Mae Adams

Mae Adams acknowledges that English is her fourth language and that English grammar is her "minefield." The book she has written is a complex mixture of Korean history, culture, mythology and her own family history, especially the extremely tangled web of her relationship with her mother. Born in 1933, Adams lived through the Japanese Occupation, World War II, the Partition of Korea and the subsequent Korean War, Her book covers the first twenty-seven years of her life, and barely touches on her life once she left the Korean Peninsula for the United States. My chief objection is that I found it tiresome reading about her mother's treachery over and over and over. I'm tempted to include this in my Book Riot's 2019 Read Harder Challenge #10, 'A translated book written by and/or translated by a woman," as it is obvious that while writing in English, Mae Adams was thinking in Korean.… (plus d'informations)

This memoir is an attempt to tell the author's American-born husband what her life was like before they met.

Born in North Korea, her mother did not want a second daughter, so she tried to abort the pregnancy. When she was born, Mom gave her to her parents to raise. Grandma gave Adams lots of love, and allowed her to explore her Korean heritage. She received a Japanese-style education, and her most prized possession, a pair of silver chopsticks. It was a time when class structure was very important, along with religion and astrology.

World War II came, and the family was forced to flee south, while Grandma stayed behind. A few years later, the Korean War forced the family to again become refugees. The author was now old enough to get a job with the US military, and to begin thinking about marriage. Later in life, the relationship with her mother was still "difficult".

This is a really good book. The author does a fine job at showing one family's journey through the mid-20th Century, in a different part of the world. Yes, it is well worth reading.… (plus d'informations)