The Island of Sea Women in Around the Year in 52 Books

Jun 14, 2020 Liz rated it liked it

This book falls victim to Good Read’s full-stars-only review system again; I would give this a solid 3.5 stars if I could! I liked this book, and recommend it, yet there were certain elements that didn’t quite do it for me.

This book is in the surface (no pun intended) a story is about the extraordinary female haenyeo divers of Jeju Island, but it’s about so much more than that. It’s about the atrocities of the Korean War and especially the brutal events that took place on Jeju island, it’s abou This book falls victim to Good Read’s full-stars-only review system again; I would give this a solid 3.5 stars if I could! I liked this book, and recommend it, yet there were certain elements that didn’t quite do it for me.

This book is in the surface (no pun intended) a story is about the extraordinary female haenyeo divers of Jeju Island, but it’s about so much more than that. It’s about the atrocities of the Korean War and especially the brutal events that took place on Jeju island, it’s about the nuance and unshakeable nature of lifelong friendship, it’s about forgiveness, and it’s threaded subtly yet indelibly with questions about understanding: how do you come to terms with things you can’t understand,how does human spirit compensate when it doesn’t have the tools to understand something, and how do truth and understanding coexist? The last theme snuck up on me and hit me hard; I didn’t realize how much of the story revolves around these questions until the very last page.

I learned more (embarrassingly) about the Korean War through reading this book than I had before in my life, and while brutally difficult to read in some places, I’m glad I read about it, and I think the author does an amazing job of depicting the impact of this war on the people of Jeju. So much of what happened was unspeakable, and yet so much of it was covered up for so long. In many ways, this theme plays into the friendships in this book too.

For all of the horror and the unpredictability of one enduring force in this book, war, the other enduring force of the sea is where we and the characters find sanctuary and constancy. Young-Sook, the narrator, and her friends and family aren’t immune to tragedy in the ocean, but it’s enduringly the source of life for their people and of respite from the pains they face on the land. I LOVED reading about the haenyeo and their skills, traditions, customs and friendships - their culture and their profession is mind-blowing. Watching the Hado haenyeo collective evolve as time went on, and watching it forced into the trappings of modern-day commercialization was fascinating.

The friendship between Young-Sook and Mi-Ja is what drives this book, and I agree that it’s wonderful and real. It also, though, was the source of my major frustration with the book. After the fall out of one of the major plot points of the story, Young-Sooks intense coldness and inability to forgive or seek to understand her friend is borderline insane, although she can be forgiven based on the circumstances. Equally, Mi-Ja’s inability to just come out with it and force Young-Sook to listen while she explains herself was wildly frustrating. If these two women were so close for so, so long, it was wild to me that they had lost their ability to see one another and hear one another. That said, this very inability is what pervades so much of the book so it’s still extremely on-theme, if not fun to read.

The fact that the entire miscommunication of the story was unraveled in the literally last 3 pages of the book with ONE PARAGRAPH OF ABSTRACT RESOLUTION almost killed me. Thank god for the beautiful sea scenes and my new found love for haenyeo, which saved me.

Overall, I very much liked this book, what it taught me about Jeju Island and Haenyeo culture, and the way it spoke to the power of females, their resolve, and their friendships. Read it, and then call me to complain about the whole 40-year friendship miscommunication.

...more

Like · see review

Sep 20, 2023 Clare rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: aty-challenge-2023

I admire the Sea Women. Lisa See chose a great group of women to write about - they’re inspiring and interesting. They are declining in number and their culture is so rich that we should learn about it while these strong, brave and wise women are still here to tell us about their lives.

Once again, Lisa See wrote an engaging and enlightening book. These characters are robust and complex. Their relationships are multi-faceted and relatable.

In school, we studied the Korean War and WWII but did no ...more

Like · see review

Oct 03, 2021 Camzcam rated it really liked it

This book is SO interesting! Lisa See is a genius at finding lesser known Asian women’s stories. This is by far my favorite of her books I’ve read though because I felt connected more to these characters than those in her other books. I learned so much about the fascinating haenyo or female divers in Korea as well as the traumatic and violent history of this part of the world.

Like · see review

Apr 30, 2022 Cat rated it it was ok

Was so heavily researched that I felt like the novel suffered for it. The characters became mouthpieces for what was going on in history. It just got so boring after a while because I knew the characters were going to have to march their way through every significant event of this time period in Korean history, but without really changing or having any interiority. I almost felt like this book would have been better as a nonfiction book.

Like · see review

Mar 14, 2022 Michelle Gragg rated it really liked it

I really enjoyed this book. The historical narrative was history I knew little about. I also loved the complexities of grief, friendship, and family that were woven throughout. Learning about matriarchal societies is always fascinating to me so that was a bonus too.

Like · see review

Oct 11, 2022 Jen Ifer's Inklings rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audio-books, library, read-in-2022

This was a mesmerizing story about the strength of women, love, friendship, heartache, loss, and survival. I don’t know why there isn’t more talk about this book. Definitely worth the read. (The audio book is fantastic.)

Like · see review

Jan 24, 2024 Angela Jones rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-club-books, aty-reading-challenge-2024

2024 ATY #10. A history or historical fiction book

Fascinating story of Jeju Island in Korea and the history of the female divers in the matrifocal society. Lisa See is an amazing writer and she brings the history of the places and people she writes about to life. This novel and Jeju Island is full of some very sad and violent occurrences and it can be a difficult book to read, but well worth it.

Like · see review

Nov 18, 2022 Ann rated it it was amazing

This is an unforgettable read and I kept mentioning it to friends and family. I did need a break after the genocide but overall it's a powerful story on resilience, forgiveness, and quiet authority. ...more

Like · see review