I've just been about dying to get my hands on ANY Korean lit, and the ripples of excitement that shot right up inside me when I found this gem in a pile of secondhand books was just... unexplainable. I couldn't believe it - not only was it Korean, but it was Korean YA, written by a legit Korean with a LEGIT Korean surname! Anneonghaseyo, new favorite book! The first and last time I read legit Korean lit was in 2009, and it was Nora Okja Keller's Fox Girl, that devastating book. Since this was YA, I was looking forward to less heavier stuff than prostitution and poverty... only to be disappointed. Not disappointed in the way that I'd like to shove this in the deepest and darkest soils of South Korea land, but disappointed that it wasn't the fluffy, K-poppy, bubble-blowing book I expected it to be. It was about a 19-year-old Minnesota-grown Korean girl, Sarah, who decided to visit her true motherland (fatherland, as Koreans call it), South Korea, to find traces of her biological parents (who were said to be dead from an accident) or any kinship or heritage. Even though I'm not adopted (or at least, I believe so, hah) and might not fully understand how being one would feel, I have always set aside a place in my heart for stories like this. (It might not make sense to other people, but I like the feeling of envisioning myself in other people's perspective.) And there's a place for travel stories in my heart, too, especially it's Korea this book is talking about... TRIPLE! EXCLAMATION! MARKS! Since the author decided to put Sarah's story and her biological mother's, Kyung-sook, alternately by time/year, it was like a free tour in Seoul and its neighboring provinces circa 1970s and 1990s!Yay!s-I think I might have said it all above.-NO, WAIT! Maybe I could expound: There are lots of Korean cultural references - from language and music to food and traditions, but what is even better is the fusion of American ones into it, since Sarah, and a couple of her classmates from her il-gup class, were from the US. That's like having the best of both worlds, having your cake and eating it, too, hitting two birds in one stone, etc.-The blurb does give off the vibe of weepy sappy I-don't-know-who-I-am times, but to be fair, there were a couple of fun times, too, i.e. Jun-ho's Engrish. I am not making fun of the way Koreans speak English, as most Asians do have problems in adopting a foreign second tongue, but with how the author wrote it, you'd know she meant to amuse. -I LIKED THE ENDING VERY MUCH. I don't want to give anything away but here's a small clue: FOH REALZ.Boo!s-The cover could do better, really.-I don't mean to be shallow, but I wish Doug, Sarah's Korean-American temp boyfriend in Seoul, was described more handsomely. It's such a typical YA template but I NEEDED HIM TO BE FLAWLESS BECAUSE HE WAS ALMOST THE ONLY PERFECT THING IN THE STORY. Well, there lies the irony.-Although I thought the ending was perfect, I can't help but wish for a more idealistic one.
The timeline for how long Sarah was away was confusing because many of the activities sounded like they were occurring in a seamless flow, yet at the end it was stated she was gone a full year. A year of her selfishly not contacting her parents to let them know how she was doing and contempt for them trying to keep communicating with her.I was disappointed that the birth mother took all those steps to locate Sarah after the episode aired but lied to the show when asked if she knew anything about the baby. If she'd admitted it then things would have been smoother for both ladies.In the end of her time in Korea Sarah returned to the US just as unsure of herself & lost to who she could have been as she was when she first touched down and still sporting her ungrateful attitude towards her adoptive parents.
Do You like book Somebody's Daughter (2006)?
While I really enjoyed the author's insights into Korean culture and adoption, I found the depiction of Sarah's Minnesota family to be cartoonish, flat and angry. The novel was engaging after the first 50 pages or so, and I especially liked Kyung-Sook's story. I did find myself lost in a sea of overwrought similes and metaphors, ("...their bodies fit together as nicely as the yin-yang symbol on their country's flag...." and "...her face broke out in a smile, so wide it turned her eyes into black tildes that might grace a word like manana"), but overall a good read.
—Joan
I honestly HATED this book. It had some cultural insights at times and a different writing style than most books (since it switched back and forth from the point of views of Sarah and Kyung-sook), but the majority of the book was nonsense. Too many characters were introduced without be developed fully. ** POSSIBLE SPOILER ALERT**For instance, there are multiple minor characters in the book named Jeannie, who are only mentioned a few times in the book saying unimportant things which could have ea
—Bubbly
Phenomenal! This book follows in the footsteps of authors Amy Tan, Richard Wright, Toni Morrison, and Chang Rae Lee in dealing with issues of cultural identity. It’s a beautiful introduction into Korean culture and a moving story about a young woman searching for her birth mother. The conclusion pleasantly surprised me by being realistic. I respect her for not spoon-feeding me a fluffy ending. The Korean proverbs quoted were quite beautiful and meaningful and the characters were deeply moving as well. I highly recommend this novel.I’ll blog more about this in my next book review on The Demon Stole My Pencil.http://norabpeevy.blogspot.com/2011/0...
—Nora Peevy
