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The Grass Roof
autobiographical fiction > korea > fiction > 20th century Korea > history > 20th century > koreans > japan > fiction young men > korea fiction
LC Classification PS3521.A444 G7
LC Classification PS3521.A444 G7
356 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1931
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315 people want to read
About the author
Younghill Kang
11 books18 followersBorn in 1903 in what is now known as North Korea, Younghill Kang was educated in Korea and Japan. He emigrated to the U.S. in 1921, finishing his education in Boston and Cambridge. A prolific writer, Kang published articles in The New York Times, The Nation, The Saturday Review of Literature, and theEncyclopædia Britannica, among others. While teaching English at New York University, he became friends with fellow professor Thomas Wolfe, who introduced him to Scribner’s editor Maxwell Perkins. Kang’s first book, The Grass Roof, was published by Scribner’s in 1931. A children’s book based on Kang’s early life entitled The Happy Grove was published in 1933, and East Goes West was released in 1937. Throughout his life, Kang was the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including two Guggenheim fellowships, the New School’s Louis S. Memorial Prize, and an honorary doctorate in literature from Koryo University. Au Matin du Pays Calme, the French translation of The Grass Roof, won Le Prix Halperine Kaminsky, France’s annual award for best book in translation. Kang died in 1972 at his home in Satellite Beach, Florida.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
September 17, 2018
4,5
Younghill Kang is a divisive figure in the study of Asian American literature, in no small part due to how his work was read and criticized by his majority audience. There is no doubt that "Westerners" (i.e. European-descended White American people) is the audience here, which is reflected in language, explanations, and message-directing. Kang campaigned hard for US involvement to push back the Japanese occupation, after all. The book is ALSO however, an extraordinary record and telling of life in Korea in the early occupied years, told from the perspective of one who could compare and contrast from personal experience, as well as both Classical and Western-educated background. The snap quick descent into violence and trauma is visceral and difficult to read, especially knowing what was happening at the time to Classical scholars like Han and the Korean literati at the time (of course not even to breathe of the horror happening to the common people, and not even to breathe of what would soon occur due to inaction by Kang's audience). The book is not without criticism of Confucian Korea pre-Occupation and Westernization, and it is compelling to read. There are arguments to be made about all aspects of the book, though it has instead trended toward embarrassed obscurity -- it is very difficult to find its complete version, long long out of print (Kang's work pointedly was not re-printed as part of the Asian American Literature vanguard). The sequel, East Goes West, is a story of disillusionment and cultural and spiritual homelessness, an alienation from self that is made deeper by reading of the ambiguity created by old encountering new here in The Grass Roof.
There is also some debate around whether or not we can call The Grass Roof and East Goes West memoir or autobiographical novel (which does not imply autobiography so much as being true to personal or common experience for the purposes of reckoning.) I fall to the latter side, but whether or not genre truly impacts the reading is up to the individual.
Anyhow, I deeply enjoyed to read it. Form your own opinion. There is far more to the book than what it can teach us of history, though it does do that.
Younghill Kang is a divisive figure in the study of Asian American literature, in no small part due to how his work was read and criticized by his majority audience. There is no doubt that "Westerners" (i.e. European-descended White American people) is the audience here, which is reflected in language, explanations, and message-directing. Kang campaigned hard for US involvement to push back the Japanese occupation, after all. The book is ALSO however, an extraordinary record and telling of life in Korea in the early occupied years, told from the perspective of one who could compare and contrast from personal experience, as well as both Classical and Western-educated background. The snap quick descent into violence and trauma is visceral and difficult to read, especially knowing what was happening at the time to Classical scholars like Han and the Korean literati at the time (of course not even to breathe of the horror happening to the common people, and not even to breathe of what would soon occur due to inaction by Kang's audience). The book is not without criticism of Confucian Korea pre-Occupation and Westernization, and it is compelling to read. There are arguments to be made about all aspects of the book, though it has instead trended toward embarrassed obscurity -- it is very difficult to find its complete version, long long out of print (Kang's work pointedly was not re-printed as part of the Asian American Literature vanguard). The sequel, East Goes West, is a story of disillusionment and cultural and spiritual homelessness, an alienation from self that is made deeper by reading of the ambiguity created by old encountering new here in The Grass Roof.
There is also some debate around whether or not we can call The Grass Roof and East Goes West memoir or autobiographical novel (which does not imply autobiography so much as being true to personal or common experience for the purposes of reckoning.) I fall to the latter side, but whether or not genre truly impacts the reading is up to the individual.
