Peace Under Heaven by Ch'ae Man-Sik

Considered a Korean masterpiece by a renowned author, this translation of a 1936 serialized narrative appeared in 1993, and won a translation award. The story occurs within two days, and is a tragicomedy of greed, ambition, egoism and miserliness of the protagonist, Master Yun, and how his family circle augments and exacerbates those pitiable characteristics. Surrounded in his home by five widows, including the two "grass widows" of his sons, who have moved on to concubines and live elsewhere, plus servants and his own personal finance man, himself a servant, Master Yun epitomizes the bewilderment of a culture under Japanese occupation. He is lowerclass yet strives through his sons to achieve aristocracy, in a world in which class has been effectively outlawed. His appetites are huge, his purse strings tighter than shrunken sinew, his abuse of his family and the women he desires is biting. And yet he is a simple man, pitiably bound by his father's violent death by bandits, and by the limitations of his mind and his greed. The narrative is mostly expository, making it sometimes difficult to retain the stamp of each character, for there are several, all riotous and despicable, including a disabled grandson. It is a profoundly absurdist darkly satirical work, but its window into the hidden lives and culture of regular Koreans during the Japanese occupation is fascinating--provided one can read between the lines of the black humor.

Somebody's Daughter by Marie Myung-Ok Lee

Story of an unhappy Korean adoptee from the typical Minnesota Lutheran family. She goes to Korea in search of identity, pursuing a dream of her mother; transposed against the story of her birth mother and how the child came to be adopted. Structurally interesting, the journey of both mother and daughter, the former through memory, the latter through a search for roots, are juxtaposed in such a way as to propel the narrative forward, while also including both recent and modern Korean history. The writing is fluid, the scenes economical, the culture and language on full display in this English-written book. The structural divide is further contrasted with a contemporary voice laced with profanity, against the polar emotions that are extreme in the way that only Koreans can make them.

Gathering of Pearls by Sook Nyul Choi

Concludes the series of three autobiographical fiction books about growing up near Pyeongyang during the Japanese Occupation, through the turmoil of the Russian and American occupations, and flight to South Korea. In this sequel to YEAR OF IMPOSSIBLE GOODBYES and ECHOES OF THE WHITE GIRAFFE, Sookan Bak spends her first year after the Korean War in NYC, attending college, trying to fit in and also meet rigid family expectations.

Echoes of the White Giraffe by Sook Nyul Choi

Sequel to YEAR OF IMPOSSIBLE GOODBYES, the story follows the narrator (semi-autobiographical story) to South Korea where many trials and tribulations continue to pursue the family in times of hardship and war.

Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi

This series of three young adult novels follow a girl from North Korea following the Japanese occupation, and then during the war years to Pusan, a journey of love and personal independence despite cultural strictures, then immigration to U.S. The book is followed by ECHOES OF THE WHITE GIRAFFE, and GATHERING OF PEARLS.

Korean Residents in Japan: 80-Year History by Sang-hyun Kim

Valuable for its first-person eyewitness viewpoint on prewar issues in Korea and Japan, during the occupation.

The Three Day Promise: A Korean Soldier's Memoir by Donald K. Chung

Memoir of former North Korean medical student separated by Korean War from his family.

Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea by Guy Delisle

A journalist experiences and documents modern North Korean culture, when its proponents try to impress their ideology upon him, only to ultimately reveal its wasteful absurdity. Graphic novel.

When My Name Was Keoko: A Novel of Korea in WWII by Linda Sue Park

Fictionalized memoir of Korean girl and her brother set toward then end of Japanese occupation, when everyone was required to take a Japanese name. My young adult nephew and another niece loved this book, and felt they learned so much, as well as admired the protagonist. An earlier autobiographical writing of the same event is LOST NAMES by Richard E. Kim.

A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park

Young adult historical novel of 12th century orphan boy who through perseverance becomes a renowned ceramicist. Newberry Award winner.

Women and Confucian Cultures by Dorothy Ko, Jahyun Kim Haboush, Joan R. Piggott

This fascinating collection of writings examines the role and culture of women in the Confucian-regulated eras of China, Korea and Japan, and as such, presents a nonconventional view of Confucianism that is broader than the typically oppressive male tradition, and allows for the power and richness of the female experience within the social and cultural circumstances of Confucian era life.

Pioneers of Modern Korea by J. Earnest Fisher

Sketches by the author of Americans and American-educated Koreans who influenced Korean culture and politics in the early 20th century. Christian, but not all sketches are Christian-themed. Historical interest. [Signed and dated December 1977 by the author to Alice & Jacob Kim.]

I Am Korean American by Robert Kim

Photographs and a a simple narrative reveal a day in the life of a young Korean America girl.

When My Sister Was Cleopatra Moon by Frances Park

This family, comprised of a distant mother, insomniac father, bipolar older sister and new-age main character experiences ongoing situational traumas, racial tyranny and sexual stereotyping. It but serves to isolate the family members and ultimately brings them together. Well written, it is among the first modern contemporary works of fiction by and about Korean Americans.

