Eugenia Kim's Blog, page 7
February 3, 2010
A Gift of the Emperor, by Therese S. Park
A 17-year old girl is kidnapped to become a comfort women. Sensationalized hardships and overtly harsh depictions of brutality of Pacific war and brothel life slants toward propagandizing Japanese inhumanity toward the end of the war.
The Comfort Women: Japan's Brutal Regime of Enforced Prostitution in the Second World War, by George L. Hicks
An important history book, organized with clarity, without judgment, but with attempts to understand Japanese ethos and motivations that bred this atrocity. Includes narratives by victims.
A Cab Called Reliable, by Patti Kim
Sensitive coming-of-age novel of a Korean American girl in a divorced immigrant family setting with alcoholic father, submerged mother. Stirring evocation of the helpless yearning of youth. Published 1997.
East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee, by Younghill Kang
This literary autobiographical novel chronicles an immigrant's experience of America in the 20s through the war years, in New York City. Connection is made through the young man's education, his camaraderie with other émigrés, the kindness of friends, and the exchange of Chinese classic poetry. First published in 1937 and edited by powerhouse star editor Max Perkins. A seminal work in Korean
Comfort Woman, by Nora Okja Keller
A mother's mental illness rooted in a tortured past as a comfort woman is discovered by her daughter through interesting use of alternating chapters of voices past/present, real and ghost. Published in 1997, Keller's book was among the first in the U.S. to tackle the brutality of this practice during the Pacific War, when Japan conscripted young girls as "comfort nurses" for their troops
Yi Kwang-su and Modern Korean Literature: Mujong, by Ann Sung-hi Lee
Yi Kwang-su is considered among the first major modern Korean novelists, with his book Mujong, published in 1917 during the Japanese occupation. He is attributed with introducing irony and the drama of domestic intrigue into Korean literature. This translation of Mujong is also an analysis of literary precedents, use of language and diction, exploration of themes, and Yi's biography and youth.
The Fold, by An Na
Na's second novel (YA) addresses the notions about Asian beauty and the prevalent eye surgery that make Asian eyes "more Western." Joyce has to decide if she wants to have the eye surgery offered to her by her plastic-surgery-addicted aunt. Often compared as lesser than her beautiful older sister, Joyce didn't even think about her appearance until she met the most handsome boy in her school.
YELL-Oh Girls! Emerging Voices Explore Culture, Identity, and Growing Up Asian American, by Vickie Nam
An anthology of stories, poems, essays and letters by young (ages 15-22) Asian-American women who write about coming of age, identity, sexuality, stereotypes, school, culture, isolation and interracial dating.
The King's Secret: The Legend of King Sejong, by Carol J. Farley
For ages 5-8, this story about Korea's famed Renaissance man, King Sejong, shows the young king in the mid-1400s setting out to create a Korean vernacular alphabet to replace the unwieldy usage of Chinese characters used to write Korean phonetically. This system limited literacy to the education aristocrat class.
A Yankee in the Land of the Morning Calm, by Donald G. Southerton
A young adult historical novel follows the "Connecticut Yankee," Josh Gillet, to late 19th century Korea, a period when Americans begin to receive trade concessions and as a result begin to influence the deeply traditional agrarian culture of the cloistered nation. Josh falls in love and begins to come to terms with his identity.