Anyhow, I deeply enjoyed to read it. Form your own opinion. There is far more to the book than what it can teach us of history, though it does do that.
Read
February 16, 2011A very interesting book about a Korean boy turning man at the beginning of the 20th century that reads so well you will probably finish it in one day. I believe it provides useful insight into the history and cultural context of the Far East no matter if you know practically nothing about it or just need to fill in the lesser known Korean aspect.
Read
April 25, 2019An old-fashioned autobiographical novel, which didn't seem to have much point other than to educate Americans about the ways of old Korea... a relic of a time when nice liberals in America and Britain still talked about "the family of man" and such things. But I suppose it was nice enough as a glimpse into this world, even if I can't say that it was especially original or unusual. There's no real reason to recommend it, but hey, not bad.
September 30, 2021
The Grass Roof covers the protagonist Han Chang-Pa’s life as a child, then a teenager, until he immigrates to the United States. The first section (Book 1) depicts a tranquil lifestyle, growing up in a small village, Song-Dune-Chi, meaning the village of the pine trees, in present day North Korea’s Hamkyong (some 300 miles north of Seoul). The protagonist is being groomed for a future town scholar and leader. There are entertaining adventures of thwarting a male cousin’s tricks on his female cousin, of absent-mindedly leaving his house at night, without clothing, to be seen by a female neighbor, and another scene where the ox he was responsible for saved him during a large flood. We also get descriptions of weddings and funeral services. This section draws to an end with the Japanese arrival in Korea, and a Japanese officer striking his grandmother.
The second section (Book 2) described the protagonist’s desire to learn, leaving the village against his father's wishes, walking to Seoul using a few coins, his charm and stealth. We learn about his education in Seoul, his expulsion from Japanese school for refusing to apologize for the ignorance of a Japanese teacher, and his pluck to board a train (as a porter) and a boat to Japan, where he enrolls in school. In the last sections, he returns to Korea, works at various jobs, trying to find a way to get to the United States, and being part of the larger 1919 March declaration of independence.
The first book is lighter in tone; the second part heavier, with increased dislike for the Japanese occupation. The value in reading this is that is captures one person’s image of Korea in that time period, a snapshot of life. It also reveals his biases towards Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans.
He wrote this book ten years after arriving in the United States. Its style simple, but at time eloquent, as the talks about various issues, such as the beauty of Chinese poetry, the serenity of his Korean village, the passion of independence, and his feelings about a woman, whose name he never knew, who captured his imagination of beauty and intelligence. He named her Princess Immortality. He writes, “But she whose name we never know, whose soul we never capture, whose background and whose boundaries are ever hidden, she alone is immorality.… Time goes, man gets old, everything changes, but memory of the beautiful stays in the heart.”
The author wrote a sequel to this book, named East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee. This book describes his frustration encountered after reaching his dreamed about country. It talked about the racism he encountered and was less well liked by the critics.
Yet, through is writing he has captured a perhaps idealized version of Korea, and is often referred to as the “father of Korean American literature.”
FB. Written in 1931, the book provides a depiction of life at the time of transition of Korea from independent to a colony of Japan; of observations on culture and its tearing because of change; of biases among the various nationals in East Asia; of a nationalist passion in Korea; and of a determination, by any means, to achieve whatever goal the protagonist has. At times idealize, and at times artful in description.
Comments on Editions
This review is based on the 1966 Follett re-issue of The Grass Roof.
The Grass Roof was originally published in 1931 by Scribners, re-issued by Follett Publishing Company in 1966. It comprises two books. Book 1 covers the authors (perhaps idealized) life in the village of Song-Dune-Chi, or “The Village of the Pine Trees,” in Hamkyong (300 miles north of Seoul). Book 2 is a darker portion of his life, when the protagonist, HAN Chang-Pa, comes to grips with the Japanese control of Korea and its disruptive influence on life, tradition, culture, and family.
Book 1 was published a 1975 by Norton, paired with another memoir The Yalu Flows by Mirok Li. See my review for this edition at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
Other References on the Author
Younghill Kang. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younghi...
Kang, Younghill 1903-1972. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/edu...
The second section (Book 2) described the protagonist’s desire to learn, leaving the village against his father's wishes, walking to Seoul using a few coins, his charm and stealth. We learn about his education in Seoul, his expulsion from Japanese school for refusing to apologize for the ignorance of a Japanese teacher, and his pluck to board a train (as a porter) and a boat to Japan, where he enrolls in school. In the last sections, he returns to Korea, works at various jobs, trying to find a way to get to the United States, and being part of the larger 1919 March declaration of independence.
