant. The protagonists, June, Hector, and Sylvie share a parallel fate after living through the destruction of war. In Surrendered, Chang Rae Lee shows us that the casualties of war are the ones who survive. They move through life among the living, indifferent, numb and almost soulless. June, emotionally unavailable, has an estranged relationship with her son. Hector, an alcoholic, meaninglessly drifts through life as a loner. And Sylvie, damaged and los More...

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Apr 27, 2011

Karen rated it:

I really admire Chang-Rae Lee as an author and was very excited to read "The Surrendered." The book just fell flat for me. I felt like it had too much going on and I kept waiting for the pay-off with the various storylines. When the pay-off finally came, it was weak and predictable.

The primary problem is the book is uneven in it's storytelling. Lee writes beautifully, often poetic. There is no question that he is talented and often a pleasure to read. However, this book has More...

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Apr 06, 2010

Bookmarks Magazine rated it:

Change-rae Lee explored ethic identity, assimilation, and American suburban life in his previous novels. The Surrendered--much bleaker in tone and unique in its third-person perspective and cinematic, sweeping scope--marks a departure for the acclaimed author. The ambitious, largely successful novel goes beyond pop psychology to chronicle the effects of violence on the souls of different lives, and, we feel fair to warn, death lurks on almost every page. Only the Washington Post criticized what More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 30, 2011

Seán rated it:

This is a case of perhaps where fondness for an author clouds one's overall opinion of a book. Broken down into constituent parts, "The Surrendered" is certainly Lee's weakest effort to date. Yet, there is still something here, something about Lee's surest diction (the man knows the full measure of a word) and his way of capturing life's profundities (regret, fear, death, et al.) without resort to Making Grand Pronouncements that leaves me thinking I will never stop coming back for the More...

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Oct 17, 2010

Clif rated it:

The story in this novel is filled with flashbacks in the lives of two principal characters to earlier episodes during and following the Korean War when their lives intersected. There's a third principal character who's background is also explored. All three of them experienced tragic losses of loved ones or family members during their youth. Then as if the flashbacks were not enough, the reader is hit with a tragic incident and a terrible disappointment in the current time line of the narrati More...

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May 22, 2010

G rated it:

I don't think I've ever tried harder to like a book than I did Chang-rae Lee's latest, The Surrendered. But I think a book should pull us in to its world, make us want, no, need to know what happens to its characters. We shouldn't have to try to like it.

The Surrendered is a departure for Lee. It is, perhaps, his most ambitious novel to date, and for this, I applaud him. His previous three novels were all written in the first person and revolved around a rather displaced male, wh More...

7 comments like (7 people liked it)

Feb 10, 2010

Susan rated it:

If you need Zoloft to get through the day and don't want to increase your dosage, run, don't walk, away from this book. It is about as far from a light, fun read as a book can be; the “serious literature” category is more apt.

The story grabbed me at chapter one. That chapter is about a little girl, June, who is trying to escape the horrors of the Korean war in 1950 and save her siblings as well as herself. Chapter two is the same person, sharp-edged and not very likeable, in 1986 More...

5 comments like (4 people liked it)

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