Treasures from Korea: Art through 5000 Years, by Roderick Whitfield

Organized chronologically and preceded by a timeline of history, this British Museum exhibition catalog presents a broad collection of ceramics, gold work, and from the later dynasty, paintings. The narrative is archeological discovery and cultural anthropology, and is detailed and enlightening. An extensive compilation that enriches the breadth of understanding about Korean artifacts and art.

Fox Girl by Nora Okja Keller

A young girl discovers that her mother is really her stepmother (who hates her) and is tossed out of house. She assumes a life of fringe living around a G.I. base (early 1960s?) in the worst parts of town, surrounded by the misfits and abandoned who scrabble for a hard life in a tough competitive world. She becomes a bar girl in the worst way and eventually makes her way to Hawaii and refuge with a friend’s child. Violence is depicted with such graphic detail that the author was criticized for extremity/graphic treatment of sexual violence with the argument that it begets further violence. It is a pitifuland difficult tale of abuse and hardship, told well, with a memorable protagonist.

The Grass Roof by Younghill Kang

Autobiographical novel of a scholar’s son’s coming of age in small village during the Japanese occupation, though that is felt with some distance. Kang focuses on classical education in that era, traditions for holidays and ceremonies, schooling, friends, family dynamic, a detailed account of Sam-Il, and finally emigration to America as young man. The prequel to Kang's seminal EAST GOES WEST.

The Lucky Gourd Shop by Joanna Catherine Scott

An imagined tale of the mother of three Korean girls the author adopted. This fictionalized story tells the sorrowful story of a simple orphan girl, in postwar Korea (mid-late 1950s) who works in a gourd shop. She comes to have an abusive boyfriend who also beats his wife, and eventually marries him, since she is downtrodden, not terribly smart and mostly without other options. The grandmother holds the strongest positive influence, but is old and ill and gives up kids at the end.

A Part of the Ribbon by Ruth S. Hunter

Two martial arts students time travel through Korean history to learn about the origins of their athletic arts. (Young adult)

My Freedom Trip: A Child's Escape from North Korea by Frances and Ginger Park

After the Korean War, a child is sent to South Korea by her mother who hopes to provide her a better life than in the North. The story tells of leaving her mother and home to go on a frightening journey with a gentle guide, who leads her through woods and mountains and across a river to safety. International Reading Association Award, inspired by the Parks' mother's stories.

Chi-Hoon: A Korean Girl by Patricia I. McMahon

Photographic essay and narrative of a girl's daily life in Seoul.

House of the Winds by Mia Yun

Coming-of-age novel in 1960s and 70s postwar Korea, explores mother-daughter relationships of three generations.

Aekyung’s Dream by Min Paek

A small story of a girl who wakes up in America wondering what language the birds are singing in. She faces prejudices and misunderstanding because she doesn't speak English well. She overcomes this by finding strength in her Korean history, and realizes the birds sing in both languages.

Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History by Bruce Cumings

Cumings brings a lively narrative voice to Korean history, making it an engaging and at times a compelling read. Being a “modern” history, most of the focus is on the 19th and 20th centuries, and the early section highlights important features of the peninsula’s changes. It’s too slim a volume to provide the rich cultural foundation of history that shaped the decisions and thinking that led to the major upheavals of the modern time, but it more than adequately covers a broad vista of modern history.

Where There Is No Path: Lee Tai-Young, Her Story by Sonia Reid Strawn

This biography covers the life of a woman born during the Japanese Occupation, in 1914, and follows her Christian journey and groundbreaking experiences that made her an inspiration for the author.

Ten Thousand Sorrows by Elizabeth Kim

A Korean adoptee’s memoir of a horrific childhood and her struggle for identity and belonging. It was criticized for inaccuracy by oversensitive readers who disagreed about the historical treatment of women who bore illegitimate children (they were murdered). A strong psychodrama study, it is also a compelling and difficult story of a child's survival and adjustment.

The Yalu Flows by Mirok Lee

A 1900-1920s memoir of changing politics’ effect on the village life of a privileged only boy. The son of an educated, non-Christian father is sent for safety to a remote fishing village after his father’s death. Still, Japan’s influence and fears after the death of the King lingers. He schools in Seoul at a medical college sponsored by the Japanese, where Western thinking is still so young, and Axis politics have entered the world theatre, that medical textbooks had to be imported from Germany. He attempts to travel west to Europe and eventually, his mother sends him north to Mukden and at last he lands in Bavaria, protected from Japanese influences. Small gem of cultural life of that era.

One Thousand Chestnut Trees by Mira Stout

A "mixed breed" artist in NYC finds her roots during a visit home to Korea. Includes pov of mother, father and daughter. Mother from yangban family, high and rich with royal connections. Heavy history forced into narrative, sometimes biased especially as more contemporary war issues arise. Some moralizing detracts from the story, and a somewhat too pat conclusion about the meaning of this memoir also mars.