The first book is lighter in tone; the second part heavier, with increased dislike for the Japanese occupation. The value in reading this is that is captures one person’s image of Korea in that time period, a snapshot of life. It also reveals his biases towards Japanese, Chinese, and Koreans.
He wrote this book ten years after arriving in the United States. Its style simple, but at time eloquent, as the talks about various issues, such as the beauty of Chinese poetry, the serenity of his Korean village, the passion of independence, and his feelings about a woman, whose name he never knew, who captured his imagination of beauty and intelligence. He named her Princess Immortality. He writes, “But she whose name we never know, whose soul we never capture, whose background and whose boundaries are ever hidden, she alone is immorality.… Time goes, man gets old, everything changes, but memory of the beautiful stays in the heart.”
The author wrote a sequel to this book, named East Goes West: The Making of an Oriental Yankee. This book describes his frustration encountered after reaching his dreamed about country. It talked about the racism he encountered and was less well liked by the critics.
Yet, through is writing he has captured a perhaps idealized version of Korea, and is often referred to as the “father of Korean American literature.”
FB. Written in 1931, the book provides a depiction of life at the time of transition of Korea from independent to a colony of Japan; of observations on culture and its tearing because of change; of biases among the various nationals in East Asia; of a nationalist passion in Korea; and of a determination, by any means, to achieve whatever goal the protagonist has. At times idealize, and at times artful in description.
Comments on Editions
This review is based on the 1966 Follett re-issue of The Grass Roof.
The Grass Roof was originally published in 1931 by Scribners, re-issued by Follett Publishing Company in 1966. It comprises two books. Book 1 covers the authors (perhaps idealized) life in the village of Song-Dune-Chi, or “The Village of the Pine Trees,” in Hamkyong (300 miles north of Seoul). Book 2 is a darker portion of his life, when the protagonist, HAN Chang-Pa, comes to grips with the Japanese control of Korea and its disruptive influence on life, tradition, culture, and family.
Book 1 was published a 1975 by Norton, paired with another memoir The Yalu Flows by Mirok Li. See my review for this edition at https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
Other References on the Author
Younghill Kang. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Younghi...
Kang, Younghill 1903-1972. https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/edu...
February 21, 2024
The Valley of Utopia:
"This village where I was born--Song-Dune-Chi, or The Village of the Pine Trees-- was made up entirely of my own relatives, a clan by the name of Han, who were ruled by national ideal which had been handed down from father to son for innumerable generations..."
The Prodigal Son:
" My uncle pak-sa set the date of my junior uncle's marriage for the April moon. then my junior uncle would be twenty-two and his fiancee twenty-one. My junior uncle was really his age; many fathers lied on the birth certificate about the ages of their sons, being in great haste to have grandsons. I knew many young fathers, fifteen or sixteen years old, and still in the village school. the mothers of their children were large mature girls, several years older. My own wage had been falsified by five or six years on village records, and my father destined me for one of these matches.."
Ebbing Life:
"After he [my grandfather] was buried in this propitious spot, my future as a pak-sa ought to have been assured; except that conditions began to change so rapidly after my uncle pak-sa returned from Seoul...Now you are all over with the five lusts: life should be suave, easy, luxurious...
'He is as bright mentally as he is agile, yet I fear the time for a really handsome scholar's career is almost over. With Japanese overrunning the court, there is no future for anybody in the country...'
...'What is to happen to our poor children deprived of the culture of a thousand years?'"
Vile But Not Obscene:
"Shun-Hi and Nan-Cho were so far removed from the Western or Neo-Japanese prostitute that the women who the Japanese were steadily importing into Korea...For the profession of the Korean gisha girl was the very ancient, highly skilled one of entertaining officials of the land, that is to say poets and scholars...They were specialists in solacing the Bohemian side of man's nature..."
Decent But Dumb:
"The next Fall I was more than thrilled when my village selected me and one of my older cousins as their quota to the Western school in the market-place established by leaders of the province in reluctant agreement to the situation..."
Doomsday:
"...the 29th of August, 1910, when all treaties were annulled and Korea was publicly declared annexed...
When the new reached the grass roof in Song-Dune-Chi, my father turned a dark red, and could not even open his mouth...My first thought...
