Sonya Chung

I'm not sure I'm the most objective judge of this book since Sonya's a friend and colleague and I was an early reader. But I was really moved by how my feelings for the characters deepened and ripened through the course of the novel—which was of course one of its major points, but that progression was done so skillfully, in a way that brought the reader in to a certain kind of complicity without being manipulative. The book has a wonderfully quirky rhythm that, once you fall into it, pulls you along through this often thorny story with a skittery third person POV, and after a certain point I just could not put it down for long. And at the end I teared up even though it wasn't sad or sentimental, I think just leaving the characters—none of whom were so overwhelmingly lovable on their surfaces—behind. Well done.… (meer)

This was really lovely, a story of Korean and Korean-American families -- how they come together and pull apart -- and art and loss, all done with a true and light touch and no excess sentimentality. Chung has a great ear for language and an eye for nuance, and pulled me in steadily and surely -- by the end of the novel I was a bit surprised at how much I cared about every single character. There's a lot of heart in this book, and nothing overplayed.

My full review is rel="nofollow" target="_top">here.… (meer)

A rare delight of lyrical beauty, skillful structure, and such real characters that I am convinced they are living and breathing on two continents.

Han Hyun-ku travels unannounced to reunite with his family in Korea, having left decades before to make a new life in the States. He has left his alcoholic wife, the formidable Dr. Lee. His eldest daughter, Jane, a photo-journalist, has narrowly escaped being blown to bits in Baghdad. She, too makes her way to her uncle’s home. She has left her alcoholic brother, Henry, a year out of re-hab, but still unable to be his own man on his own.

Han Hyun-ku's sister-in-law receives them all plus her younger brother, Chae Min-suk, a divorced artist. During the visit, Han Hyun-ku’s unhappy and pregnant daughter dies of kidney failure and Henry commits suicide by stepping in front of a speeding cab. Exhausted by her war-torn life, Jane finds a soul-mate in the artist.

They have a one-night stand, from which union, Jane gives birth to a son. Three years later, she returns to Korea with Joony so that he can meet his father, and lives are put back together.

We learn from Jane that life’s decisions must be made in split seconds; her motto is that it is wisest to run toward danger, rather than away from it. The indecisive and those who run away do not survive. Jane, her father, her aunt, and her lover are survivors.

"Some people are not long for this world," Jane remarks. "The rest of us survive."

I will be reading whatever Sonya Chung will be writing.… (meer)