Drifting house

Lee's debut story collection features diverse characters confronting the terms of their distinct situations and misfortunes, exploring the borders between lost homelands and shifting relationships. In A Temporary Marriage, Mrs. Shin leaves Seoul for California to find her young daughter, kidnapped three years earlier by her ex-husband. She arranges a sham marriage with Korean emigrate Mr. Rhee, a relationship that becomes more nuanced as Mrs. Shin's search intensifies. In the devastating title tale, three young siblings have no choice but to flee famine-ravaged North Korea for China, a journey that leads to harrowing decisions. The Salaryman follows a South Korean businessman as his life spirals out of control after he is fired from his job. At the Edge of the World portrays nine-year-old Mark Lee and his parents as they navigate their new life in Los Angeles, while Mark's father struggles to come to terms with his past. Varying in settings from North and South Korea to the U.S., from postwar to present age, Lee's nine tales offer haunting perspectives of dislocation and reconciliation.--Strauss, Leah Copyright 2010 Booklist

In this sublime debut collection spanning both Koreas and America, protagonists locked in by oppressive social forces struggle to break free in original ways, each unexpected denouement a minor miracle ("The Goose Father") or a perfect tragedy ("Drifting House"). In "A Small Sorrow," Seongwon, the wife of a famous painter, herself an artist, tracks down her husband's latest lover (a character who appears as a young girl in a later story, "Beautiful Women") to explore her own attraction and reinvent herself appropriately. Seeing Mina up close for the first time, Seongwon notes: "Her face, bright and alert, diminished the garden's gingko trees and surrounding mountains into a mere landscape." The author's imaginative metaphors and easy rhythmic variances are unerring, carrying the reader effortlessly. In "The Pastor's Son," New Mother, the aging second wife of a widower, crushed by her clergyman husband's abuse, "weaved out of the hall, her face volcanic with misery." In "The Goose Father," a poet-turned-accountant falls in love with a young thespian who believes a lame goose is his dead mother. After nearly kissing the boy's tendered lips, Gilho slaps his protege instead, and "Wuseong staggered backward, his hand cupping his cheek. Gilho's chest tightened like the beginning of a heart attack. A terrible loneliness spiked through him as he looked at the boy." The limpid, naturalistic prose and the flawless internal logic of these stories are reminiscent of the best of Katherine Anne Porter and Carson McCullers. (Feb.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Lee, whose peregrinations originated and are currently paused in South Korea with formative stopovers in the United States and England, infuses the nine stories of her breathtaking debut with the consequences of dislocation-whether forced because of war or chosen by virtue of immigration. The continuing aftermath of Korean partition sends three starving North Korean siblings on a brutal journey to find their runaway mother in the title story, while a fractured North Korean family struggles to create a new American life in "At the Edge of the World." In a brave, new postwar Korea, a lonely accountant diligently supports his wife and children living overseas in "The Goose Father," while across the ocean, a Korean divorcee marries a stranger in order to search for her missing daughter in "A Temporary Marriage." VERDICT Like Daniyal Mueenuddin, a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist for his debut collection, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, Lee, too, enters the literary world fully formed. Readers in search of exquisite short fiction beyond their comfort zone-groupies of Jhumpa Lahiri (Unaccustomed Earth) and Yoko Tawada (Where Europe Begins)-will thrill to discover Lee's work. [See Prepub Alert, 8/29/11.]-Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Lee's debut story collection features diverse characters confronting the terms of their distinct situations and misfortunes, exploring the borders between lost homelands and shifting relationships. In "A Temporary Marriage," Mrs. Shin leaves Seoul for California to find her young daughter, kidnapped three years earlier by her ex-husband. She arranges a sham marriage with Korean emigrate Mr. Rhee, a relationship that becomes more nuanced as Mrs. Shin's search intensifies. In the devastating title tale, three young siblings have no choice but to flee famine-ravaged North Korea for China, a journey that leads to harrowing decisions. "The Salaryman" follows a South Korean businessman as his life spirals out of control after he is fired from his job. "At the Edge of the World" portrays nine-year-old Mark Lee and his parents as they navigate their new life in Los Angeles, while Mark's father struggles to come to terms with his past. Varying in settings from North and South Korea to the U.S., from postwar to present age, Lee's nine tales offer haunting perspectives of dislocation and reconciliation. Copyright 2012 Booklist Reviews.

This first collection encompasses the Korean immigrant experience, ranging from children fleeing famine in North Korea to a patched-together family in America upended when a shaman moves next door. Lots of excitement about Lee, a 2006 finalist for Best New American Voices; a seven-city tour is planned for this book, and her first novel, How I Became a North Korean, is already scheduled for publication in 2013.

Lee, whose peregrinations originated and are currently paused in South Korea with formative stopovers in the United States and England, infuses the nine stories of her breathtaking debut with the consequences of dislocation—whether forced because of war or chosen by virtue of immigration. The continuing aftermath of Korean partition sends three starving North Korean siblings on a brutal journey to find their runaway mother in the title story, while a fractured North Korean family struggles to create a new American life in "At the Edge of the World." In a brave, new postwar Korea, a lonely accountant diligently supports his wife and children living overseas in "The Goose Father," while across the ocean, a Korean divorcée marries a stranger in order to search for her missing daughter in "A Temporary Marriage." VERDICT Like Daniyal Mueenuddin, a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize finalist for his debut collection, In Other Rooms, Other Wonders, Lee, too, enters the literary world fully formed. Readers in search of exquisite short fiction beyond their comfort zone—groupies of Jhumpa Lahiri (Unaccustomed Earth) and Yoko Tawada (Where Europe Begins)—will thrill to discover Lee's work. [See Prepub Alert, 8/29/11.]—Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

In this sublime debut collection spanning both Koreas and America, protagonists locked in by oppressive social forces struggle to break free in original ways, each unexpected denouement a minor miracle ("The Goose Father") or a perfect tragedy ("Drifting House"). In "A Small Sorrow," Seongwon, the wife of a famous painter, herself an artist, tracks down her husband's latest lover (a character who appears as a young girl in a later story, "Beautiful Women") to explore her own attraction and reinvent herself appropriately. Seeing Mina up close for the first time, Seongwon notes: "Her face, bright and alert, diminished the garden's gingko trees and surrounding mountains into a mere landscape." The author's imaginative metaphors and easy rhythmic variances are unerring, carrying the reader effortlessly. In "The Pastor's Son," New Mother, the aging second wife of a widower, crushed by her clergyman husband's abuse, "weaved out of the hall, her face volcanic with misery." In "The Goose Father," a poet-turned-accountant falls in love with a young thespian who believes a lame goose is his dead mother. After nearly kissing the boy's tendered lips, Gilho slaps his protégé instead, and "Wuseong staggered backward, his hand cupping his cheek. Gilho's chest tightened like the beginning of a heart attack. A terrible loneliness spiked through him as he looked at the boy." The limpid, naturalistic prose and the flawless internal logic of these stories are reminiscent of the best of Katherine Anne Porter and Carson McCullers. (Feb.)