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HOME WAS THE LAND OF MORNING CALM

A SAGA OF A KOREAN-AMERICAN FAMILY

A masterful blend of personal, family, and national history set against the backdrop of South Korea's long fight for independence and democracy. Kang, a journalist for the Los Angeles Times, combines fastidious academic research and personal recollection to create a vibrant, often disturbing account of a country caught in a centuries-long clash between world superpowers. The period of Japanese colonialism is embodied in the story of Kang's paternal grandfather, Myong-Hwan Kang, whose mind and spirit were shattered when he was twice arrested and tortured for nationalist activities. Celebration over the end of Japanese domination with their loss in WW II was interrupted by the outbreak of the Korean War. In 1946, when Kang was three, she and her mother escaped from their home in the north, going first to Seoul and then to a refugee camp in Pusan; they waited there over a year for passports so that they could rejoin Kang's father in Tokyo, where he was working as an interpreter for the American government. Finally, the two made an illegal crossing and were detained by the Japanese and finally released on bond, still without passports. Kang walks the line between Korean, Japanese, and American culture, and is acutely aware of the tensions among these separate worlds. As a woman she is intellectually attracted to the freedom inherent in American culture, but emotionally she is drawn toward her country of birth, despite its complex social hierarchies. When her parents join her in San Francisco in 1975, they are forced to start from scratch in a new country that does not credit them for past victories. The two buy a grocery store and are perceived like many other Korean immigrants—as if they come from a race of storekeepers who have little other experience. Deft and timely, this helps dispel many misconceptions about one of our nation's least understood immigrant populations.

Pub Date: July 1, 1995

ISBN: 0-201-62684-5

Page Count: 336

Publisher: Addison-Wesley

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1995

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THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS

FROM MEAN STREETS TO WALL STREET

Well-told and admonitory.

Young-rags-to-mature-riches memoir by broker and motivational speaker Gardner.

Born and raised in the Milwaukee ghetto, the author pulled himself up from considerable disadvantage. He was fatherless, and his adored mother wasn’t always around; once, as a child, he spied her at a family funeral accompanied by a prison guard. When beautiful, evanescent Moms was there, Chris also had to deal with Freddie “I ain’t your goddamn daddy!” Triplett, one of the meanest stepfathers in recent literature. Chris did “the dozens” with the homies, boosted a bit and in the course of youthful adventure was raped. His heroes were Miles Davis, James Brown and Muhammad Ali. Meanwhile, at the behest of Moms, he developed a fondness for reading. He joined the Navy and became a medic (preparing badass Marines for proctology), and a proficient lab technician. Moving up in San Francisco, married and then divorced, he sold medical supplies. He was recruited as a trainee at Dean Witter just around the time he became a homeless single father. All his belongings in a shopping cart, Gardner sometimes slept with his young son at the office (apparently undiscovered by the night cleaning crew). The two also frequently bedded down in a public restroom. After Gardner’s talents were finally appreciated by the firm of Bear Stearns, his American Dream became real. He got the cool duds, hot car and fine ladies so coveted from afar back in the day. He even had a meeting with Nelson Mandela. Through it all, he remained a prideful parent. His own no-daddy blues are gone now.

Well-told and admonitory.

Pub Date: June 1, 2006

ISBN: 0-06-074486-3

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Amistad/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2006

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BLACK BOY

A RECORD OF CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH

This autobiography might almost be said to supply the roots to Wright's famous novel, Native Son.

It is a grim record, disturbing, the story of how — in one boy's life — the seeds of hate and distrust and race riots were planted. Wright was born to poverty and hardship in the deep south; his father deserted his mother, and circumstances and illness drove the little family from place to place, from degradation to degradation. And always, there was the thread of fear and hate and suspicion and discrimination — of white set against black — of black set against Jew — of intolerance. Driven to deceit, to dishonesty, ambition thwarted, motives impugned, Wright struggled against the tide, put by a tiny sum to move on, finally got to Chicago, and there — still against odds — pulled himself up, acquired some education through reading, allied himself with the Communists — only to be thrust out for non-conformity — and wrote continually. The whole tragedy of a race seems dramatized in this record; it is virtually unrelieved by any vestige of human tenderness, or humor; there are no bright spots. And yet it rings true. It is an unfinished story of a problem that has still to be met.

Perhaps this will force home unpalatable facts of a submerged minority, a problem far from being faced.

Pub Date: Feb. 28, 1945

ISBN: 0061130249

Page Count: 450

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2011

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 1, 1945

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