Book Club meeting: The Calligrapher's Daughter

I announced this Book Club meeting 6 weeks ago, and now, the night before, I feel like I am back in college with a paper due in the morning.

I will do my best to host this properly, but I feel pressure to be insightful, literary, and erudite.  And yes, I write a blog, but it's a blog, people, not "real" literature!  So, I will confess right up front that I am not qualified as a book reviewer.  In the vernacular of our heroine,

"This person can only share her humble opinions and hope that you will find them worthy."

My immediate impression after the reading the book?  I liked it.  Spoilers ahead as we discuss further.

The beautifully descriptive prose allowed me to see, and smell, and hear, and touch the scenes in the book.  I will remember the mudworms forever.  I can see the huge smile on Najin's face as she rode the bicycle home as a girl, and I teetered down the aisle along with her in her unfamiliar high heels and western wedding gown.

I found it to be a very readable book, and felt immersed in both the Han and the Cho households.  The occasional shift in narration was interesting as well, as we learned what was happening from the reactions of other characters in the book.

Somewhat ashamed, I must admit I am ignorant of Korean history.  It was educational to learn that we had a monarchy up until the Japanese occupation.  I had the impression when I was in Seoul during an election year, that democracy was still relatively new, but I had not known when it started.  I am jealous of Japan and England for their still intact, though mainly decorative, royal families, and am thirsty to learn more about Princess Doekhye's family and fate.  The stories of the time Najin spent at court put my memories of Biwon and various palaces in Seoul, into more interesting 3-dimensional context.  I find myself wanting to go back and tour the brightly painted buildings and carefully tended gardens again, so I can picture Najin, Imo, Doekhye, and the Japanese guards on their outings.

The characters were very interesting as well.  While this book was written from a woman's perspective, the male characters had major impacts, of course.  The relationships between father and daughter, brother and sister, husbands and wives, I found to be more complex and more deeply written then the female relationships.  I wonder why?  Were the generally harmonious female relationships just less interesting?

I had a hard time accepting Najin's relationship with her father. He was so stiff and cold to her, that I wanted her to discount him, instead of seeking his approval as much as she did.  I think the author did a great job of describing the cultural setting behind the man as head and center of the household.  I witnessed that in the Seoul host family that I lived with back in '88.  While I found it difficult, as an American, to abide my friend's instinct to always serve the men first, it rings true.

And given this deeply ingrained attitude of subservience to her father, who had shown so little affection for her, I found it somewhat inconsistent that she was so challenged in accepting her lowly servitude in the house of her in-laws.  She complained of being a slave, but wasn't that traditional and to be expected in Korea at that time?  It seemed that what appalled her the most was the lack of privacy, and the contrast between her situation, and that of the young preacher's wife who stayed with them.  I suppose being a slave to in-laws and an ungrateful houseguest imposed upon you, is naturally more onerous than slaving at your own home, with your mother to love and appreciate you.

The privation and suffering of the war behind them was conveyed effectively, but without belaboring the details.  The situation with Dongsaeng and his wife and his lover was, umm, awkward, shall we say?  Han's creative solution to the problem may have saved the family, given the motivation it provided Ilsun.  However, I can't say I liked either of them any better for it.

So, that's what I thought of the book.  What did you think?  

Threaded comments have been enabled, so you can reply directly to a comment, or post a new comment of your own.  After a few comments, I'll post some questions from the appendix at the back of the book to keep the discussion going.