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Lee M. (Huntington Woods, MI)
What Comprises a Family
Ms. Kim probes the depths of tradition, honor, respect, and love. Taking an incident that she knows personally she weaves a heart-rending story of a family separated by time, war and continents. Do they endure, will they reunite, and is honesty about the past the best policy? You'll love the answers, and this book.
Maggie R. (Canoga Park, CA)
Checks a lot of boxes
First, let me say that I was attracted to this book by a comment made by Mrs. Kim. A child raised in America assumes that another who comes from a "less advantaged" background must surely find everything better here. This idea is relevant to the current refugee situation where some assume that anyone would choose to live here, even if not in dire straits. Kinship gives the reader parallel stories of separated sisters beginning early in their lives. We understand that each finds both love and pain, regardless of the home and family members around them. What is familiar can become either a comfort or a challenge to the growing child.
An excellent choice for a book club. Hopefully a spur to deeper thinking about the individuals we read about in the news - especially those too young to influence their own future.
Molly B. (Longmont, CO)
Wow. Lots going on
Ms Kim covers a lot of ground in The Kinship of Secrets. The recurring themes are family and secrets (the title was well chosen!) The background and story line are very interesting, especially for someone without much knowledge of South Korean history. The author helps that history come alive. She presents lots of different views on what makes a family. The secrets that are kept in this story are huge. I've always thought that secrets, like lies, restrict one's ability to make good decisions. And I still believe that, after reading Ms Kim's presentations of the importance of some lies to spare bad feelings. The pace of the book was great until the end. It was slow and in depth, and enjoyable for that. Starting with the trip to America, things started speedballing, and the last chapter was seemed too rushed, trying to condense everything into summary lessons and explanations, rather than continuing in the story format. Despite that, I liked the book and appreciate what Ms Kim presented about a culture not well known to me.
Beverly J. (Hoover, AL)
The Bonds That Bind Us
This captivating and poignant story opens at the start of the Korean War and thwarts the dreams of two sisters; one who lives in the United States with their parents and the other sister who was left behind in Korea. This deeply moving story is told in alternate chapters by the sisters as each describes their upbringing of separation necessitated by the political climate and economic difficulties. As a consummate storyteller, Kim, makes the story historically informative as we understand the heart and sacrifices made by the family.
I so enjoyed Kim’s first book and I was just as enthralled with this well-crafted warm-hearted book. It gave me a new understanding of the strength and resilience of families affected by displacement.
Katherine P. (Post Mills, VT)
Parallel Lives of Two Sisters
A page turner as two young girls grow from toddler to college graduates. One in Korea, the other in America--the cultures so different and yet periods of their lives--grade school, middle school --so similar in ways. Dealing with the personal adjustments to forming friendships, discovering boys, girlish competitions, differing relationships with parental figures, music, dancing, clothing styles. But the differences, too--multigenerational home in Korea, only child in America. Poverty in Korea, overabundance in America. The strength of tradition and culture in Korea, the loss of even language in America. The author alternates chapters --first in Korea, the next in the States.
She uses not only political and world events to chart time, but also pop culture--Elvis, Almaden wine (do they still make that?), the mashed potato and the twist, Dick Clark's TV show.
Although the differences between the two countries and the political situation in Korea are clearly expressed in the earlier chapters, it is not until Inja, at 15, is finally able to come to the States and reunite with parents she knows only through photographs and letters, that the reality of the situation becomes clear.
Miran, the girl raised in the US doesn't even speak Korean, She has difficulty with her Oriental appearance but American upbringing that leaves her feeling somehow a person who doesn't know who she is, Inja, in the meantime, is overwhelmed by the luxuriousness into which she finds herself and by the grief she feels at leaving the only family and home she has ever known.
How the two grow close and how they begin to understand themselves and their shared family history is the strongest part of the book and yet it could not have its impact without having their lives before detailed.
Kathleene M. (Running Springs, CA)
Family bonds are hard to break
The title for this book is appropriate. Deep-rooted secrets kept for decades through family ties. Secrets kept from Grandmother to mother to daughters die hard. Sacrifices through generations to be admired for survival. Family bonds remain strong even through estrangement.
Susan_Bailey
Two sisters, two worlds many secrets
In 1948 a Korean family decides to move to the United States to find better opportunities than there are in Korea. Najin and Calvin Cho take their adopted daughter, Miran, leaving their biological daughter Inja with Najin's brother and the rest of the family. The Korean war then occurs and the Korean family is displaced for several years. Bring Inja to the United States becomes impossible. Miran grows up as an American, feeling slightly out of place because she is Korean. Inja grows up Korean, with all the traditions of being Korean.
Eventually, when Inja is a teenager the family reconnects in America. It is then all the family secrets start to be revealed. Inja has a very hard time assimilating to American life, and as she and Miran discover one secret after another all the relationships change. Are the secrets to protect the family or the individuals?
The book is enjoying and factual, I found the read to be slow but interesting. It is based on a true story and shows the power of love and hope and family. There are many twist to unravel throughout the book.
Paula_B
Refreshing story of family and culture
This is an enjoyable read that added to my growing knowledge of how cultures are influenced by the country in which they exist. As an American living in the Southwest, I have had little connection to Confucian based cultures. Reading about the contrast that develops in a Confucian culture with a Christian overlay was enjoyable. The storyline relies on distinctions that arise within the same family, one part in Korea, the other in America. Economic status is definitely a major factor in the differences, but Confucian ideas, that stay strong in Korea, but much less so in America, illustrate changing attitudes toward women, specifically and family, in general. Mostly secrets were intended to be a kindness to those left in the dark. As the author says the secrets were "a charity of secrets". Ultimately personality, shaped and influenced by culture, is the critical factor in who these characters were and the secrets they kept or discovered.
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