(This is the eighth in a series on modern Korean literature newly published in superb English translations.) ANDREA PLATE WRITES – Who could possibly find humor in severed heads, natural disasters and mass graves? South Korean author Yun Ko Eun does, as will any reader of the English language version…
Category: book review
SOUTH KOREA: BIG GAINS AND NOTHING LOST IN TRANSLATION
ANDREA PLATE WRITES — Imagine watching your mother and grandmother being stabbed to death in a random attack on Christmas Eve, and showing no emotion. This is Yunjae, the protagonist of Sohn Won-Pyung’s Almond (HarperVia), first published in 2017 and translated into English this May. Why the title Almond? First, because the human brain…
SOUTH KOREA: THE LAW OF LINES – THEY’RE MADE TO BE CROSSED
(This is the sixth in an original series about new wave feminist writers in Korea whose work has started to reach English language readers via superb translations.) ANDREA PLATE WRITES — Imagine this book as a movie: “Silence of the Lambs” meets “Thelma and Louise.” The Law of Lines (Arcade…
DIVORCE, NORTH KOREAN STYLE
(This is the fifth in an original series about new wave feminist writers in Korea whose work has started to reach English language readers via superb translations.) ANDREA PLATE WRITES — Thirty-eight years. That’s how long it took for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to approve, for publication in…
BOOK REVIEW: A SOUTH KOREAN AUTHOR TELLS A UNIVERSAL TALE
(This is the fourth in an original series about new wave feminist writers in Korea whose work has started to reach English language readers via superb translations.) ANDREA PLATE WRITES — “Fitting into middle class society is getting harder and harder for the younger generation.” So says Kim Sagwa, author…
LOVELL IN ‘MAOISM’: MAO’S INFLUENCE THEN AND NOW
ASSOCIATE EDITOR CAMILLE BRYAN WRITES — A true revolutionary dedicated to avenging colonial invasions, Chairman Mao would delight in seeing today’s uprising in the West: the burning courthouses, destroyed storefronts, street rampages — all in demand that the world hear those formerly silenced. In his own country, the Chairman legitimized…
KOREA: NEW WAVE LITERATURE AS WOMEN’S LIBERATION (PART TWO)
(This is the second in an original series about new wave feminist writers in Korea) ANDREA PLATE WRITES — Is this the face of modern-day feminism in Seoul? If I Had Your Face, Frances Cha’s debut novel (Ballantine Books), tells the story of four young women struggling to succeed in…
BOOK REVIEW: NYE’S ‘DO MORALS MATTER?’ ANALYZED BY TREVERTON, THE WELL-KNOWN U.S. INTELLIGENCE GURU
GREGORY F. TREVERTON WRITES — I first thought it unfortunate that my friend, mentor, colleague and one-time boss, Joe Nye, published this book about morality and foreign policy at a time when the current president’s moral sense of anything doesn’t extend beyond the almighty dollar. Yet in fact that timing is…
ANN ARBOR: ASSOCIATION OF ASIAN STUDIES ANNUAL BOOK AWARDS
THE ASSOCIATION OF ASIAN STUDIES WRITES — The AAS is pleased to announce the winners of this year’s prize competitions and offer congratulations to all honorees. We encourage everyone to attend the Awards Ceremony at the upcoming AAS annual conference in Boston, MA on Friday, March 20, where the award winners will…
BOOK REVIEW: ‘DEPORTED AMERICANS’ MAKES YOU WONDER WHICH GROUP WILL BE NEXT ON THE GOODBYE HIT LIST
ANDREA PLATE WRITES – “Although my research focuses on Mexico, its findings are relevant to understanding the broader phenomenon of people who grew up in the United States but have been deported to countries around the world,” says author Beth C. Caldwell in her compelling, comprehensive and properly chilling new…
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Koreans Just Don’t Believe in Therapists’
ANDREA PLATE WRITES—Otto Warmbier, an American student captured by North Koreans, died, comatose, just days after his release to the US. But even to survive an insane North Korean gulag may also portend tragedy. So suggests Korean-American author R. O. Kwon in her recently released novel, The Incendiaries. For a…