(Aidan FC’s website, 1988) Amid the pile of available reading material on the DPRK, is there room for an unpublished memoir, getting on for 20 years old, recording the experiences of a lowly “raiser” — someone who converts Konglish into English — in late 1980s Pyongyang? Definitely yes. Though obviously not state of the art, … [Read More]
Category: Book Reviews (page 16)
Lee O-young (tr John Holstein) – Things Korean
(Tuttle 1999) A lovely coffee table book with beautiful images with descriptions. Though I think that if I were a woman I would be bristling at times about the author’s nostalgia for the times when a woman concerned herself with womanly things. Links: Buy at Amazon.co.uk [Read More]
Jeon Jemin, ed Kevin O’Rourke: Korean Stories
(Eul & Al, 2004) A strange collection. Confucian stories, Buddhist stories, and some essays which though brief remind you of the disjointed ramblings of a genial but slightly senile grandfather. One of the essays does explain, though, why the bedwetting boy in one of the short films in the collection If you were me is … [Read More]
Roderick Whitfield (ed): Handbook of Korean Art – Folk Painting
(Laurence King Publishers, 2003) Part of a series of small books on Korean Art, this one is great to have on the bedside table. Each written section on a particular aspect of folk art takes a minute or so to read and is accompanied by several pages of examples and illustrations. Other books in the … [Read More]
Stephen Turnbull: Samurai Invasion – Japan’s Korean War 1592-98
Cassell, 2002, 256pp Shows how factionalism in the Korean court, complacency and incompetence led to the easy conquest of Korea by Japan in 1592. Well illustrated, with maps and photographs, this book plots the course of the 6-year occupation of Korea at the end of the 16th century, and the brutal modes of warfare (Korea’s … [Read More]
Keith Howard (ed): True Stories of the Korean Comfort Women.
(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]
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
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 intrigues within 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
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 of Word … [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]