This Burns My Heart

May 16, 2011
An unflappable heroine anchors Park's epic postâKorean War love story (after Shakespeare's Sonnets). Having grown up in a privileged home in Daegu, Soo-Ja, a brilliant and ambitious 22-year-old woman, has dreams of being a diplomat in Seoul. After her father refuses to let her leave home, however, she sets out to find and marry a weak man who will allow her to make her own decisions. The first candidate is Min, a young revolutionary, who pursues her from afar, writing her letters from Seoul, one of which puts her on a path to meet a charismatic student leader, Yul. Although her feelings for Yul are strong, she marries Min and is immediately faced with the cold realities of his corrupt and hateful family and the realization that she isn't any closer to getting to Seoul. Her responsibilities and, soon, a daughter, keep her trapped in a loveless marriage as she longs for Yul, now a doctor, and a better life. But this is no quiet tale of yearning: the plot kicks in with an unexpected fierceness, and the ensuing actionâa kidnapping, fist fights, blackmailâmake for a dramatic, suck-you-in chronicle of a thrilling love affair.

June 1, 2011

A captivating debut novel from Chicago-based author Park.

Soo-Ja is the bright and beautiful daughter of a hardworking factory owner in Daegu, South Korea. The nation is still recovering from the ravages of the Peninsula War, and the regime of Syngman Rhee is on its last legs, but tradition still holds sway. Women marry and serve the needs of their husband's family. Soo-Ja has a suitor, handsome Min, a dabbler in the student demonstrations against Rhee's oppression, but she also has an opportunity to study for the foreign service. Her father insists her duty is to marry, and Soo-Ja has Min's promise to move to Seoul so that she can become a diplomat. A marriage is arranged, but Min has lied. He refuses to leave his autocratic father. Soo-Ja immediately regrets declining a last-minute proposal from an intense young medical student, Yul. Stoically, Soo-Ja fulfills her duty, which from a Western point of view is that of a housekeeper and servant for her in-laws. Soo-Ja's first child is a girl, much to the regret of Min's family, a situation worsened when Soo-Ja refuses to have another child. Min's father mismanages his business into financial ruin, borrows money from Soo-Ja's father and flees to America with his family. Soo-Ja, Min and daughter Hana are left behind in shame. Park's novel can be read as a contemplation of loss and the angst of unrequited love, much like Dr. Zhivago. Soo-Ja and Yul encounter each other in Pusan and later in Seoul, where Soo-Ja is managing a hotel. Readers will be intrigued as Soo-Ja breaks from tradition to take control of her destiny, an emotionally charged personal drama played out against the backdrop of energetic South Korea as it transitions from a war-torn and oppressed country into a prosperous modern nation.

Protagonist Soo-Ja's story will enthrall in this first-rate literary effort.

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July 1, 2011

Set in postwar South Korea, where tradition is challenged by the eye-blinking changes erupting from a rapidly evolving modernity, Park's (Shakespeare's Sonnets) novel is essentially a triangulated love story involving wealthy and stunning Soo-Ja, who dreams of becoming a diplomat in a brave new world; the weak-willed lothario she marries; and the good doctor she lets go. For the sake of her beloved daughter, Soo-Ja chastely endures her suffocating marriage, which is exacerbated by the manipulations of her greedy father-in-law. "Chamara," the devastated would-be lover tells her, "[t]o stand it, to bear it," a sentiment commingled with the empathy of his agonizing, "This burns my heart, too." VERDICT Inspired by the life of Park's mother, to whom the book is dedicated, this novel has the added gravitas of being embellished truth. It will surely claim a popular spot on the ever-growing shelves of sweeping historical titles starring long-suffering heroines in faraway locales, from Lisa See's Shanghai Girls to Eugenia Kim's more recent The Calligrapher's Daughter. Readers in search of more substantial Korean/Korean American reads might try Kyung-sook Shin's Please Look After Mom, Sonya Chung's Long for This World, or Chang-Rae Lee's The Surrendered. [See Prepub Alert, 12/20/10.]--Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2011
First-time novelist Park orchestrates a vivid and involving novel about a Korean woman who is robbed of her dreams. In 1960, beautiful, smart, and ambitious Soo-Ja intends to become a diplomat, in spite of her wealthy father's refusal to allow her to go Seoul to study. Taking her mother's hint that travel would be more feasible for a married woman, and flattered by the extravagant gestures of handsome Min, whom she believes is as privileged as she is, Soo-Ja rushes into a loveless marriage, in spite of her feelings for another, only to be cruelly betrayed. But Soo-Ja is a woman of resolve and principles and strives to do the right thing in spite of being forced into poverty and self-effacing servitude to her feckless husband and tyrannical in-laws. Park portrays, with penetrating compassion, individuals trapped in soul-crushing, sexist traditions, meshing Soo-Ja's long, anguished fight to live a fulfilling and meaningful life with postwar Korea's march toward modernity. Smart, affecting, and unabashedly melodramatic, Park's novel of adversity, moral clarity, and love is consuming and cathartic.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)