26: Typical American by Gish Jen

[puritybrown.livejournal.com]

26: Typical American by Gish Jen

I picked up Typical American on the basis of having enjoyed Jen's collection of short stories, Who's Irish? a while ago. Typical American is most like the last story in that collection, in that it's slightly rambly and unfocused, and is largely concerned with family. The rambliness made it somewhat less than a pageturner, and yet it's not that it wasn't enjoyable; it was very enjoyable, very well-written if sometimes a little too arch for my taste. It was just that I would put it down and not feel compelled to pick it up again. And then, when I did pick it up again, it would take a few pages for me to get back into the flow; but once I was in the flow, it was a smooth and pleasant read.

The story concerns Ralph Chang, né Chang Yifeng, who comes to New York from Shanghai in the late 40s to study engineering; it's about how he (and later his sister and his wife) adapts to life in the USA, so different from life in Shanghai, but also how he matures and learns to deal with life in general. It's full of pithy observations and beautifully-phrased descriptions, and though (as I said) the tone is often quite arch and distant, the characters are nonetheless depicted in three dimensions and with a great deal of warmth.

(Additional tags: chinese-american)

This is Paradise! by Hyok Kang

[chipmunk-planet.livejournal.com]

This is Paradise!: My North Korean Childhood is a memoir of the author's childhood in North Korea (illustrated in places with scenes from his life there) and how he and his family were able to escape to China and later on, to South Korea where he lives today.

What struck me about this story was the intense level of control that North Korea has over its citizens. Radios only receive the official channels (being caught with one that receives something else gets you sent to a forced labor camp). Everyone wears buttons with a picture of Kim Jong-Il on it; his portrait hangs in every building. School days are spent reciting Communist propaganda, rehearsing the dance you would do in case a high official comes to call, and denouncing your classmates (and being denounced, in which case you confess and do whatever penance the teacher inflicts).

During the North Korean Famine in the mid-1990's, the author recounts being forced to work as farm labor at school (during which the children mostly stole and ate the food), then after school he and his friends survived by stealing from the markets, catching grasshoppers and rats, and digging weeds to go in the soup at home. Many of his classmates died of starvation, including at least one close friend, before his family fled North Korea for China in 1998.

A well-done yet chilling story. I would recommend it to anyone interested in finding out what life is really like in North Korea.