The Long Season of Rain

By Helen Kim

Book Overview

"This first-person novel is a devastatingly clear-eyed view of societal restrictions and their effects on the young narrator's family in 1960s Seoul... . This is a universal novel, demonstrating the powerful effect the adult world has on children's lives." - The Horn Book , starred review

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805047581
• ISBN13: 9780805047585
• Release Date: November 1996
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.8" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 12 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 7 and higher

Customer Reviews

Not For Children Only

Since this book is told through the voice of an 11-year old it has been deemed "Young Adult Fiction". In reality it is a fascinating portrait of Korean life and traditions.In Korean tradition, a son is supposed to take care of his parents, and a daughter's job is to take care of her husband and her in-laws. A family without a son, is a family without a caretaker. Women who do not produce sons are shunned and are mistreated. The oldest child is also given special treatment. The protagonist's mother is referred to not by name, but as the oldest daughter's mother. As the second daughter, of four, Junehee must navigate between her oldest sister's demands, her withdrawn father, her domineering grandmother and her mother's sadness. The family also includes a servant-girl, a young woman of 19 whose parents can no longer afford to feed her.This book deals with the stark realities of life outside the United States. For young first generation Asians, I think this is a fascinating portrait of their parent's childhood. For those interested in Asian culture and society, at any age, this is a very valuable book.

A jewel of a novel anyone of any culture can relate to...

"We could not quite visualize houses sliding down the mountains, pigs and cows swimming, or people drowning in rain." The Long Season of Rain is an exceptional novel that immediately grasps its readers' attention and sustains it until the very last page. Set in South Korea in the summer of 1969, this novel explores the plight of the oppressed female in a traditional Asian society. With the advent of the Korean changma-- the rainy season, a male orphan comes to live in the Lee household. After having given birth to four beautiful, healthy daughters, the protagonist's mother is treated as an indentured servant and cannot inquire after her husband's activities outside home. Adhering to the belief that only sons are capable of taking care of their aged parents, the protagonist's mother wishes to adopt the orphan, but her plea is silenced by the disapproval of her husband and mother-in-law. Both heart-rending and heart-warming, The Long Season of Rain is a timeless masterpiece that deserves to be read by everyone across time and space.

I loved it!

The Long Season of rain was extremely interesting. I loved the book, the relationship between the family was distant... I found myself waiting for the next secret to unveal itself and wait for the families response to it. Junhee found herself in frightening situations, and as she found out each secret, the weight of each one began to build up on her, as well as her mother...

This is an interesting book

I'm a 14 years old Thai girl, who study at International School Bangkok. I had been reading this book for 3 weeks. I very like this book for many reasons. I like it because by reading this book, I learned a lot about korean culture and tranditions. This book tells me a very interesting ways about how a boy in Korea think about old women. By reading this book, I could get a very clear picture back in Korea's old days. I would like to recommend this book to everybody, everyages because this book is for everybody to read,(especially somebody who loves to read cultures typed of book). I assume that if you read this book, you would find that Korean culture were interesting. This book took place in Korea between a World War 2. This story is about a main character named June Hee Hee, who lived in a house full of women. He is 11 years old. His father often went to long trip to america, is rarely home. In the house he has to live with his grandmother,mother,and other elder women. Everythings seem to start to fall apart in a world of women. After reading my review, I hope you would try to read this interesting book.

One of the best works of fiction on Korea I have ever read

Although this novel was a runner-up for a National Book Award for young people's literature, don't let that fool you: this is a book for all ages. Helen Kim's novel is a luminous and sensitive portrayal of a young girl's life in late 1960's Korea. Kim actually writes from her eary childhood experience, and her simple, sparse style reveals the contours and shapes of Korean life that I have seen very few others do so well. In this beautiful novel, Kim explores issues of gender in a traditional Korean family. Although the topic is difficult, Kim manages to address patriarchy in Korean society without making the Korean father a caricature. Instead, he is a 3-dimensional figure both sympathetic and stubborn. As the women in this novel struggle to deal with the issue of adopting a boy into the family in a society where the issue of a male heir remains strong, Kim expertly weaves a tale that does not offer any emotionally pat or simple resolutions, but instead, draws all the complex emotions out in a language that reveals the deep, hidden complexity and beauty within a Korean family. The result is an achingly beautiful slice of life that is powerfully moving. As a Korean American myself, I can only say that I am simply overjoyed that there is finally literature emerging out there that is so beautifully rendered in such skillful, clear and moving prose.