THE LION AND THE RAT

A memoir offers a coming-of-age story of romantic misadventures in South Korea.

In this “work of creative nonfiction,” Thomas recounts his transition from boyhood to manhood as he learned to feel at home in a foreign land. Originally from DeLand and Orlando, Florida, he developed a fascination with South Korea as a naïve, shy, and indecisive teenager. He later moved there as an English teacher. After a series of romances and virtual liaisons, he began a relationship with Soyeon, a South Korean woman eight years his senior. In the book, he recounts his turbulent, toxic, and abusive relationship with her. According to the author, he was manipulated into the relationship due to his tendency to seek out love as a means to solve his loneliness and depression. He asserts that Soyeon used him to pursue her own goal of gaining legal residency in the United States. Identifying as a born-again Christian, Thomas found his relationship with his faith tested through his sexuality as he felt exploited by Soyeon and dated a series of other women while trying to separate from her. He learned about healthy relationships and financial responsibility, discovering “money is freedom.” The author uses the metaphor of a rat to describe Soyeon, considering himself a lion cub who learned to roar by getting through this challenging time in “the Land of the Morning Calm.” The memoir skillfully captures the cultural specificities and beauties of South Korea. But Thomas could have employed the “show, don’t tell” rule better to make the account more suspenseful. There are occasionally scenes with dubious sexual consent: The work would have benefited from a trigger warning. A more thorough exploration of the author’s coming-of-age in his employment and family relationships also would have added more heft to the story beyond the singular focus on his romantic relationships. The lovely illustrations by Weerasinghe at the beginning of each chapter portray the essence of the people, locations, and atmosphere remarkably well.

A familiar toxic relationship story with colorful cultural descriptions and beautiful illustrations.