the island of sea women a novel book review

Their friendship, strained by war, death and competing family ties, breaks apart as they struggle on against the island’s real-life historical backdrop.īy 2008, Young-sook is an old woman but still a diver.

Mi Ja and Young-sook become innocents caught up in the slaughter. It resulted in the deaths of some 30,000 people in 1948-49 as South Korea violently put down a rebellion over what government would control the island’s future. That is until Jeju’s historic 4.3 Uprising, a real-life event (taking its name from the 1948 starting date of April 3) that is arguably one of modern history’s least-known massacres. Out of the water, the pair grow up to happily compete for everything from husbands to bearing children. The pair grow up to become “haenyeo” - Jeju’s real-life elite women divers who hone their skills over years to match an innate ability to hold their breaths longer than just about anybody as they deep dive repeatedly into frigid water to grab fish. Like many of the Chinese American author’s earlier books, it is set in Asia with ties to the United States, although the location this time is Korea, not China.Īnd like See’s “Shanghai Girls” and “Dreams of Joy,” the story takes readers on a journey spanning generations - in this case 1938 to 2008 - as moments of cherished friendship, unspeakable tragedy and, in the end, a plot twist worthy of Raymond Chandler unfold.Įarly on, readers are introduced to Mi-ja and Young-sook, precocious, 7-year-old best friends despite island elders’ misgivings that Mi-ja’s father was a collaborator with the hated Japanese, who controlled the island from 1910 until the end of World War II.

The island of sea women a novel book review