THE LIFE OF KIM AND THE BEHAVIOR OF MEN

In Davis’ novel, a soldier falls in love with a sex worker while stationed in 1970s South Korea.

Thomas Hobbes is deployed to South Korea during the Vietnam War. The men in Hobbes’ camp feel the separation between their current lives and what they refer to as “the World,” which lies beyond occupied Korea and their military post: “It was a concept—broad, vague, and sacrosanct.” The soldiers are trying to stave off “the Fear,” an intangible entity never fully explained but that seems to refer to an ever-looming anxiety. A few of the methods Hobbes and his friends use to shelter themselves from the Fear include alcohol, drugs, and “yobos”—a Korean term of endearment used by the soldiers to refer to sex workers. Hobbes meets Kim, a South Korean woman who plies that trade; though Hobbes makes a concerted effort to deny his deepening feelings, he and Kim fall in love. Later, he discovers that Kim is pregnant and that she deals drugs on the side for some dangerous men, leading to horrific consequences. Davis’ story is well paced, its descriptive prose deftly conveying the setting and the culture of life in the camp: “Whiskey at thirty cents a glass, opium and heroin in cigarette packs, switchblade knives sold by amputees and hustlers in the alley, dice slammed against mud walls…” The author is unafraid to highlight the flaws of his protagonist. For example, when Hobbes first grows close to Kim, he feels guilty, wanting to set himself apart from the other soldiers who use racial epithets or whore to describe such women. But once Hobbes and Kim do have a deeper bond between them, he struggles to commit to her because she is not of “the World.” Davis’ story may not have anything truly new to say about war or occupation, but he presents an impressive and engaging tale of love in a rough setting.

A moving and well-written war drama.