A Single Square Picture: A Korean Adoptee's Search for Her Roots

by Katy Robinson

Book Overview

One day she was Kim Ji-yun, growing up in Seoul, Korea. The next day she was Catherine Jeanne Robinson, living with her new American family in Salt Lake City, Utah. Twenty years later, Katy Robinson... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 042518496X
• ISBN13: 9780425184967
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
• Length: 297 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A unique and wonderful journey

I really enjoyed this story. The images and feelings portrayed were vivid, so that I could appreciate Katy's perspective and viewpoints. I especially came to appreciate some new ideas and facts as an adult adoptee also from Korea. Yet regardless of background or ethnicity, readers attain a true understanding of her upbringing and life experiences. I was intrigued by the detailed memories of her Korean childhood, and how they translated to her eventual American lifestyle. The cultural descriptions and exchanges are interesting and allowed me to better my understanding of Korean culture. Overall, it was fun and interesting to read, and ultimately I appreciated and was impressed by her perserverance and fortune to have lived in Korea for a year and learn so much more about her family and background. Her journey enriches our enthusiasm and compassion for those who will or want to pursue knowledge about their family background (including me;)). Thank You Katy for this great written gift. -Michele Kim, CT

Beautifully written - could not put it down!

I loved this book! It has so much depth. So often books about another culture educate me about cultural differences but this book goes so much deeper. We go past the cultural differences and get to know the people underneath and we share their emotions. Through meeting the author's families (both here and there) we learn more about her as well as about ourselves. We share in her frustrations, her patience, and her tenacity. We share the pain and the joy and, along with the author, we learn that sometimes we don't get the all answers we need and we go on anyway. We learn with her that people (especially relatives!) can be incredibly difficult, with or without cultural differences, and we love them anyway.The descriptions of Korea are so incredible that I feel I was with her on her journey. I felt the pace, saw the colors, savored the aromas of the food and could experience the country through the author's eyes. Ms. Robinson can write!!! I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a great story.

Fascinating journey....

A book about a Korean adoptee growing up in Utah seemed to me to be the last thing that a Southern Californian would enjoy. I was very wrong. Ms. Robinson takes us along on her fascinating journey to find her roots and we truly feel as if we were right there with her. We share in her excitements as well as her despare. We are embroiled in mysteries and childhood fantasies. And our hearts race with anticipations and break with disappointments as doors are opened and then slammed shut. All the while we are introduced to an ancient and proud culture that is Korea.We also learn what it is like to be uprooted as a seven year old girl from the warm and loving arms of a mother and grandmother and whisked away to a society that could not be more diffent than her own. To be a little Korean girl raised in Utah had to have been very difficult. Ms Robinson delivers this story with the skill of the accomplished journalist which she is. She is able to bring us along with her and allow us to see what she sees through our own eyes. This is a must read for anyone who enjoys a good book.

Exquisite - Clear-eyed and Heartrending

Katy Robinson's background as a gifted journalist shows - even though the circumstances of her adoption at the age of seven are almost unimaginably heartbreaking, she manages to capture the pain of that separation, and her own innocence and inability to comprehend what was about to happen to her. The specificity with which she paints what she remembers and what she comes to understand, makes her journeys (both the metaphorical and actual) exquisitely poignant and relentlessly compelling. The way she weaves her memories with what she's able to uncover in her search, while dealing with the very Korean family she meets, adds layer upon layer of depth and resonance to her story - speaking volumes about family, culture, and identity that is absolutely universal, but so unique, the reader will not be able to put the book down. Wonderful characters, compelling story, and exquisite writing. You don't have to be an adoptee, Korean, or Asian American to love this book - anyone interested in childhood, family, and identity will find this endlessly fascinating - not to mention, lovely.

Author's Journey Becomes Reader's Journey

Katy Robinson's personal journey almost instantly becomes an emotional, can't-stop-reading journey for readers of her book. Because of the author's skill, the reader constantly relates to how Robinson felt during critical life-changing moments in her life. It is a beautiful story with heart-wrenching descriptions of family relationships. The author adeptly moves the reader back and forth from her first seven years in Korean as a child to her life in Salt Lake City with her adoptive family to her year in Korea trying to find her heritage and birth family. Her interaction with those newly-found family members is a compelling emotional roller coaster. Ms. Robinson's insight provides a strong guideline throughout as she constantly educates the reader about Korean culture. The story should be mandatory reading for anyone who ever has or wants to adopt a cross-culture child. At the end of the book I just wanted to keep reading and learning more from this gifted author's life.