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Title: In the Absence of Sun : A Korean American Woman's Promise to Reunite Three Lost Generations of HerFamily by HELIE LEE ISBN: 0-609-60934-3 Publisher: Harmony Pub. Date: 23 April, 2002 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.93 (15 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Highly Recommended
Comment: This is a very engrossing story that moves along like an action-adventure story. I think the fact that Helie Lee wrote it in such a personal way only helps the story: you come away amazed by her courage and resolve. The style is quick-paced, absorbing and captivating. Most importantly, the book raises the awareness of North Korean refugees and shows the world that it is a human story that affects millions of Koreans and Korean Americans. Lives were at stake and big power politics recede into the background, but the commitment, love and dedication of a family triumphs.
And the author's personality and character are really impressive. Helie Lee is a plucky Korean American gal who has to put up with a lot of cultural conflicts and dangers. Through it all, she is vulnerable, sensitive, determined, strong, quick-thinking, courageous and ultimately full of love and devotion for her family. She is even witty. In the end, the reader comes away respecting Helie for pulling off such an courageous journey. I highly recommend this book for its overall quality, readability, and genuineness in revealing the power of a family's love to overcome divisions and scars that have haunted Korea for 50 years.
Rating: 3
Summary: Like a bad Korean TV drama...
Comment: In her real-life pursuit to help family members defect from North Korea and re-unite them with her grandmother, Lee presents a captivating story of courage and family devotion. With the current evolving trials of North Korean politics, Lee's book offers an alternative, humane glimpse of the current situation. However like most Korean TV dramas often marred by sappy stories and poor writing, In the Absence of Sun exemplifies this to the hilt.
The story itself carries the book. The story of a family separated by war for fifty-some years and dire situations created by governments will pull at heartstrings. The adventures that evolve through executing the escape will keep readers in suspense. However, the biggest flaw is the writing and its lack of sophistication. Facts are interspersed throughout the book, which laid in stark contrast to her prose; they did not mesh well together and made the writing appear ostensibly educational. She even states in her book that she wants her book read in college classes. As a result, there is a kind of "education for education's sake" feel to it at times.
The second main source of contention is Lee's constant declarations of feminist outlooks. However, what she says and what she does are two entirely different things. Being seductive, emotional, whiny, and impetuous run counter to my notions of feminism. As a common theme in current Asian American writing, Western ideas of feminism are often transposed onto Eastern characters, which have mixed and sometimes unconvincing results in my opinion. This hybrid result can best be seen in Lee's book.
Once the reader gets past the poor writing (which looking at past reviews, many have), it then becomes easier to get swept by the story. All in all, In the Absence of Sun is great emotional fodder, but not a particularly good mental/intelligent one... akin to bad Korean TV dramas.
Rating: 2
Summary: "Still Life with Rice" was much better
Comment: After reading Helie Lee's first work, "Still Life with Rice" which I thouht was very well written, I had an expectation that the sequel would also live up to her well deserved praise for the first, only to be severely dissappointed.
"Still Life with Rice" was not only well written, it had quite an insight into the lives and personal experiences and utmost difficulties that her grandmother has gone through impressively written in her grandmother's personal voice with great insights and impressive depth into her emotions by a granddaughter who never lived or experienced this park of Korea's most tragic era.
"In the Absence of Sun" however, lacked focus, intelligence, and depth. Her knowledge or understanding of Korean society, history, culture and the nature of male-female dynamic was rather shallow, imposing more of unknowledgeable Westerner's view and interpretation into the Asian culture especially in male-female dynamics. Moreover, the story was kept on interfered by often unnecessary details of her feelings and rage towards how she was being treated because she is a woman. If her intention was to show a certain development of her own awakening, she did a poor job as any character development was poorly portrayed while diverting attention from the "real" story, robbing a certain depth that this story could have carried. I wonder why she revealed so much about her often selfish and immature feelings so vividly without resolving them into any definitive closure.
It is a wonderful story, however, although I feel the Guide's role was not credited enough (somewhat due to Helie's personal relationship with him) and regrettable that his personal motivations were not tied enough behind all the risk he put himself into, which I think would made this story more inspiring.
And yes, there were several grammatical errors in the book which may dissappoint the readers farther for carelessness in the editing process.
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Title: Still Life With Rice by Helie Lee ISBN: 0684827115 Publisher: Scribner Book Company Pub. Date: 08 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: House of the Winds (Penguin Readers Guide Inside) by Mia Yun ISBN: 0140291946 Publisher: Penguin Books Pub. Date: 01 August, 2000 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: A Single Square Picture: A Korean Adoptee's Search for Her Roots by Katy Robinson ISBN: 042518496X Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group Pub. Date: 06 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: To Swim Across the World : A Novel by Ginger Park, Frances Park ISBN: 0786886315 Publisher: Miramax Pub. Date: 28 August, 2002 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: A Cab Called Reliable: A Novel by Patti Kim ISBN: 0312190301 Publisher: St. Martin's Press Pub. Date: 01 July, 1998 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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