A Review of An Na’s A Step from Heaven (Atheneum Reprint Edition, 2016).

Posted by: lesliejfernandez

A Review of An Na’s A Step from Heaven (Atheneum Reprint Edition, 2016).

By Stephen Hong Sohn

This young adult/ children’s book is one I’ve meant to read forever. Like Linda Sue park, An Na is probably one of the best known Korean American authors who write for the younger age groups. Sadly, I hadn’t read anything from An Na. I’m not sure why, but chalk I it up to the fact that there’s just too much to keep up with. I frequently like to tell people that there was a time that I thought: okay, I can read it all. This thought obviously occurred when I was first delving into the field and was reliant upon the existing criticism to map out what was available. So A Step from Heaven was originally published quite a while back; it made a huge splash and won An Na a number of different accolades, definitely putting her on the map as an author to watch. I was excited to see it come out in this reprint edition, especially because Atheneum (which is a children’s literature imprint of Simon & Schuster) saw fit to publish it in both hardcover and paperback editions).

 

In any case, here is B&N with their usual pithy description: “At age four, Young Ju moves with her parents from Korea to Southern California. She has always imagined America would be like heaven: easy, blissful, and full of riches. But when her family arrives, she finds it to be the opposite. With a stubborn language barrier and cultural dissimilarities, not only is it impossible to make friends, but even her family’s internal bonds are wavering. Her parents’ finances are strained, yet her father’s stomach is full of booze. As Young Ju’s once solid and reliable family starts tearing apart, her younger brother begins to gain more freedom and respect simply because of his gender. Young Ju begins to lose all hope in the dream she once held—the heaven she longs for. Even as she begins to finally fit in, a cataclysmic family event will change her idea of heaven forever. But it also helps her to recognize the strength she holds, and envision the future she desires, and deserves.”

 

This novel was a very tough read. It immediately makes you wonder what stands for the generic taxonomy that circumscribes children’s literature? My tendency has been to think of this “form”—if we can call it that—as one that focuses on a singular narrative perspective that tends to see some younger child grow up through a challenging experience. The difference between this form and the bildungsroman is that the child typically does not fully grow up. That is, the child is still a child, just an older version of a child.  The other element is that these novels tend to have far more positive resolutions, leading us to the believe that the child figure has the ability to withstand some great conflict or trauma.

 

The trouble with Asian American writers working in this genre is that the “great conflict or trauma” is so often tied not only to the personal but some larger structural problematic. In this case, the father’s domestic abuse is obviously tied to the class dynamics of the family’s migration: they are barely making ends meet; the “step from heaven” that the United States is supposed to be hardly measures up to that celestial description. In any case, this work deviates from so many other cultural productions because of the gravity of its central conflicts and issues. The domestic abuse becomes so pervasive, I did not even understand how the novel was going to wrap up in any way that would resolve all the storylines.

 

Buy the Book Here:

 

Review Author: Stephen Hong Sohn
Review Editor: Leslie J. Fernandez

If you have any questions or want us to consider your book for review, please don’t hesitate to contact us via email!
Prof. Stephen Hong Sohn at ssohnucr@gmail.com
Leslie J. Fernandez, PhD Student in English, at lfern010@ucr.edu

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