True Stories of the Korean Comfort Women edited by Keith Howard

This compilation of personal narratives tells the story of the women who survived Japanese sexual slavery during the Pacific War. Shame permeates the painful memories, but there is no better history than hearing from the voices of those who lived it. The annotated narratives are presented without judgment, but within context.

Clay Walls by Ronyoung (Gloria Hahn) Kim

This early Korean-American novel follows the Chun family and details the small Korean society in Los Angeles from the 1920s thru the 40s, including one visit back to Korea pre-Depression. It relates the struggles of a produce wholesaler and his yangban wife who doesn't love him, covers their three children, including the voice of the daughter. It is character driven with moments of elegant and strong prose. The hardships in America and some early Black relationships and wartime prejudices, including post-Pearl Harbor, are described. It also provides a Korean-American point of view on the Korean independence movement, including communist ideals. A good early novel of the KA experience.

Cry Korea Cry by Ty Pak

A mixed-race orphan full of self-loathing discovers his true roots. He becomes famous film director and falls hard in love with in big movie star; both are abducted to North Korea (he escapes prison after 3 years) and meets Kim IlSung. A tragicomedy of helpless inertia.

Home Was the Land of the Morning Calm by K. Connie Kang

A historical memoir covering the end of the Japanese Occupation of Korea until the present, including the Korean War and its aftermath, through the eyes of a Korean American reporter from a wealthy family. The early years are compelling; historically informative if strongly biased.

Lost Names by Richard E. Kim

Describes the life of a Korean boy (the author) south of Pyongyang during the harshest era of the Japanese occupation, 1930-1945. The boy is from a small farming family with an apple orchard; his father is a political activist. History is plaintively inserted in a present-tense narrative that describes vivid scenes of school days, family life, infringement of Japanese mores into Korean traditional rural life, and how the language seeped into Korean culture. A precursor to WHEN MY NAME WAS KEOKO, by Linda Sue Park. Originally published 1988, New York: Universe Books.

Chesi's Story: One Boy's Long Journey from War to Peace by Link S. White

An early memoir by a Korean adoptee follows a young war orphan popular among GIs who is finally adopted at age 11 by an Air Force sargeant. Christian-based. A similar story is THE RASCAL AND THE PILGRIM, by Anthony Kim.

Winds of Change: Korean Women in America by Diana Yu

An odd hybrid that is neither entirely history or a gender studies/culture studies book. It lives somewhere between a review of what was then written about the history of Korean women, a self-help handbook for Korean women, and a memoir. Yu attempts to study the undocumented presence of Korean women from the Ancient Period, 2332 BCE, the social and political history of Korean women during the Japanese Occupation (1910-1945) and the role and culture of Korean and Korean American women today, both in the U.S. and Korea. In the first part of WINDS OF CHANGE, Yu touches on Korean women's roles in religion, customs and traditions, legal rights, education, politics and work. Despite their brevity, the sections that cover Korean Confucianism and its influence are fascinating. It is an intriguing social study of how one man's wisdom AND misogeny were interpreted and followed as Law during nearly ten centuries in an isolated peninsula. This section alone is inspiration enough to further explore the work of Confucius.

Yu does not miss this point; rather, she cannot resist its inherent psychology and does not refrain from bringing in her own experiences to exemplify the point. Examples: "Positive mental attitudes about education often are inspired in daughters by relatives other than the parents. In my own case..." or "My personal experience illustrates the roles of women and men at the time of death..." In this way, centuries of history and culture become rationalizations for the author's life. These memoir portions are vivid and are succinctly written, resulting in a weird narrative effect. There is less dry repetition and the syntax is less strident. Since she presents her own reality in these vignettes, she appears to feel less of a need to defend and authenticate her take on the history of Korean women. This is contrasted with her application of Korean folk tales to illustrate historical cultural facts, an approach that maintains a sense of accuracy and authority with the material. When the memoir approach is used, the broader sweep of history seems belittled within the context of her life.

Part II covers the American diaspora of Korean women, touching first on world historical events and international laws which helped define the pattern of immigration from Korea. She examines the culture of immigration according to the markers of assimilation, carryover of class, culture, prejudices and generational divisions, and Korean community organizations in America. This synthesized information is important and useful and is accompanied by interviews, but the tone of the first half of the book persists, and the raw historical data crumbles in the personal voices of her interviewees and how she prefaces those narratives. It becomes a collection of personal recitals designed to provide companionship and insight, as is common in a genre of psychology based books. She writes: "Mrs. Snow proudly points out..." or "Mrs. Flowers further confessed to me..." and "The Korean store owner grumbles..." This insistence of adjectives, leaves the reader wondering if Yu has lost faith in the intelligence of the reader. The final two chapters, covering women's roles in community organizations, contribute to the evidence that Yu's desire was to have written a memoir.

Yu's footnotes are extensive, her index detailed and accurate, though one of her oft-cited references is Encyclopedia Britannica. Source material is varied and exemplify a bilingual advantage. It adds up to a purportedly academic work that explores the challenges women face in the Korean diaspora, that is combating to also be a memoir.