Comfort Woman

by Nora Okja Keller

Book Overview

Possessing a wisdom and maturity rarely found in a first novelist, Korean-American writer Nora Okja Keller tells a heartwrenching and enthralling tale in this, her literary debut. Comfort Woman is the story of Akiko, a Korean refugee of World War II, and Beccah, her daughter by an American missionary. The two women are living on the edge of society--and sanity--in Honolulu, plagued by Akiko's periodic encounters with the spirits of the dead,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140263357
• ISBN13: 9780140263350
• Release Date: March 1998
• Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 7.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Harshly Lyrical

This book gave me nightmares. The abuse of the "comfort women" by the Japanese during World War II is repulsive. Equally scary are the spirits Akiko channels. Keller's writing style is lyrical and proves a perfect counterpoint to the harshness of the narrative.

Accessible Prose; and a stiring tale

Comfort Woman is a very good novel that at once questions widely held ideas about memory, history, and the relationship between outsiders and mainstream culture. At the same time the novel tells a more personal tale about a mother and a daughter.The prose is simple, accessable, and at the same time beautiful. Without knowing anything about Asian-American history or literature, anyone can enjoy this book. Daniel Clausendanielclausen.com

So graphically vivid

Once I picked up this book, i could not put it down till i finished. I was in pain for what i read on the pages of the book was such vividly portrayed pain of Akiko that it emersed into my own blood. I am of Korean descent, and I have heard many times about Comfort women from the last world war. I feel deep pain for them, and respect for enduring all the years that came following. This book greatly personalizes and brings out the real lives of one of those comfort women, to convey to us, years later, how the war never had ended for those women thereafter.

Keller Inspired by "Comfort Woman" (from The Korea Times)

Keller Inspired by `Comfort Woman' THE KOREA TIMES 970830 By Yang Sung-jin Staff Reporter... Every Wednesday morning in front of the Japanese Embassy in downtown Seoul dozens of students, civil activists and religious leaders protest against the Japanese government, which still denies its involvement in the operation of "Chongshingdae" or sex slave corps in the last world war. It is estimated that over 200,000 Asian women, many in their early teens, were kidnapped, coaxed or sold to serve as "comfort women" at frontline brothels operated by the Japanese Imperial Army during World War II. After ceaseless rapings, many comfort women were murdered by the Japanese army. These women perished in the darkest chapter of history. Yet history cannot be forgotten, especially if it is too horrible to forget. And the largely neglected history has deeply moved one mother to write a novel depicting these women. "Comfort Woman," published April by Viking in the U.S., drew critical attention as soon as it hit bookstores for the book's sensitive issue and beautiful lyricism. The author arrived in Seoul Monday to promote the Korean version. Nora Okja Keller was inspired to write "Comfort Woman" after hearing a lecture at the University of Hawaii in 1993, she said in an interview with The Korea Times Wednesday. The speaker was a comfort woman, Hwang Keum-ju, who was touring universities to talk about her experiences during the war. "Before attending the lecture, I had no idea about comfort woman. This was the first time I heard about chongshingdae, and her story just hit me so forcefully; I really felt like somebody had to write about this...a story that many people would hear about again and again so this kind of thing can never happen again," said the 31-year-old author. At first, she did not even consider writing the story herself because of the immensity of the topic, both emotionally and historically, for the previously unpublished author. Yet the 71-year-old comfort woman's past was too moving to go unnoticed. The story began haunting Keller. "I started dreaming about it. When I got up, I just wrote down some images of my dream. I had images of war and, like, camp, just dull like that. Some of the things she talked about merged into my dream and that was the start of it...as a short story," and Keller, who was awarded the Pushcart Prize in 1995 for a short story about comfort woman, which later prompted the novel. The 213 pages of the English version is indeed strewn with images of war, pain and lost connections. The story is told by the alternating voices of two women: Kim Hyo-soon, the former comfort woman, otherwise called Akiko, and her Americanized daughter Beccah. Hyo-soon sometimes falls into a trance and dances feverishly while speaking the voices of the dead. Beccah, not knowing her mother's past, feels embarrassed at and ashamed of her mother's delusions. However, Beccah, a teenager growing up in Honolulu, f

Don't miss it.

Do not miss this book. It is a book about love and madness and subjugation. From it's opening line: "On the fifth anniversary of my father's death, my mother confessed to his murder." it will grab and hold you. Powerful,and at times disturbing.