Still Life with Rice: A Young American Woman Discovers the Life and Legacy of Her Korean Grandmother

by Helie Lee and Hetie Lee

Book Overview

"A captivating memoir of a courageous survivor" (Publishers Weekly) and "a window onto the panorama of modern Korean history" (St. Petersburg Times) this is a radiant and engaging story about a young American woman's discovery about the life of her Korean grandmother.

Helie Lee's grandmother, Hongyong Baek, came of age in a unified but socially repressive Korea, where she was taught the roles that had been prescribed for...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0684827115
• ISBN13: 9780684827117
• Release Date: April 1997
• Publisher: Scribner Book Company
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.5" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Page Turner and Eye Opener!

I really enjoyed this book. I live in Korea as the wife of a US military officer. I have lived here for over a year and have daily contact with many Koreans. This book gave me valuable insight into the Koreans around me. Obviously not everyone is the same. However, this book taught me a lot about Korean culture and traditions, some aspects of which have sometimes confused and frustrated me. The morning after I stayed up half the night finishing this book (I couldn't put it down), as I drove around, I looked at these natives of my host country through entirely new eyes. I have been telling everyone I come into contact with about this book. So far, everyone who has read it at my recommendation has been in full agreement with me. The story is incredible. After I finished it, I spoke with a Korean woman I know well who was about 8 during the Korean War. Her stories were strikingly similar to what I read in the book. This book is a must read, whether you have a relationship with Korea or not.

Life put into perspective

This was a fabulous book that makes one really appreciate the simplicity of daily life in America. This is an especially poignant book for mothers who must face life changing decisions. The writing was smooth and the book read well. I would highly recommend this to those who enjoy memoirs. Lee writes about the life of her grandmother and family members who live through some very difficult times. This one will stay on my shelf and I look forward to reading more of Lee's books.

Touching - Insightful - An Amazing Storytelling adventure

A friend recommended this book to me and now I recommend it to everyone. Of course you will learn a great deal about Korean culture (including some Korean-American culture), but you will also learn about people struggling against all odds, suffering, joy, the power of family and a strong and risk taking mother, as well as daughter. The power and depth of these people inspires me to live my life with greater courage and gratitude. A must read!I met Helie at a booksigning and she is wonderful. She is down to earth and very present and available when you speak with her. I felt as though she was interested in my story, not her story alone. Helie and her family are wonderful people and they give a glimpse of what a family who takes risks can accomplish for love.

Typically Straight Talk About Koreans by A Korean Woman

STILL LIFE WITH RICE is a breath of fresh air blasting into a staid room. Not only is the language straightforward and frank, but it is respectful, in a way only Koreans would understand. Not only does the narrative begin in North Korea before the 1950 invasion, but it discusses Korean emigrees in China, living in Occupation-era Korea, surviving during war, and emigrating to a foreign country.But this book is also about women, written by a woman rediscovering her history and her voice. It is not only a political discussion, but also a discussion of how women existed in Korean society. Although, as a man, talking about menstruation and other aspects of a woman's daily experience, was a bit unnerving, it established the book's focus, the tale of a woman maturing and becoming quite unique by any standard.The author is a first generation Korean-American (gyopo-saram) listening to her grandmother's tales of the old world. But neither are victims, and the fierce determination of the grandmother is revealed in the brashness of the granddaughter's prose. The granddaughter legitimates her grandmother's right to speak, a right not granted in her upbringing. The act of writing is liberation from the constraints of a misogynistic, Confucian social structure, and reveals the power of women in Korean culture.What I liked about the narrator was her humility. She may have withstood some of the bitterest experiences any women would face, but she takes no credit and is not condescending. She grows older and wiser, but her own personality does not change. Both women, storyteller and story-writer, are quite unique. By adopting her grandmother's voice, the granddaughter creates a heroine that speaks to both the old and future worlds.

Great introduction to Koreans and Korean-Americans

I really loved this book. First, much of it is simply incredibly moving as a story about people, regardless of where and when, surviving some of the most challenging things life can throw one's way. And doing so with love and dignity. Secondly, Ms. Lee's account, though speaking of one family, covers so much of the experience that makes our Korean citizens and residents who they are: those parts of their remote past, their immediate past in Korea, and their sometimes difficult experiences here in the US. I loved the characters and learned human lessons from them, but I also learned a lot about members of a growing and important part of my own community here in Oakland, CA. Brava and "kamsa hamnida!", Ms. Lee.