Lee Geum-yi

Historical fiction is not something I'd typically ever read, but I haven't crossed PL off of my Library of Congress prefixes yet, and this book looked interesting, so I gave it a try.

I nominally like the idea of the plot. The story follows the lives of two women whose lives are intertwined: a young woman of privilege who is the daughter of a Viscount in (Japanese occupied) Korea, and her personal maid. They both struggle and go through a lot, both together and separately. The Japanese occupation of Korea and China are both explored, as is Japanese internment camps in the US, Korean comfort women, the surrender of Japan in WWII, etc.

Personally, I thought the book suffered mainly from telling instead of showing. Very rarely is anything left to the reader's imagination, as we are told every minute detail either in the narrative or character dialogue. There's never any confusion, rarely any foreshadowing, and barely any suspense. The motivations of the characters also seem very shallow due to lack of development... one character's love for a man is extremely brief and mostly unexplored (and unexplained... she likes him because of a book for some reason? I don't get it) but leads to the major plot development in the book. It didn't feel genuine.

The most disappointing moment in this book, to me, was when Chaeryeong becomes jealous of Marina and her relationship with Chaeryeong's daughter Yoriko and Chaeryeong's husband Junpei. After being basically forced to accept living as a Japanese woman and as Junpei's wife for some time, she finally falls in love with him, and I really appreciated the development in Chaeryeong's character. She becomes capable of feeling compassion for others, and a tenderness that was not given to her by her own mother. After suffering an injury which leads to the miscarriage of a son, Chaeryeong instantly becomes cold. During a moment of rage and jealousy, she abuses her husband and abandons him and her daughter forever. I was really hoping that at some point, maybe not immediately but maybe eventually, she would realize the parallel between her actions and how her mother treated her. But no! This never happens! I felt like it was **such** a wasted opportunity. When Chaeryeong goes back to Korea, she basically converts back to the spoiled privileged brat she grew up as, and I as a reader never got any satisfaction of knowing if her experiences as a wife and mother, or as a woman living as a Japanese woman in an internment camp, truly changed her. Super disappointing.

The plot also moves forward in giant leaps at times. I also feel like we get flashes of great moments in history, but barely get to feel like we experience any of them vicariously through the characters. While WWII and Japanese internment were nominally very important to the plot (one of the main characters is living in the US using the identify of a Japanese woman), they did not last more than maybe two chapters. The Korean conflict was like, not even an entire sentence in the book.

It took me several weeks to get through this book, mostly because I'd put it down and not care to pick it up again. That said, I found the last few chapters to be more compelling to read, but also kind of unsatisfying. I'm not saying that everyone needs to have a great life, but I feel like there was just needless suffering to an extreme extent. In the end, that suffering appears to have some kind of purpose to it, as far as how the plot and descendants of the original two girls plays out, but... it's unsatisfying to read about a main character for 300 pages only to feel really unsatisfied about how her life plays out.… (más)

Lee Geum-yi's The Picture Bride is a mildly interesting historical novel from Korea, published in translation in Australia by Scribe. It's commercial fiction from a best-selling Korean author of YA so the main focus of the novel is the story of three women who migrate from Korea to Hawaii to marry a man they've seen only in a photo.

Globally and historically, it's not an uncommon story. From the days predating photography women were married off for diplomatic or trade reasons to men who they'd seen only in a portrait. See Andrea Hotere's The Vanishing Point (2023) for a recent example from 17th century Spain, but there are any number of historical novels from the UK and Europe about aristocratic women and girls married off to disappointing men in this way.

And sometimes the bridegroom was duped too. Henry VIII was not best pleased about the appearance of one of his wives, though I forget now which one it was.

After the arrival of photography, in places where men migrated for a better life but wanted a wife from the old country, matchmakers and/or family members organised a bride to marry a man they've seen only in a photo. (Tinder et al are the modern equivalent, as depicted so well in Never Look Desperate (2023), by Rachel Matthews where the problem persists: people project their best selves, or some other self in order to attract attention. At least now people get to choose whether to swipe right or left and can escape if the first meeting turns out to be a dud.)

The best of historical novels using this trope use the fate of these women as a vehicle for some other issue of historical interest, as Hotere does so successfully, Lee Geum-yi, less so. Her agenda is to shed a light on the 20th century Korean struggle for independence from the Japanese Occupation. By characterising the young women as suffering under the combined effects of Japanese oppression and traditional attitudes towards women, Lee Geum-yi provides a convincing reason for them to risk everything since they have no future in Korea. Once they arrive in Hawaii and one of the husbands turns out to be an independence activist who becomes a freedom fighter, she is able to depict the political divisions among Koreans which hampered independence movements.

However...

These historical aspects are planted awkwardly into the novel in a slightly didactic way. Whether this awkwardness derives from the original in Korean or the translator has inserted them to make it easier for those without any background in Korean history, I can't tell. But there is a lot of telling about Korean cuisine, which (I'm guessing) would be largely redundant for Korean readers?

To read the rest of my review please visit https://anzlitlovers.com/2023/11/06/the-picture-bride-2022-by-lee-geum-yi-transl...… (más)

Can’t I Go Instead is a deep look at the relationship between mistress and servant during a difficult time in Korea’s history, extending into and past the second world war. It asks how far both loyalty and deception will reach in the will to survive. It’s not always pretty, but the story is fascinating.

The story opens with an explanation of Viscount Hyeongman’s family. He’s a rich, important person in Korea in the 1930s made more so by his support of the Japanese who rule the country. He has two children, one illegitimate but who will be recognised as the heir and his daughter in wedlock, Chaeryeong. For her birthday, the Viscount takes her to a small village to give her a present, her own maidservant. But the child who has been picked doesn’t want to go, so Sunam asks, ‘can’t I go instead?’ which changes her life. As the girls grow up, their relationship changes slightly but it’s never equal. When Chaeryeong gets in trouble for having a boyfriend actively campaigning for a free Korea, it’s Sunam that takes the consequences. Chaeryeong is married to a Japanese man and sent to the US while Sunam must pretend to be her and become a comfort woman for the Japanese army. While Chaeryeong has many difficulties once she reaches the US, it’s Sunam and her colleagues that have no idea what comfort women are. It’s all cloak and daggers until they reach their final destination. Sunam is shielded from the worst, but her life will turn from bad to good and back again as the women meet again in an independent Korea at the end of the war.

What I enjoyed most about this novel is the history. I didn’t know a great deal about Korea prior to the Korean War and the story does an excellent job in explaining the control of the Japanese and the various groups either supporting them or fighting for a free Korea. The most interesting is when Chaeryeong and Sunam go to Japan for Chaeryeong’s study and the restrictions on Korean people are described. There were some slow periods leading up to thing. In contrast World War II is over very quickly in page time, briefly touching on the internment of Japanese people in the USA and general anti-Asian sentiment. I would have preferred some more detail on this rather than the youth of both girls. The section on the brutalisation of the comfort women is relatively opaque and over with quickly, thanks to Sunam’s escape. However, Sunam is the subject of a lot of poor treatment while Chaeryeong seems to get all the glory. That extends for much longer than the reader would expect.

The translation into English by An Seon Jae is brilliant. The story doesn’t have any awkward moments or things that don’t translate well. Nothing detracts the reader from the story, which even though it’s sad and mean at times, is a necessary one. It’s not always doom and gloom with periods of happiness for all the characters. I also liked the final mystery towards the conclusion – it was a nice twist that I wasn’t expecting! Highly recommended for those who enjoy reading about lesser-known history in a fictional format.

Thank you to Scribe for the copy of this book. My review is honest.

http://samstillreading.wordpress.com… (más)