All Book Reviews
The Orphan Master’s Son, Adam Johnson
Miles from Nowhere, by Nami Mun
With stunning prose and a sensitive eye for detail, Mun unfolds five years from age 14 in the gritty and difficult life of a young Korean American runaway on the urban streets.
My Innocent Uncle, by Ch’ae Man-sik
Ch’ae Man-shik (or Man-sik), who wrote stories and novels during the colonial period, is considered one of the greats of Korean modern literature. Like his other works, these three stories hone in on individuals who face the dilemmas of their times, those dilemmas of culture and historical circumstance which offer a tragi-comedy of errors.
An Appointment with My Brother, by Yi Mun-Yol
The famed South Korean writer imagines meeting his North Korean brother after the death of his father–a defector to the North in the narrator’s youth (a fact that parallels the author’s life).
Twofold Song, by Yi Mun-Yol
In a beautifully illustrated and bound bilingual edition, famed writer Yi Mun-yol’s story of the last encounter of an affair presents as allegory of ancients and modern mixed together, with a coda that changes all that primordial prehistoric metaphor into something altogether different.
The Martyred by Richard E. Kim
This Korean War story follows Captain Lee who investigates the murders and kidnappings by North Korean Communists of Christian ministers and priests.
KYOPO by Cindy Hwang (CYJO)
The Kyopo project by artist Cindy Hwang is a five-year photography and textual endeavor that explores and exposes the breadth and individual depth of people “of Korean ethnic descent and living outside of Korea,” from which the acronym derives.
Night Sessions, by David Cho
This wonderful book of poems evoked tears, laughter, admiration and wonder.
This Burns My Heart, by Samuel Park
The story explores how a fateful choice colors a decade of marriage, and challenges a young woman’s ambition already constrained by traditional Korean culture.