(Cassell, 1995). Does what it says on the tin. Testimonies by former comfort women. Don’t read this all at once. It’s overwhelming. Update 9 July 2011. In an email to the members of the British Association for Korean Studies, Keith Howard gave the following background to the publication: ‘True Stories of the Korean Comfort Women’ … [Read More]
Category: Book Reviews (page 16)
Gi-Wook Shin & Kyung-moon Hwang (eds): Contentious Kwangju
(Rowman & Littlefield, 2003) Varied collection of articles on the subject of Korea’s Tiananmen Square incident, ranging from the eyewitness account to academic reassessment. The people of Kwangju: innocent victims or resistance heroes? Discuss. Links: Bibliography of the Kwangju Uprising (in English) – at Popular Gusts [Read More]
War & Democracy: A Comparative Study of the Korean War and the Peloponnesian War.
David McCann & Barry Strauss (eds) (ME Sharpe, 2001) Crazy title, seemingly of limited readership: ancient historians also interested in modern East Asian history (or vice versa). But it’s a fascinating collection of articles. “How like Alcibiades was General MacArthur?” asks one article… Read a grown-up review of this book over at the Korean Studies … [Read More]
Jahyun Kim Haboush (tr): Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong
(California UP, 1995) The style of this takes a bit of getting used to (and this is attributable to the original author, not the translator), but the content is gripping. This is the autobiographical writings of a Korean crown princess – wife of the heir to the throne – and documents at first hand the … [Read More]
Paul French: North Korea – the paranoid peninsula
(Zed, 2005) Highly readable and wide-ranging book on North Korea. Describes clearly some of the eccentricities of the regime, such as the Sinuiju economic zone, and describes clearly for the benefit of non-economists how it is that a rigid centrally-planned economy is doomed to fail. Links: Buy North Korea: The Paranoid Peninsula at Amazon [Read More]
Justin Bowyer (ed): The cinema of Japan and Korea
(Wallflower, 2004) A collection of articles from a wide variety of perspectives, some more approachable than others, but all of which encourage you to think beyond what’s on the screen. Links: Buy The Cinema of Japan and Korea at Amazon [Read More]
Anthony Leong: Korean Cinema – the new Hong Kong
(Trafford, 2002) A lively book containing reviews of the most readily accessible recent films. Links: Buy Korean Cinema: The New Hong Kong at Amazon [Read More]
Harold Hakwon Sunoo: Life and Poems of Three Koreans
(Xlibris 2005) This is a print-to-order book, rather than one sponsored by a major publishing house. I would have thought that would make it cheaper, but at £14 for a 104 page paperback it’s on the pricey side. And Sunoo is a man seriously in need of a proof-reader and editor. Even a standard version … [Read More]
Nora Okja Keller: Comfort woman / Fox Girl
(Penguin, 1997/Virago 2000) (Penguin 2002/Marion Boyars 2002) Novels told from the perspective of a female underclass — prostitutes in Seoul or Shamans in the Korean community in Hawaii. Well worth a read. Links: Buy Fox Girl | Comfort Woman at Amazon.co.uk [Read More]
Martin Limón: Jade Lady Burning / Slicky Boys / Buddha’s Money
(Soho 1992 / Serpents Tail 1998) (Bantam 1997 / Serpents Tail 1999) (Bantam 1998 / Serpents Tail 2000) Fun detective thrillers set in 1970s Seoul, with two maverick US military policeman on the trail of some pretty gruesome criminals, hanging out in the bars of Itaewon, trawling the murky depths of the Korean underworld and … [Read More]
Chang-rae Lee: A Gesture Life / Native Speaker
(Granta, 2000) / (Granta, 1995) / A Gesture Life is a beautiful slow-burn novel which examines the relations between Koreans (both victim and collaborator) and Japanese in the wartime comfort stations. Native Speaker is a detective story which also explores the experiences of Korean immigrants in the US. Read A Gesture Life in preference to … [Read More]
Richard Hooker: M*A*S*H
(Cassell, 2004)(Originally published in 1968) Fun, easy-to-read stories about the army surgical hospitals in the Korean War. Each of the chapters feels as if it’s tailor-made for an episode of a TV series (funny, that). As a Brit, I sometimes find I need a dictionary to translate some of the Americanisms (and I start skim-reading … [Read More]
Elizabeth Kim: Ten Thousand Sorrows
(Doubleday, 2000) This one’s really depressing, and it’s amazing how the author (this is autobiographical) seems to have ended up reasonably unscathed — outwardly at least. If ever you think you’ve had a tough time, read this book and you’ll feel better: someone’s had it worse. This is the story of the mixed-race daughter of … [Read More]
Mira Stout: One Thousand Chestnut Trees
(Flamingo, 1997) Absorbing and very moving book in which the narrator pursues her family history through turbulent twentieth-century Korea. Quite a good introduction to modern Korean history if you’ve never read a history book, but this novel’s much more than that. Links: Buy at Amazon.co.uk [Read More]
Brief book review: Suki Kim — The Interpreter
Suki Kim: The Interpreter Picador, 2003, 294pp A detective story centring on a young Korean girl in New York who earns a living interpreting for the court system. By chance she comes across information which leads her to question the circumstances of her parents’ death. The novel is an interesting glimpse into the Korean underclass … [Read More]
Margaret Drabble: The Red Queen
(Penguin, 2005) Inspired by the Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong. The first half is a re-telling of the original story with the benefit of an additional 200 years’ hindsight; the second half is set in modern times, in a story which echoes some of the themes of the original. The only part which stretches the credulity … [Read More]