Korean American Books

Summaries and reviews of fiction and nonfiction books by Korean American authors,
books about Korean Americans and Korea, and Korean literature in English translation,
including some academic works and a sampling on the Korean War

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Comfort Woman, by Nora Okja Keller

A mother’s mental illness rooted in a tortured past as a comfort woman is discovered by her daughter through interesting use of alternating chapters of voices past/present, real and ghost. Published in 1997, Keller’s book was among the first in the U.S. to tackle the brutality of this practice during the Pacific War, when Japan conscripted young girls as “comfort nurses” for their troops stationed throughout the empire.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Although it was excellently written, it was so haunting and traumatizing!