Here’s a stylish artwork on this promotional Video for Ron McMillan’s Yin Yang Tattoo. Via ROK Drop. http://bit.ly/cghkDx # LKL’s review of the book can be found here. [Read More]
Category: Fiction in English (page 4)
James Church interviewed on Korean Kontext
An interview with the elusive James Church, author of Corpse in the Koryo and the other fun novels in the Inspector O series. Podcast on Korean Kontext. http://bit.ly/cc3GbE # [Read More]
An evening with Changrae Lee
LKL reports from the evening with Korean American author Changrae Lee, chaired by Erica Wagner, as part of the Asia House Festival of Asian Literature, 24 May 2010. The Asia House Festival of Asian Literature, now in its fifth year, for the first time included Korean representation this year. With such a title, you might … [Read More]
Schama reviews Surrendered
"A novel of desire and displacement that is brilliantly flawed". Simon Schama reviews Changrae Lee's The Surrendered in the FT http://bit.ly/auQAMl # [Read More]
Brief book review: Dictée – Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha: Dictée University of California Press, 2001. Originally published 1982. Not all books are easy to read, and it would be a dull world in which all books were. The assessment of whether to continue struggling through a difficult book is tricky: maybe it will all come together in the end – … [Read More]
Book review: The Wandering Ghost
Martin Limón: The Wandering Ghost Soho Press, 2007 While North of the DMZ we have the ongoing series of the enigmatic Inspector O to keep us entertained with mystery, suspense and action, south of the border we have the maverick military police sergeants George Sueño and Ernie Bascom. Where Inspector O inhabits a contemporary world, … [Read More]
Brief review: A Ricepaper Airplane
Gary Pak: A Ricepaper Airplane University of Hawai’i Press, 1998 Synospis (from the back of the book) From a hospital bed a dying man unfolds the tale of an arduous life on the fringes of a Hawai’i sugar plantation in the 1920s. There Kim Sung-wha – labourer, patriot, revolutionary, aviator – envisioned building an airplane … [Read More]
Bamboo and Blood: Inspector O is back on form
James Church: Bamboo and Blood St Martin’s Press, 2008 After Inspector O’s slightly disappointing second outing, James Church is back on form with the third novel in the series, Bamboo and Blood. In another fast-paced story, set against the backdrop of the North Korean 1997 famine and the US-DPRK talks in Geneva, Inspector O is … [Read More]
Margaret Drabble: the search for the Crown Princess
A couple of years ago at the BAKS conference Margaret Drabble gave a fascinating talk about how she came to be captivated by the story of Lady Hyegyong, wife of Prince Sado. Sado was son of a king and father of a king, but never made it to the throne himself. Lady Hyegyong wrote her … [Read More]
The end of the line — a review of Y Euny Hong: Kept
Y Euny Hong: Kept – a comedy of sex and manners Simon & Schuster, 2006 The author of this entertaining comedy, Y Euny Hong, claims to speak from experience as a surviving descendent of a declining Korean aristocratic family. Making a living now as a journalist, she was given the generous opportunity of 3 pages … [Read More]
The Gyopo PI
Leonard Chang: Fade to Clear Thomas Dunne Books, 2004 This is the third novel featuring the private investigator Allen Choice, a Korean American whose name indicates how far he has moved away from his Korean roots. He can’t speak the language, but he gets annoyed when people call him Chinese or Japanese. He dates a … [Read More]
James Church: Hidden Moon
(Thomas Dunne Books, 2007) After A Corpse in the Koryo, the rip-roaring start to the Inspector O series, Hidden Moon comes as a bit of a disappointment. Maybe the freshness of the debut is a tough act to follow, but somehow the first time round Inspector O had more character. He’s still got his quirky … [Read More]
A border-crosser’s tale (a brief review of Hyejin Kim’s novel, Jia)
Hyejin Kim: Jia – a novel of North Korea Cleis Press, 2007 A novel about a talented dancer from the wrong family background who finds she needs to escape across the border to China. Those who have shown an interest in the reports from Amnesty International and Christian Solidarity Worldwide will not be surprised at … [Read More]
Sex and the City, Korean-style: a review of Min-Jin Lee’s Free Food for Millionaires
Min-Jin Lee: Free Food for Millionaires (Random House, 2007) I hesitated before packing this two-inch thick paperback into my suitcase for a week’s holiday. The cover design doesn’t give much away — a black top hat and slightly messy collection of different typefaces spelling out a title which leaves a lot to the imagination — … [Read More]
Racial tensions in Queens
Leonard Chang: The Fruit ‘n Food Black Heron Press, 1996 Leonard Chang’s first novel is proof that giving away key elements of the plot in advance need not ruin the enjoyment of a work of fiction. The book starts at the end, with the hero in hospital, blinded and incapacitated. You are told how the … [Read More]
Book review: Brother One Cell
Cullen Thomas: Brother One Cell — Coming of Age in South Korea’s Prisons Pan Books, 2007 A “powerful, harrowing and moving memoir”, proclaims the blurb on the back. “A Korean tear in the muscle round the ribs, a Korean hernia…” reads the selective quote. The cover design, a Getty image of hands grasping prison bars, … [Read More]