Now I cannot be a pak-sa or the prime minister of Korea."
My 30th and 31st books finished this calendar year, fast expiring, are by a notable Korean immigrant to the United States. The first of the two "East Goes West : The Making of an Oriental Yankee" is the autobiographical novel of Kang's time in the United States and Canada. The second has not been reprinted as was "East Goes West", so I am glad that the University of Iowa has copies. I encountered Mr, Kang after reading the autobiographical novel of a Filipino immigrant to the United States, "America Is in the Heart" by Carlos Bulosan, because Bulosan was inspired by Kang's rendition of his own life into fictional format. The three books have made me think quite a lot about the uses of autobiography, memoir, and autobiographical novel for the telling of ones life. The three ways have an impact about what is told and how it is told. The novel is a powerful compression and dramatization of truth, often in place of the real facts or happenings, that exposition nonfiction cannot reach. Kang was a master of symbol, history, emotion and expressing the current world situations of the first eighteen years of his life in "The Grass Roof." From the chapter titles to the essence of historic milieu is a work of art above all and a revelation that few histories can achieve, all within the vessel of a lifetime for one individual. It is quite true that the history of a person is like the "Dr. Who" police call box, bigger on the inside than on the outside.
"This village where I was born--Song-Dune-Chi, or The Village of the Pine Trees-- was made up entirely of my own relatives, a clan by the name of Han, who were ruled by national ideal which had been handed down from father to son for innumerable generations..."
The Prodigal Son:
" My uncle pak-sa set the date of my junior uncle's marriage for the April moon. then my junior uncle would be twenty-two and his fiancee twenty-one. My junior uncle was really his age; many fathers lied on the birth certificate about the ages of their sons, being in great haste to have grandsons. I knew many young fathers, fifteen or sixteen years old, and still in the village school. the mothers of their children were large mature girls, several years older. My own wage had been falsified by five or six years on village records, and my father destined me for one of these matches.."
Ebbing Life:
"After he [my grandfather] was buried in this propitious spot, my future as a pak-sa ought to have been assured; except that conditions began to change so rapidly after my uncle pak-sa returned from Seoul...Now you are all over with the five lusts: life should be suave, easy, luxurious...
'He is as bright mentally as he is agile, yet I fear the time for a really handsome scholar's career is almost over. With Japanese overrunning the court, there is no future for anybody in the country...'
...'What is to happen to our poor children deprived of the culture of a thousand years?'"
Vile But Not Obscene:
"Shun-Hi and Nan-Cho were so far removed from the Western or Neo-Japanese prostitute that the women who the Japanese were steadily importing into Korea...For the profession of the Korean gisha girl was the very ancient, highly skilled one of entertaining officials of the land, that is to say poets and scholars...They were specialists in solacing the Bohemian side of man's nature..."
Decent But Dumb:
"The next Fall I was more than thrilled when my village selected me and one of my older cousins as their quota to the Western school in the market-place established by leaders of the province in reluctant agreement to the situation..."
Doomsday:
"...the 29th of August, 1910, when all treaties were annulled and Korea was publicly declared annexed...
When the new reached the grass roof in Song-Dune-Chi, my father turned a dark red, and could not even open his mouth...My first thought...
Now I cannot be a pak-sa or the prime minister of Korea."
My 30th and 31st books finished this calendar year, fast expiring, are by a notable Korean immigrant to the United States. The first of the two "East Goes West : The Making of an Oriental Yankee" is the autobiographical novel of Kang's time in the United States and Canada. The second has not been reprinted as was "East Goes West", so I am glad that the University of Iowa has copies. I encountered Mr, Kang after reading the autobiographical novel of a Filipino immigrant to the United States, "America Is in the Heart" by Carlos Bulosan, because Bulosan was inspired by Kang's rendition of his own life into fictional format. The three books have made me think quite a lot about the uses of autobiography, memoir, and autobiographical novel for the telling of ones life. The three ways have an impact about what is told and how it is told. The novel is a powerful compression and dramatization of truth, often in place of the real facts or happenings, that exposition nonfiction cannot reach. Kang was a master of symbol, history, emotion and expressing the current world situations of the first eighteen years of his life in "The Grass Roof." From the chapter titles to the essence of historic milieu is a work of art above all and a revelation that few histories can achieve, all within the vessel of a lifetime for one individual. It is quite true that the history of a person is like the "Dr. Who" police call box, bigger on the inside than on the outside.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews