Year of Impossible Goodbyes

SOOK NYUL CHOI
1991

INTRODUCTION
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
PLOT SUMMARY
CHARACTERS
THEMES
STYLE
HISTORICAL CONTEXT
CRITICAL OVERVIEW
CRITICISM
SOURCES
FURTHER READING

INTRODUCTION

Sook Nyul Choi's Year of Impossible Goodbyes is an autobiographical novel about the author's escape from North Korea. Winner of the 1992 Judy Lopez Memorial Award, Year of Impossible Goodbyes is narrated by the nine-year-old Sookan, who is of Korean heritage. For as long as Sookan can remember, the Japanese invaders have occupied her country and have attempted to strip away all aspects of Korean culture. Sookan's father and older brothers have not had contact with Sookan; her youngest brother, Inchun; and her mother in several years. In order to survive, Sookan's mother has been forced to run a sock factory in a building on her property. The Japanese soldiers demand a certain production quota each day. If Sookan's mother does not meet it, her food rations, which are already skimpy, are cut back even further.

In time, a series of dramatic events changes Sookan's life forever. Her grandfather dies, which causes her mother to fall into a debilitating depression. Everyone's spirits rise when World War II ends, but more tragedy lies ahead. Year of Impossible Goodbyes, selected by the American Library Association as a notable book in 1992, provides an insider's glimpse of North Korea, a country that has since become one of the world's most secretive societies.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY

Sook Nyul Choi was born in 1937 in Pyongyang in what is now North Korea. Like the young character in her novel, Choi fled the hardships of the Communist takeover of North Korea by escaping to South Korea when she was a young girl. When Choi was twenty-one, she emigrated to the United States, where she then attended Manhattan College, in New York. After college, she worked for a brief time for her husband, a Korean businessman. When her husband died, Choi became a teacher, working in New York's public schools. After twenty years of teaching Choi retired and devoted her time to her writing.

Since all of Choi's novels are based on her personal experience, her books can be read as a journey through her life. Year of Impossible Goodbyes was Choi's first novel, published in 1991. The story covers her incredible escape to South Korea. In Choi's second novel, Echoes of the White Giraffe (1993), the protagonist, Sookan, is a teenager. The story is set in South Korea and portrays the invasion by North Korea, as supported by Russia and China, into the lower portion of the Korean Peninsula. Once again, Sookan and her family are forced on the run. Gathering of Pearls (1994) is the last of Choi's trilogy and follows Sookan as she travels to the United States to go to college. The novel portrays the challenges that Sookan must face in learning and adjusting to a culture completely different from her own.

After this trilogy, Choi wrote Halmoni and the Picnic (1993) and Yunmi and Halmoni's Trip (1997), two children's picture books. Also in 1997, she published The Best Older Sister, an easy reader for elementary-school students. Choi has two daughters, Kathleen and Audrey. She lives in Massachusetts, where she spends her time writing and giving lectures on her books.

PLOT SUMMARY

Chapters 1-3

Choi's story begins in Pyongyang, Korea (now the capital of North Korea). Though the day is warmed by spring, the people in the story feel a sense of oppressiveness all around them, as if they are still in the throes of a harsh winter. Their country is under the control of the Japanese, who are bent on stripping away all sense of Korean culture. People are forced to work hard for the Japanese army, which is fighting to bring down the armed forces of the United States.

Sookan, the nine-year-old girl who narrates the story, lives with her mother; her youngest brother, Inchun; her grandfather; and her Aunt Tiger. Sookan's father has escaped to Manchuria, where he is assisting an underground Korean liberation group. Sookan's three older brothers have been sent to Japanese labor camps; her sister Theresa, who is a teen, has been sent to a nunnery.

Sookan's family runs a sock factory in a building attached to their house. With the help of several young women who walk to Pyongyang from the countryside, they make socks for the Japanese soldiers. Every day Captain Narita comes to the factory to inspect their work. Sookan and her mother do all they can to please him. Captain Narita is in control of how much food Sookan's family receives.

The girls who work in the sock factory include Haiwon and Okja. Haiwon often comes to work early so that she can chat with Sookan, Mother, and Aunt Tiger. Okja comes early, too, but she is very quiet, while Haiwon makes everyone laugh with her stories. Kisa is the only man in the factory. He keeps the sewing machines in good condition.

There is an old pine tree in Sookan's yard. There had once been a garden underneath it, but the Japanese soldiers stomped the flowers down. Keeping a garden was a waste of time, they said. But Grandfather loves the tree. It represents freedom to him. When Captain Nirata comes to the house one day, he discovers the women enjoying a small celebration of Haiwon's birthday. Because they should have been working, the captain retaliates by having his men chop down the tree. This sickens Grandfather, and he takes to his bed, swearing he will never go outside again. Eventually Grandfather dies.

Chapters 4-6

Sookan misses her grandfather. He used to secretly teach her how to make the Korean characters that corresponded to their language. Speaking Korean was forbidden, so this act was one of rebellion. Sookan's mother also suffers, falling into a depressive state that makes her incommunicable with the remaining members of the family. Because she is unable to oversee the production of the socks, the sock girls do not meet their quotas. Captain Narita decides the girls would be worth more to the soldiers if he sent them all to the battlefront. There they could give the soldiers pleasure, Captain Narita tells everyone. A couple of days later a big truck arrives at the gate, and the Japanese soldiers force the girls to climb into the back. They are all taken away. Sookan never sees them again.

Later on, Sookan is forced to attend Japanese school. Previously, because Sookan was of a small build, her mother had convinced the Japanese authorities that Sookan was still too young. But now the Japanese insist that Sookan attend. Sookan's mother instructs her never to say one word in Korean or the Japanese will punish her.

Sookan's teacher turns out to be Captain Narita's wife. She is as cold-hearted as her husband and shows no compassion for Sookan on her first day. Sookan meets a girl her age named Unhi. Unhi helps Sookan by telling her the rules so that she will not get in trouble. The school is basically a propaganda tool, filling the children's heads with Japanese ideology. The students are brainwashed, in essence, forced to repeat slogans that purport Japanese superiority.

After the propaganda session, the boys are forced to fill sandbags and to pile up rocks to fortify the school should the U.S. forces attack. The girls break panes of glass and sharpen the edges to be used as weapons. The boys also sharpen sticks for the same purpose.

On the second day of school, one of the older boys protests the long hours that the students are made to work in the hot sun. The other students are mortified by the boy's outburst and fearful of what the teachers and administrators will do. But Sookan's reaction is to applaud the boy. It was a natural response, since she has similar thoughts and has not yet been so trained to think otherwise. She is promptly expelled from school.

On August 15, 1945, Kisa comes home to tell Sookan's family that the war is over. This is the end of World War II. He warns them, though, not to go out into the streets just yet. Although the Japanese are leaving, they are very angry. They have been looting and killing on their way out. One of the first things that Sookan and her young brother do is plant some flower seeds. They have been waiting so long to have pretty flowers in their yard. Then they all don their colorful Korean clothes, discarding the drab gray clothing they have been forced to wear. They are all amazed when they finally go out in the streets and hear everyone speaking in their native language. Their freedom does not last long, however. Shortly after the Japanese soldiers leave, Russian soldiers descend on their town.

Chapters 7-9

Many Korean people quickly become agents of Russian Communist propaganda. Where once the people had to pledge their allegiance to Japan, they now find they have to accept the principles of the Communist Party. Sookan keeps looking for her father and three older brothers, but no one has seen them.

As she had been forced to attend Japanese school, now Sookan is forced to attend a Communist Party school, where again she has to repeat slogans and watch propaganda movies. Comrade Kim, a Korean neighbor, becomes completely immersed in the Communist movement and insists that Sookan and her family attend nightly political rallies. She introduces Sookan to Comrade Natasha, a Russian woman who appeals to Sookan because she speaks Korean. After feeding the townspeople and teaching them new songs, the Communist leaders truck Sookan's family into the countryside. Sookan and her young brother are taken to a factory that they are told to clean. Sookan's mother and Aunt Tiger are dropped off at a mine field, which they must clear.

Soon the regimental rule of the Communists feels similar to the hardships under the Japanese. The people are told what to wear, and every minute of their day is programmed with hard labor. Kisa, the man who used to keep the sewing machines in working order, goes to work for the party in a different way. He recruits new party members. In this way, he is able to distinguish those who are so-called Town Reds, meaning true believers, from those who are pretending to be interested while planning their escape to the south. Kisa learns how to help Koreans get across the border.

One day, Kisa hears from Sookan's father, who has found his three older sons and has taken them to the south. He sends some jewels to Kisa to pay for the safe journey of the rest of his family. Kisa then makes arrangements with a man reputed to have successfully gotten many Koreans across the border. The man will show up at Sookan's home one day, and Sookan, her mother, and her brother must be ready to leave immediately. Aunt Tiger is staying behind because she is still waiting for news from her husband, who had been a war prisoner.

When the man who will be their guide appears, he tells the children that they must stick close to him and pretend not to know their mother. He will be able to take them across the border because he is a friend of the Russian soldiers. The soldiers will not question the children, but they might question their mother. If the soldiers stop their mother, the children must not look back or call out to her. Even though the soldiers might detain their mother, he is sure they will let her go after a few hours.

Things go well until they all reach the border crossing. The man and the children pass through, but indeed, Sookan's mother is held back. Sookan and Inchun cannot help but look back and cry, but the man tells them they must move on. They walk a long distance and finally come to an inn. The man tells the children to go inside and rest; he will be back. Once they are inside, an old woman puts them to bed. But in the morning she tells them that their guide is a fraud and they must leave immediately or everyone will get in trouble.

In the days that follow, Sookan and Inchun hang around a railroad station near the North Korean border. They beg for food and keep looking for their mother. A railroad station man feels sorry for them and helps them to once again escape. The children sneak across the border into South Korea at a place where a Red Cross station has been set up to meet them and others who dare the crossing.

The children are fed and rested, then helped to find their father. The family is finally united, except for the mother. But one day, even the mother appears. She had been forced to work as a housemaid for a Russian officer, but she was able to escape.

Epilogue

The story is not yet over. Another tragedy will occur in 1950, when the North Korean armies invade South Korea in an attempt to unite the Korean Peninsula once again, this time under Communist rule. In the midst of the chaos, even Theresa, with her fellow nuns, is able to leave North Korea, and they seek shelter with Sookan's family. Theresa tells them that Kisa and Aunt Tiger were convicted of being traitors and were shot. At the end of the story, Sookan is thinking about the sock girls and her friends, wondering if they are still alive.

CHARACTERS

Father Carroll

Father Carroll does not appear in person in this story. He is the Catholic priest to whom Mother had often turned in times of trouble. Father Carroll was accused by the Japanese occupiers of working for the rebellious underground movement fighting for Korean liberation and was expelled from the country.

Father

Sookan's father never makes an appearance in person in this story. Readers are told that he is part of a rebel force working for Korea's freedom from an outpost in Manchuria. At one time, the whole family lived in Manchuria, but there are hints that once World War II began, only Sookan's father remained there. In the chaos at the end of the war, when Russia helps the Korean soldiers to rid the country of the Japanese, Sookan's father rescues his oldest sons from Japanese labor camps and takes them to South Korea. He later meets in secret with Kisa, gives Kisa money to help his wife escape, and tells Kisa where he and his sons are staying in the south.

Grandfather

Sookan's grandfather, though he does very little in this story, is a major character, as he is so in Sookan's mind. He acts as the spiritual head of the family. He is also Sookan's teacher and a keeper of the Korean traditions. It is through her grandfather that Sookan learns to re-create the Korean characters used to write script. Also, her grandfather is the one who demands that Sookan's mother bring out old photographs and explain their family history to Sookan and her brother Inchun.

Grandfather has suffered through a long history of Japanese occupation, including years of torture in their labor camps. He clings onto whatever pleasant memories he has managed to preserve. He looks for peace wherever he can find it, while the occupation soldiers try to strip it all away. Grandfather is devastated when the Japanese cut down one of the last symbols for him of pleasure on earth—the tall pine tree outside his house. He has lost friends and family; his original house was burned down; his wife is dead; and his son-in-law and older grandsons are missing. Though he has affection for his youngest grandchildren, when the tree is destroyed, Grandfather appears to lose his will to live. His spirit is broken, and shortly afterward, he dies. Symbolically, Grandfather might stand for the Korean culture, which is being slowly destroyed in the memories of the people who remain in North Korea.

The Guide

The guide is the man whom Kisa trusts to take Sookan's family across the border to South Korea. He turns out to be a fraud.

Haiwon

Haiwon is one of the girls who works in the sock factory. On her birthday, Mother plans a surprise party for Haiwon. It is this party that irritates Captain Narita, leading him to cut down the tree.

Hanchun

Hanchun is Sookan's oldest brother. He spends most of the story in a Japanese labor camp.

Hyunchun

Hyunchun is the third oldest of Sookan's brothers. Like Hanchun, Hyunchun does not appear in this story. He is rescued by his father.

Inchun

Inchun is the youngest child in the family. He is precocious. Although he is included in some of the action of the story, his role is overshadowed by that of his older sister.

Jaechun

Jaechun is the second-oldest brother. While in a Japanese labor camp, Jaechun suffers from tuberculosis and dysentery.

Mrs. Kim

Mrs. Kim is a neighbor of Sookan's family. Nothing is heard about her until the Russians arrive in the town, when Mrs. Kim becomes one of the most vocal of the Koreans in turning toward the views of the Communists. Aunt Tiger plays up to Mrs. Kim by pretending to be interested in joining her in recruiting new members of the party. Aunt Tiger does this so that Mrs. Kim does not become suspicious of Sookan's family's departure when they attempt to escape.

Kisa

Kisa is the only man who works in the sock factory. He is a pleasant man who is very gentle with the children, Sookan and Inchun. Kisa becomes involved in the Communist Party in order to gain connections to help fellow Koreans escape to the south. After Sookan's father gives Kisa a bag filled with jewels, he tells her mother to use the jewels to pay for her family's escape. Kisa, like Aunt Tiger, is shot for betraying the Communist Party.

Mother

Sookan's mother is the backbone of Sookan's family. She constantly repeats the same phrase, telling everyone around her that the war will soon be over. She prays and consistently believes that her god and her religion will save her family. However, she falls apart at her father's death. Grandfather had been a source of strength for her. Her depression following his death leads to physical ailments that Sookan is afraid may lead to her death as well.

When Sookan's mother is held captive by the Russian soldiers at the border between North and South Korea, her presence slips from the story and never fully returns to the same extent that it held in the first two-thirds of the story. Her greatest role in the novel is keeping her family safe while they are living in North Korea; when they make their escape, she falls into the background.

Captain Narita

Captain Narita is an officer in the Japanese army. He is the leader of the troops who organize and maintain the work at the sock factory. He represents everything that is unlikable about the Japanese occupiers. He is strict, cold hearted, and without mercy, from Sookan's point of view. Narita orders that the pine tree be cut down, knowing that the tree is considered a special possession for Sookan's family.

Narita Sensei

Narita Sensei is Captain Narita's wife and Sookan's teacher at the Japanese school. Narita Sensei was also Sookan's older brothers' teacher. So when Sookan is on her way to school, she already knows about Narita Sensei's reputation for being severely strict. She is very hard on Sookan on Sookan's first day at school. When Sookan responds inappropriately to a young boy who talks back to his teacher, Narita Sensei makes sure that Sookan is dismissed from school.

Sookan

Sookan is the narrator of the novel. She is nine years old, going on ten. Sookan appears wiser than most of her peers. She has a better sense of what is going on around her. She does not give in to the propaganda that either the Japanese occupiers or the Russian Communists try to make her believe. She has a sense of what is right for her and her family. She faces Russian soldiers, for instance, and demands that they release her mother when her mother is captured at the border. She also has an intuitive understanding of her grandfather's spirituality, though she does not fully comprehend it. She feels the peace her grandfather experiences when he meditates. Then when she is troubled, she attempts to find such peace for herself.

Sookan is a survivor. She figures out ways to find food for herself and her youngest brother when they are separated from their mother and abandoned by the guide who cheats them. When she has no experience or adult to guide her, she relies on her own sense of compassion, such as when she helps a woman care for her baby and is then rewarded. She is also rebellious. She and her school friend dull the shards of glass when they are told to sharpen them for use as weapons to fight the U.S. soldiers.

Theresa

Theresa is Sookan's oldest sibling. There are many years between Sookan and Theresa, and therefore Sookan knows very little about her. Theresa lives with Catholic nuns in a nunnery a distance from Pyongyang. Theresa never appears in the story. However, when Theresa escapes from North Korea in the epilogue, she brings the news that Kisa and Aunt Tiger have been killed.

Aunt Tiger

Given her name because she loves to tell folktales about a talking tiger, Sookan's aunt lives with the family. Aunt Tiger talks a lot, often voicing her worries about surviving the hardships placed on the family by the Japanese soldiers. However, when the Russians appear, Aunt Tiger seems to come to life. She becomes involved in the Communist Party so that she can gain favors for the rest of the family. She also does not give up on her hopes that her husband will one day be released from the Japanese prisons and come home. When the rest of the family attempts their escape, Aunt Tiger stays behind. She says she decides to do so because she wants to be there when her husband returns, but she also knows that if she is missed by the Communists, the soldiers will come looking for her. She stays in Pyongyang to help protect Mother and the children as they attempt their escape. Later, Sookan learns that Aunt Tiger was put to death. Her body was displayed in a public square as a reminder of what might happen to others if they, too, were to lie to the Communist leaders.

Unhi

Sookan meets Unhi when she goes to the Japanese school. Unhi helps Sookan adjust to the rules of the school, protecting Sookan so she does not get into trouble. While out in the school yard where the girls are supposed to be sharpening shards of glass, Unhi and Sookan come up with their own form of sabotage by smoothing the edges of the glass so that they will not harm the U.S. soldiers.

THEMES

Loss of Culture

Throughout most of Choi's novel Year of Impossible Goodbyes, the author laments Korea's loss of culture. As the story begins, all elements of the characters' lives are monitored to make sure that all signs of Korean culture have been eradicated. The Japanese enforcers prohibit speaking of the Korean language. Everyone must wear drab clothing, not the colorful prints that the Korean people prefer. Korean names are replaced with Japanese translations. Even Korean gods and the associated religions have been banned.

Although in Sookan's house Korean is spoken and the family has managed to stow away a few Korean mementos, they must hang thick blankets on the windows to ensure that they are not seen or heard when they share elements of their culture, even in private. Unfortunately, the Japanese want more than just the land and its resources. They want the minds, hearts, and souls of the Korean people; they want the Koreans, in other words, to become just like them.

The first real sign of freedom for Sookan is the moment when she walks down a public street and hears her Korean language being spoken out in the open. People take off the gray garments that they have been forced to wear and unpack their Korean clothes. The deprivation of their culture had imprisoned their minds and their senses of identity.

With the arrival of the Russians, parts of the Korean culture are preserved. The Russians allow the people to speak in their native tongue, and even a few of the Russians speak Korean, to the amazement of some. However, the Korean clothes must be once again put away, as the Koreans are forced to wear yet another uniform. This new uniform reminds the people that they all now belong to the Communist Party.

Enslavement

Young and old are enslaved in this story. The enslavement comes in both physical and psychological forms. Enslavement is used by both the Japanese and the Russian Communist Party in order to exert control over the Korean population.

When Sookan goes to Japanese school, she is bombarded with propaganda about the so-called great Japanese Empire. She is told that white people are devils and she should therefore work toward their demise. She is then forced to create weapons with which to stop the white Americans from taking over her country. She spends at least half of her day in school working hard in the hot sun. In this way, the Japanese plan to heavily influence the children's minds. Most children are not equipped with the mental tools to discriminate between what is good for them and what is being propagandized. The Japanese also take advantage of child labor. Rather than teaching math and science, they take the children out into the school yard and have them make tools of war.

In the sock factory, Sookan's mother, like most of the other adults, works hard each day. She works, she is told, to keep the Japanese soldiers warm. She is constantly threatened with starvation, as the Japanese soldiers pay her with food, and they pay her only enough for her to barely exist. If she falls behind in her work, they subtract some of her normal rations. Although the adults' minds may be able to recognize propaganda when they are exposed to it, they do as they are told because they need to eat.

TOPICS FOR FURTHER STUDY

• Research traditional Korean dress. Find pictures of what men, women, and children wore in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Then find pictures of Koreans during the Japanese occupation and in North Korea today. Share your research with the class in a multimedia presentation.
• Read So Far from the Bamboo Grove (1994), by Yoko Kawashima Watkins, an autobiographical novel about Korea told from the point of view of a young Japanese girl. Imagine, after reading this novel, what a conversation between the protagonist of Watkins's novel and Sookan, the narrator of Choi's novel, might be like if they ever met. Write a dialogue between the two characters and ask a classmate to take one of the parts. Then perform the dialogue in front of your class.
• Compare the economic statuses of North and South Korea. How do the two countries make money? What are their major industries? How successful is each? You may want to consult the U.S. State Department's Web site for information. Write a paper summarizing your findings.
• The Korean War has been called one of the bloodiest wars in modern history. Who fought in this war? How long did it last? What are the statistics regarding the dead and the wounded? How do these figures compare to the wars in which the United States has recently fought in Vietnam and Iraq? Research and present these facts in graph form and show the graphs to your class, explaining the data you have discovered.

Another form of enslavement is associated with torture. Sookan's grandfather has all his toenails pulled off while he is a prisoner of the Japanese. Torture can break a person's spirit, taking from that person his or her will to be free. Torture often makes a person submit to the orders of their captors. Thus, their minds become enslaved because they fear they will be hurt. Grandfather, in this story, becomes so weary of his enslavement that he decides he would rather be dead than have to submit to the Japanese.

When the Russians arrive, the people are brainwashed all over again. This time they are made to believe that if they work hard and do not ask for much in return, they will one day create a new, ideal society under Communism. Children are trucked away to clean old factories. Adults are used as disposable peons, going out into the war fields to clear away mines. The Russians enslave the Korean people by promising them a better future if they just work and work for the time being.

Lack of Parental Love

Sookan often comments on the lack of parental love in this story. Sometimes she feels her mother does not love her enough. Sometimes she thinks the same of her grandfather and her father. It is not that these people do not love her, but Sookan sometimes feels that way.

In fact, Sookan's mother becomes emotionally vacant at one point in the story—when she loses her own father. Although otherwise emotionally strong, Sookan's mother becomes worn down after the death of her father, as if this is the last straw, the last punishment that she can endure. In order to protect herself, she closes off her emotions from her children. The result is that Sookan feels lost. Her mother becomes physically sick and appears to be following in her father's footsteps. He, too, closed down because he had suffered too much. After his death, Sookan's mother, for a while, seems to be experiencing the same thing.

Sookan also talks about how much she loves her grandfather. Her grandfather teaches her how to write Korean characters, and Sookan adores this attention. However, their relationship is limited by their Korean culture. Because Sookan is a girl, her grandfather, according to Korean tradition, should spend most of his time with her brother. Sookan bemoans this tradition and waits for every opportunity to capture more of her grandfather's love.

The guardian most removed from Sookan is her father. He is physically separated from her because he lives in Manchuria during the Japanese occupation. But after he passes through North Korea on his way to the south, Sookan learns that he has searched for and rescued her brothers and has taken them with him. She wonders why her father did not come to rescue her. This question is never answered.

STYLE

Child's Point of View

Choi wrote this novel as seen through the eyes of a nine-year-old. As such, parts of the story are left vague, particularly since Sookan cannot understand everything that is going on around her, so some of the actions in the story remain unexplained. For example, Sookan does not know where the Japanese soldiers take the girls who work in the sock factory; she does not know why they must be taken away. So readers must speculate for themselves from the clues that are provided.

Another effect of the nine-year-old Sookan being the narrator is that an adult reading about the harrowing events that Sookan and her brother go through does not fully experience the emotions that would ordinarily be attached to them. For instance, though Sookan and her brother are hungry, scared, and at times cold, they do not fully understand the danger they are in, so there is little reflection on the threat on their lives. Older readers suspect the danger, but the reading of it stays beneath the surface. Sookan's lack of fear is most apparent when she approaches the Russian officers and demands that they find her mother. The act not only endangers her life and that of her brother's but possibly even threatens her mother's life. Had the narrator been older, the acknowledgment of fear of such reprisals would have been more deeply explored and expressed.

Young-Adult Novel

While some consider Year of Impossible Goodbyes a novel for young adults, it is frequently enjoyed by adults. When writing for a young audience, authors often create child or adolescent protagonists, like Sookan, who are a bit naive at the outset of the story and tend toward the innocent. The plotlines of young-adult novels are often rather straightforward and sometimes include more action than reflection. The underlying current of the story often falls into a basic foundation of good on one side and bad on the other, with little or no gray area in between. For instance, in this story the Japanese are all bad, meaning they exhibit no saving graces. Captain Narita and his wife are perfect examples of this. Sookan's grandfather and her mother, on the other hand, are almost wholly good, with few faults.

Some young-adult novels employ few literary devices, as some authors choose to keep their language concrete for the sake of their audience. Literary devices tend to be abstract (such as a comparison of one's love to a rose). Choi tells her story in a straightforward manner. She recounts events in a way that is not quite as stripped down as a newspaper story would be but not quite as complicated as a poem or novel written for an adult audience would be. For the most part, Choi tells Sookan's story by recalling actions.

Autobiographical Fiction

Year of Impossible Goodbyes is based on Choi's life. Only the author knows why she chose to tell this story as fiction and not as a memoir (which is a story about one's life). Perhaps the author believed she would have more freedom in writing this story as fiction. She could thus make up conversations, for example, that never really took place. She could also invent or shape characters to give her story more drama, or combine two or more characters into one to simplify or intensify the plot. She could also make up characters to protect the identities of the real people in her life.

All fiction writers put some aspects of their lives into their stories. They pull from their experiences of challenges they have faced and people they have met. But some authors do this more than others. Someone writing science fiction, for instance, is more likely to create a story that is far removed from his or her day-to-day life. But even in science fiction, some of the characters will be drawn from people the author knows. In an autobiographical novel, most of the story reflects the author's life, and only minor parts and details are purely imagined.

HISTORICAL CONTEXT

Korean History into the Twentieth Century

The peninsula of Korea has been inhabited for at least eight thousand years, according to archaeological findings. But scientific theories hold that people may have lived in this area for hundreds of thousands of years before. The earliest migrations are thought to have come to the land now called Korea from northwestern parts of Asia. These people settled on the peninsula, their numbers reaching as far north as Manchuria (now a part of China).

Two thousand years ago, present-day Korea was ruled by chiefs of three separate kingdoms: Shilla, Koguryo, and Paekehe. By the seventh century, the Shilla Kingdom reigned supreme, ruling over the entire peninsula. In centuries to follow, other dynasties took over the power of rule: the Koryo (in 935) and the Choson (in 1392). The Choson Empire lasted until Japanese occupation began in 1910.

Korea suffered many invasions from other more powerful countries, too, including the Mongolians and several attempts by the Japanese before their full occupation. The government, after being pressured by European and American interests to sell Western-made products in Korea, decided to close the country's borders to all outside influences except for China in the nineteenth century. During this time, Korea was referred to as "the Hermit Kingdom." But Japan remained insistent, and China came to Korea's aid when Japan pushed its influence into Korea. The result was the Sino-Japanese War, which lasted one year, from 1894 to 1895. Japan defeated China. Then a decade later, when Russia took an interest in Korea, there occurred the Russo-Japanese War, which was also fought for one year, between 1904 and 1905. Once again, Japan won. At this point, Japan's influence over Korea was profound. In 1910, the Japanese forced Korea to sign over its powers, and Korea was annexed to Japan.

Japanese Occupation

The Japanese saw Korea as a source of cheap labor and an abundance of natural resources. By annexing Korea, Japan gained manifold opportunities to increase its power and wealth in its attempts to compete in the Industrial Revolution that was going on in the Western world. The Korean people were made to work for poor wages. The goods they produced were bought at low prices. Korean agricultural lands and produce, especially those of the southern portion of the peninsula, were a beneficial source of food for the growing Japanese population. And the minerals found in the northern portion of Korea, as well as the capacity to create great industries there, not only provided Japan with a great source of wealth but also helped the Japanese build their military weaponry.

In the first years of Japan's occupation, there was a strong political move toward independence by the Koreans. This culminated in what is called the March 1st Movement of 1919. Huge crowds gathered on this day in Korea's major cities, especially in Seoul, where a Korean Declaration of Independence was read in public. The Japanese occupiers had no tolerance for such demonstrations and showed little mercy toward the unarmed protestors. In the end, thousands of people were killed, more were wounded, and many others were arrested.

Although this demoralized the populace and preempted further large demonstrations, a widespread underground was developed by Korean freedom fighters. The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was formed in Shanghai, China, while a Korean liberation army, composed mostly of former Korean soldiers, came together in Manchuria and in Russia. When World War II began, sections of the various liberation armies grew stronger with more recruits and helped the Allied forces in fighting against the Japanese and eventually pushing them out of Korea.

The Dividing of Korea and the Korean War

Two of the Allies in World War II, the Soviet Union (commonly known as Russia) and the United States, coveted the Korean Peninsula, and neither wanted to see the other country in complete control there. So they came to an agreement to divide the peninsula in half, cutting an imaginary line through the thirty-eighth parallel; the United States would support South Korea, and the Soviet Union would support North Korea. Although Korea had been a unified country for thousands of years, the U.S. influence in southern Korea supported a democratic government, while the Soviet influence in North Korea promoted a Communist government. These differences caused the borderline at the thirty-eighth parallel between the divided sections of Korea to take on even more significance. South and North Korea were now divided by political philosophies. In addition, after World War II officially ended, the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union deteriorated. This led to further tensions between South and North Korea, and these tensions would eventually lead to the Korean War.

The United States occupied South Korea from 1945 until 1949. U.S. forces were needed in South Korea because of Korean rebels who wanted to reunite the country under Communist rule. The United States was also concerned about the building of armed forces in North Korea, which the U.S. government believed might lead to an invasion into the south. This fear would soon become a reality, with skirmishes between South and North Korean military forces beginning in 1949 along the thirty-eighth parallel.

COMPARE & CONTRAST

• 1950s: Korea is divided after World War II into North and South Korea. Because of the political atmosphere and repression in North Korea, masses of people flee to South Korea.

  1990s: Korea remains strictly divided, with little or no communication between the citizens of North and South Korea.

  Today: In attempts to heal political and social wounds, North Korea allows controlled visits between North and South Korean citizens.

• 1950s: The Soviet Union's strong political influence brings the Communist Party to North Korea, with promises that bounties of food and social comfort will result from working together under socialistic philosophies.

  1990s: A dictatorship and political corruption as well as unfavorable weather conditions and poor economic planning lead to widespread famine in North Korea.

  Today: North Korea is one of the few remaining Communist countries in the world, relying heavily on China for food aid and other social and political support.

• 1950s: Kim Il Sung leads North Korean soldiers into South Korea in an attempt to reunite his country.

  1990s: Kim Jung Il comes to power, continuing the dictatorial reign of his father, Kim Il Sung.

  Today: Kim Jong Il threatens South Korea by launching missiles. Countries including the United States press the United Nations to apply stricter sanctions against North Korea.

By 1950, Kim Il Sung, the leader of North Korea, had positioned thousands of soldiers at the border between North and South Korea. On June 25, 1950, major military confrontations between the two sides of the country began. The South Korean forces were easily overtaken, and they called on United Nations (U.N.) forces, the majority of which were U.S. soldiers, to help them. With the aide of the U.N. forces, the South Koreans pushed the North Korean army almost all the way back to the most northern boundaries with China. China, which supported North Korea, responded by sending its soldiers into battle. With China's help, North Korea forced the South Korean soldiers back. By July 1950,

the North Korean forces controlled 90 percent of the peninsula, with South Korea controlling only the most southern tip.

This back-and-forth movement continued. When more U.S. troops were sent in, South Korea was able to regain territory. When the southern troops pushed back into the north, more Chinese soldiers were sent in to help North Korea reclaim its land. The battles continued, and at one point the U.S. military considered using nuclear bombs, as it had in Japan in 1945. This did not happen. While these battles were pursued, discussions of peace between the major powers were ongoing. But an agreement was not reached until July 27, 1953, after two of the bloodiest years of battle the world had ever witnessed. By the end, millions of soldiers and civilians had been killed. North Korean, Chinese, and U.N. commanders signed the armistice agreement, but South Korean officials never did. This has left the country of Korea, to the present day, in a tenuous state, as the two divisions of Korea are technically still at war.

CRITICAL OVERVIEW

Choi's Year of Impossible Goodbyes is one of the author's most popular titles. It marks the beginning work of a trilogy that follows the life of the same narrator. When this book was first published, reviewers had trouble classifying it. At first, it was considered a novel for young-adult readers. However, the reaction from adult readers proved so great that the novel is now referred to as both a young-adult and an adult book. Elizabeth Mehren, writing for the Los Angeles Times, told her readers that one of the editors at Houghton Mifflin (the publisher of the book) stated that Year of Impossible Goodbyes "was purchased as a YA [young-adult] novel but ‘riveted’ the grown-ups who read it," so much so that the publisher was hoping the book would not be "pigeonholed as ‘only’ a YA title." Other reviewers have also commented on the fact that Year of Impossible Goodbyes was written on an emotional level that adults appreciate. It was included among the American Library Association's best books for young adults.

Reviewing the novel for Book Links, Patricia Austin and James A. Bryant, Jr., were also impressed. They call it a "richly descriptive, gripping story." Referring to the emotional quality of the story, Gerry Larson, writing for School Library Journal, describes the novel as "heart-rending." A reviewer for the Journal of Reading found something else appealing about Choi's story, stating that the novel "makes history come alive." Writing for the New York Times, Michael Shapiro refers to the book as "powerful and moving." Shapiro adds that Year of Impossible Goodbyes "offers a glimpse into a young girl's mind and into a nation's heart." Exposing yet another quality of the story, Martha V. Parravano, writing for the Horn Book Magazine, concludes that though she has read more powerful books with similar storylines, "there are poignant, vivid moments that will stay with the reader."

CRITICISM

Joyce Hart

Hart is a freelance writer and author of literary essays and several books. In this essay, she examines the role of the narrator's grandfather as memory bearer and protector of culture in Year of Impossible Goodbyes.

Although Choi's story takes place in the 1940s and early 1950s, a time of conflict and oppression, the author provides a glimpse of Korean culture as it once was. She does so through the character of Grandfather. Among the people in the story, Grandfather above all clearly remembers what Korea was like before the Japanese took over his country. Grandfather endured thirty-six years of Japanese occupation but vowed to himself not to give in to Japanese demands, as witnessed through his actions. He not only refuses to forget what it means to be Korean but also insists on passing down his traditions and practices to his grandchildren.

Choi marks the strong influence of Grandfather by beginning her novel with a powerful and poetic scene that revolves around him, his outlook, and his beliefs. It is one of the more beautiful passages in her story. She describes the "old weathered pine tree," which will become a significant symbol of Grandfather's spirit. Choi begins by first describing the yard and the remnants of winter, "high mounds of snow in the corner of our yard." She then goes on to relate that Grandfather has dug a furrow around the tree. The furrow is "like a moat," which is symbolic of protection. If the tree is the symbol of Grandfather's spirit, then he, too, is protected in some way, by a different kind of moat; that moat could easily be interpreted as his memories. At this point in the story his memories of what it means to be Korean are still clear and strong in his mind. Regardless of what the Japanese have done to him so far, his spirit will not be broken. He is as strong as the pine tree.

In this opening scene, the author assigns other attributes to the tree that can also be applied to Grandfather. The tree stands alone, for instance. Of all the characters in the story, Grandfather is the least assimilated to the way of life that the Japanese have forced upon all the citizens. The tree also has long, "green-needled branches" that emanate "harmoniously from the trunk" of the trunk. Grandfather is also harmonious. Sookan, as the story progresses, loves watching Grandfather doing his meditation practice each morning. She senses the peace that Grandfather finds in his practice. Harmony is a part of that peace. Despite the lack of harmony all around him, Grandfather emanates peace, offering his household a quiet center around which the other members revolve. The tree and its branches are also likened to an "umbrella," a tool that suggests protection, from sun, from rain, from snow. Grandfather, like the tree branches, is a symbol of protection, too—at least in the mind of Sookan. Because of Grandfather's ability to maintain peace and harmony in the midst of war and hardship, Sookan sees both the tree and her grandfather as magical. In contrast to her Grandfather's peace is "the oppressiveness that engulfed us," Sookan states. Even though spring is upon them, the people still feel as if they are fighting their way through the winter's cold. This contrast that Sookan points out makes her Grandfather seem even that much more special, as he is so unlike all the oppressiveness around him.

WHAT DO I READ NEXT?

• Choi wrote three books about Sookan and her development. The first was Year of Impossible Goodbyes. The second was Echoes of the White Giraffe (1993). In this novel, Sookan is fifteen, and though strained by the invasion of North Korean troops into South Korea, Sookan finds romance. Her encounters with the young man, Junho, are forbidden by the standards of her Korean culture, but the two teens find ways to share their feelings. Sookan also learns to find her voice and declares her intention of finding a way to go to college in the United States.
• Yoko Kawashima Watkins is the author of So Far from the Bamboo Grove (1986), a book with a young narrator named Yoko whose family is stationed in Korea during the Japanese invasion of that country. Like Sookan in Choi's novel, Yoko must escape from North Korea and make her way with her mother and sister across the border to South Korea. The journey is hard and frightening. This story, told from a Japanese point of view, provides another version of the same situation that Sookan experiences.
• When My Name Was Keoko (2004), by Linda Sue Park, provides readers with an account of two South Korean sisters who also live under Japanese occupation. However, this story's setting is prior to World War II. Park focuses on the different roles of men and women in Korean society. In the struggle to maintain their Korean identity, the characters find their own expressive ways to defy the Japanese.
• Linda Sue Park is also the author of the 2002 Newbery Medal-winning novel A Single Shard (2001). The setting is again Korea but the time frame is the twelfth century. In this fascinating story, a twelve-year-old orphan learns the ancient skill of creating the prized celadon ceramic ware that Korean masters were known for. In the process of delivering one of the ceramic pieces to the Korean emperor, the young boy runs into disaster, and the vessel he was to deliver is broken. All that remains is one shard. What will his master do? What will the emperor think?
• Another Newbery Medal-winning novel is Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry (1976) by Mildred D. Taylor. This story is also about a young girl who must struggle with the challenging social environment in which she lives. This girl, however, lives in the United States. Her name is Cassie, and she is an African American living in the South. She has a harsh awakening one day when she comes face to face with racism.
• Children of the Dust Bowl: The True Story of the School at Weedpatch Camp (1993), by Jerry Stanley, follows families from Oklahoma as they travel west to California after leaving their devastated farmlands behind. The setting is the 1930s. The families dream of riches to be found in California, but their hopes are quickly dashed. This story tells of their struggles and provides readers with a history of America's Dust Bowl times.

Grandfather wants to live in the season of spring, no matter what the weather is like around him. Spring is a time of rebirth, something Grandfather wants his fellow Koreans to experience through the expulsion of the Japanese and the renewal of Korean culture. He wants to help those around him to throw off the shackles of winter and enjoy the warmth and the inspiration of life starting over. To this end, he has appointed his first three grandsons with names that refer to spring. The oldest child is named "Korean spring," the second oldest is "spring again," and the third oldest is "wise spring." Apparently girls do not receive such an honor, but skipping over Sookan, Grandfather names the youngest grandson "benevolent spring." In this way, Grandfather has blessed his family. It is his hope that his family will "experience the exhilaration and beauty of spring again."

Though Grandfather had previously practiced his meditation inside the house, away from the eyes of the Japanese soldiers, he is changing. He has grown impatient. Grandfather feels he can no longer wait to enjoy spring. At the first sign of good weather, he wants to sit under his favorite tree and meditate outside. Readers should note that meditation is promoted by Buddhism, a spiritual belief system banned by the Japanese oppressors. To be seen meditating would result in punishment. Mother knows this and tries to talk Grandfather out of being so public in his morning ritual, but Grandfather insists. It is time; he has already waited too long, and he is ready to make a stand. Grandfather makes a small speech at this point, telling his daughter that he is not going to allow the dictates of the Japanese soldiers to keep him inside. "I am too old and too tired to be afraid anymore." Choi then writes that "Grandfather emerged from his room and became part of the peaceful scene" outside. As seen through Sookan, the narrator, Grandfather assumes a position under the great pine tree, and as he does, the sun filters through the tree's branches and "played upon his face like dancing fairies." Here, in this passage, the sense of magic is reinforced with the mention of fairies. The image that is portrayed elevates Grandfather, placing him in another world, a world that is completely outside the ordinary.

As peaceful as Grandfather looks, Sookan also sees a portent of change as she watches him drop into his meditative state. Though she senses his usual peaceful state, she notices "an intensity, an anticipation, in his expression, as though he were waiting for something special to happen." Sookan does not go into an interpretation of what she thinks this change might be, but she must sense it or she would not have recognized Grandfather's expression. The change is triggered by Grandfather's impatience, his moving from inside to outside to practice his meditation. He has become defiant because he is tired of waiting to enjoy his life in the Korean manner of his traditions and culture. By moving to the outside, Grandfather is declaring his Koreanness to the world. He no longer wants to be merely a symbol of tradition and culture to his immediate family. He wants to represent his culture to all those who live around him.

Unfortunately, this action proves to be Grandfather's downfall. Somehow, the Japanese soldiers, particularly the person of Captain Narita, know how special the lone pine tree is to Sookan's family. Narita is out to break their suspected rebellious fervor. Indeed, his job is to squeeze out every remaining sense of culture and belief that remains in the memories and in the hearts of the Korean people. If Grandfather, and therefore the symbolic pine tree, are reservoirs of those memories and traditions, then they must be cut down. So in punishment for the innocent birthday party that Mother celebrates before the sock girls go to work in the factory, the captain demands the felling of the tree. When the tree is cut down, Grandfather's spirit is broken. With Grandfather's spirit goes the spirit of Korean culture, or so the Japanese occupiers are hoping.

Some believe that the history of the Korean people goes back hundreds of thousands of years. Myriad traditions and cultural practices were built up over that time. The way the people dress, their language, their art, and so forth were all passed down from generation to generation. Grandfather tries to continue this. He spends much of his day teaching his grandchildren what he has been taught. On his deathbed, he insists that Mother show Sookan and Inchun the remaining few photographs, and he asks her to tell them the stories behind the pictures. These photos and stories are the family's immediate history. He also insists that the children see his scarred feet, wounded through torture at the hands of the Japanese. He wants them to know that, in his mind, the Japanese are the enemy, unjustly attempting to assimilate the Koreans into a culture that is not their own. Grandfather dies, but he wants the children to remember him and what he stands for.

Through her fictional story, Choi tells about her own heroic escape from North Korea. But

her story is more than an adventure story. It is a story of great love, not just of family but also of culture and country—the country of her own grandfather. In her grandfather's time, the Korean people were able to dress as their ancestors had dressed, to speak in the language that was most familiar to their tongues, to enjoy their country in the ways that had been set by their forebears. Although the invasions by the Japanese and later by the Russian Communist Party members drastically changed the Koreans' lives, the memories of those times could go on. Just as Sookan carries memories of her grandfather inside her head after he dies, the Korean culture can live on in people's minds, through memories, if nowhere else, and through stories like this novel.

Source: Joyce M. Hart, Critical Essay on Year of Impossible Goodbyes, in Novels for Students, Gale, Cengage Learning, 2009.

Rocío G. Davis

In the following excerpt, Davis identifies Year of Impossible Goodbyes as a work that presents Asian American children with a new model for dealing with questions of identity.

Literature functions as an effective way for children to learn about diversity within and among cultures and to gain a sense of their country's ethnic history and constitution. The growing field of children's literature focusing on ethnicity and culture presents issues of heritage as they intersect with contemporary life and myth adapted to Western circumstances. Many of the themes that are dealt with in adult literature—such as identity, the meaning of home, interpersonal relationships—appear in children's literature with a didactic purpose. This area has become a "particularly intense site of ideological and political contest, for various groups of adults struggle over which versions of ethnic identity will become institutionalized in school, home, and library settings" (K. C. Smith 3). Focusing specifically on Asian American children's literature and tracing its evolution since the 1970s, one comprehends the way that literature functions as a cultural product that both reflects and shapes the cultures of those who live it—and the way that "consumers," or beneficiaries, can play a role in the production of culture and its literary artifacts (Carpenter 53). Asian American writers for children are deploying increasingly creative strategies for negotiating the varied strands of culture that children experience. Their creations—including historical fiction, picture books, autobiographies, novels, poetry, and bilingual texts—strive to balance appreciation for heritage with attention to the renewed cultural realities their audiences may be experiencing.

Children's texts are culturally formative and of tremendous importance educationally, intellectually, and socially. Perhaps more than other forms of literature, they reflect society as it wishes to be, as it wishes to be seen, and as it unconsciously reveals itself to be. Consequently, ethnic children's literature highlights the meaning or values that society places on questions and attitudes about ethnic differences and intercultural relationships. It reflects how each group occupies or moves within certain areas or exerts specific influence on the place they are in and the community they form. Rudine Sims classifies this category of children's writing as "culturally conscious books" (478)—that is, stories told from the point of view of the ethnic character, and dealing with a concrete ethnic family or neighborhood, focusing on both heritage and contemporary living. The themes generally dealt with include those common in all realistic children's fiction: everyday experiences, urban living, friendships, family relationships, and stories about growing up (480-81). Furthermore, as Ivy Chan argues, in developing multicultural literature for children, one of the goals must be to foster in the child a multicultural perspective—an international outlook and the realization that people express many of the same feelings and needs in varied ways; the emphasis should be on what people share—the "similarity in differences"—rather than what separates (23). The evolution is toward writing that resonates with the realities of actual childhood situations, specifically intercultural works that emphasize the varied cultural influences a child growing up in the United States experiences, rather than on solely appreciating and/or acquiring a heritage identity. As Katharine Capshaw Smith explains, "Children's literature allows readers a means to reconceptualize their relationship to ethnic and national identities. Telling stories to a young audience becomes a conduit for social and political revolution" (3). In contemporary American society, ethnic literature for children tends to highlight ways of affirming and celebrating difference as they simultaneously seek ways to cooperate and collaborate across ethnic boundaries.

For the children of minority groups in the United States today, the issue of how to integrate the past with the present, or how to appreciate heritage and establish bonds by forming peer communities, is the basis of questions about identity that face all youth—about defining self and other, and about the values they inherit from their families, those they accept and those they reject (Natov 38). Though children's existence and experience as cultural beings must be taken into account, meaning in effective literary texts develops, at least in part, through the traditions and experience of collective children's culture, which each experiences individually (Carpenter 56). In the case of ethnic children's writing, the intersection between a more universal children's culture and the specificities of each child's heritage must be carefully constructed. Significantly, the most successful children's books reject the assumption that children are merely receivers of culture, and present them as "creative manipulators of a dynamic network of concepts, actions, feelings and products that mirror and mould their experience as children" (Carpenter 57). Joseph Bruchac believes that "when perceived properly, when presented and used with sensitivity and balance, ideas of multiculturalism can empower all our children" (158). Engagements with history, therefore, become fertile ground for ethnic children's writers to (re)negotiate the varied and complex social and cultural history of their group's presence in the United States and the manner in which these groups have struggled to carve a place for themselves in American society and, importantly, in its representation of itself.

A number of Asian American writers have engaged diverse moments and aspects of the history of the Asian presence in the United States, foregrounding stories of immigration, heritage culture, problems with racism and acculturation. Much of this writing is propelled by a proactive concern that American children, whether or not of Asian descent, learn the lessons of history. As Katharine Capshaw Smith points out,

Because works often narrate and explain details of a traumatic past, like the internment of Japanese Americans or the enslavement of African Americans, to an audience innocent of historical knowledge, the stakes are high: adult mediators recognize the gravity of their role as gatekeepers to history and arbiters of ethnic identity. Scholars of ethnic literature will therefore find much complexity in the ways writers construct history and negotiate the demands of various audiences. (4)

Yoshiko Uchida, for instance, has written several novels on the internment experience of Japanese Americans during World War II. Her Journey to Topaz (1971) and Journey Home (1982), for example, explore eleven-year-old Yuki Sakane's experience of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, her family's internment at Topaz in Utah, and their subsequent return to California and attempt to begin life again. Importantly, Uchida has also written an autobiography for children describing her family's experiences in California and in the Topaz internment camp. The Invisible Thread (1991) stresses the link she feels with her parents' Japanese heritage while acknowledging her Americanness. The autobiography's contribution to Asian American discursive intervention in the writing of American history for children lies in its foregrounding the voice of a Japanese American girl, who is empowered to tell her own story, one that privileges the experience of the victims of government sanctioned racism (Davis 94). It also allows her to engage Japanese American culture and character, the silent heroism of the Issei and the decorated bravery of the All-Nisei 442nd Regimental Combat Team and the 100th Infantry Battalion, mostly drawn from boys in the camps. The author incorporates the biography of her parents in order to reposition the narrative of the Japanese presence in America. She substantiates the history of Japanese immigrants who lived lives of quiet dignity and "did not have an easy time in a country that would not allow them to become citizens or to own land" (Invisible Thread 23). Uchida's writing becomes her attempt to pass on a legacy of ethnic appreciation to the Sansei—third-generation Japanese Americans—

to give them the kinds of books I'd never had as a child. The time was right, for now the world too, was changing … I wanted to give the young Sansei a sense of continuity and knowledge of their own remarkable history … I hoped all young Americans would read these books as well. (Invisible Thread 131)

Sook Nyul Choi's trilogy, Year of Impossible Goodbyes (1991), Echoes of the White Giraffe (1993), and Gathering of Pearls (1994), narrates young Sookan's experiences in Korea during the Japanese occupation, the family's escape beyond the 38th parallel after the Russian invasion, and her later immigration to the United States for college. Although only the last of these books is set specifically in the United States, Choi's narratives validate a non-American childhood setting for Asian Americans, and link the stories of American citizens to historical events in other parts of the world. This particular aspect expands and subverts the hegemonic prescription of the location of the childhood experience of the (Asian) American subject: narrating non-US-based experiences reconfigures America's image of its children's, or at least of its citizens', pasts. Furthermore, it posits Americanization as a process, rather than as a fixed disposition or merely an inherited patrimony, and articulates itineraries of affiliation as they stress trajectories and transitivity, rather than static or endowed identification. These texts exemplify many Asian American writers' concerns with revisionary historical writing, which examine hidden or unknown stories for children, to offer renewed models for American children….

Source: Rocío G. Davis, "Reinscribing (Asian) American History in Laurence Yep's Dragon Wings," in Lion and the Unicorn, Vol. 28, 2004, pp. 390-407.

Lynda Brill Comerford

In the following essay, Comerford discusses Choi's decision to write Year of Impossible Goodbyes.

It is difficult to imagine that someone exuding as much warmth and exuberance as Sook Nyul Choi could have experienced all the horrors set down in her autobiographical book set in North Korea in the year 1945. Focusing on the day-to-day hardships of one family, Year of Impossible Goodbyes relates how young Sookan, her little brother and mother endure routine humiliations from Japanese officers, mourn the death of Sookan's grandfather, survive their country's invasion by Russian soldiers and attempt a dangerous escape to the south.

Choi, whose earliest writing was published in Korean newspapers, had always felt compelled to write her life story, especially after American friends and students pressed her to talk about her past. But for years, other activities—attending college, teaching, school, raising a family and attaining American citizenship—took precedence over the time-consuming task of translating memories into English, her second language. It was not until 10 years ago, during a return trip to her homeland shortly after her husband's death, that Choi felt the time was right to begin Year of Impossible Goodbyes.

Initially, her decision was not met favorably by members of her family still living in Korea. "When I asked my father to tell me about some of his experiences in jail, he said, ‘Why do you want to bring back the devils long gone? Why do you want to make people cry?’" But Choi is quick to explain that her purpose in creating the book was never to make people sad (a taboo of Korean culture). "I want my book to be received as a celebration of human spirit, of the ability to go on and forgive."

Eventually, Choi's massive undertaking evolved into a 400-page manuscript which her grown-up daughters and Houghton editor Laura Hornik helped trim to a more manageable size. Choi admits it was hard to "cut back," but she may be able to work some of the leftover material into the sequel she is planning. She has already completed a second novel, Halmoni (Grandmother), due out in 1993 from Houghton Mifflin, which explores the relationship between a Korean woman and her American-born grandchild.

Choi's faith in essential goodness, which is embodied in heroine Sookan, may be inherited from the author's mother, whose optimism was never shaken. "When our country was suffering," Choi recalls, "she made me feel that this was not the way things were all over the world. She always saw good in people."

In closing, Choi relates a story that her mother told her as a child: "My mother used to say that every time you go through horrible times, every time you suffer, a thin gold leaf will come out of your heart, pass through your mouth and go up to heaven. As a child, I used to imagine that when I died I would go up to heaven and see all those gold sparkles and go crunching through the gold leaves that came from my heart."

Source: Lynda Brill Comerford, "Flying Starts: Sook Nyul Choi," in Publishers Weekly, Vol. 238, No. 56, December 20, 1991, pp. 22-23.

Laura L. Lent

In the following review, Lent commends Year of Impossible Goodbyes for its historical insight and emotional storytelling.

In this book, Choi poignantly describes her childhood in Kirimni, Pyongyang during the Second World War. During this time, the Japanese occupied Korea, and Choi's family suffered as a result of Japanese oppression. Her writing transports the reader back to her childhood home in 1945. She describes the family's day-to-day routine—including such things as her secret studies of the Chinese and Korean languages with her grandpa, and her family's operation of a sock factory in the shed on their property. Along with tales of their mundane life, Choi relates specific instances of brutality that she, her family, and their friends experience at the hands of the Japanese.

Choi recollects her countrymen's collective sigh of relief as the Japanese withdraw from Korea and their hope that all will get better soon. However, their hope for Korean independence is dashed when the Japanese are immediately replaced by the Communist Russians. As the realization sets in that life in North Korea will never improve, Choi's mom plans a daring escape to the South where the Americans are. Thus, the last part of her story focuses on the escape that her mother, her brother, and she make across the thirty-eighth parallel.

Choi's descriptive, frightening, yet historically accurate tale of the plight of the Korean people during the Second World War and immediately thereafter provides the teen reader—and anyone else who would like to read a fantastic book—with fresh insight into how another country was affected by the war. Most American teens have been exposed to information (via video, lecture-discussion, and/or books) on the death camps in Nazi-occupied areas; however, they have no idea that other nationalities (like the Koreans being oppressed by the Japanese and later by the Russians) also suffered at the same time. With Choi's book, another part of the war becomes public knowledge, and history is more fully told.

In addition to the book's historical merits, it should be noted that Choi is a tremendous author. Her memoirs evoke one emotion after another. For instance Choi describes how her grandfather is punished by Captain Narita, the Japanese policeman, because her grandfather had created a brush painting and written Chinese characters upon it. One feels first the humiliation that the old man must have felt when Captain Narita verbally abused him. More powerful emotions follow. One can feel life ebb from Choi's grandfather after Captain Narita orders the grandfather's pine tree—his final place of refuge and solitude—cut down. And when Choi ends this particular tale by describing her grandfather's eventual death, one feels a myriad of emotions ranging from anger to futility and helplessness. She evokes emotions from the reader because she vividly writes about the past so that the reader gets a picture of the events as they happened.

Because of the ease with which this story unfolds (Chinese, Japanese, and Russian words are defined within the narrative), I feel anyone, including young adults, can have an enjoyable experience reading this book. In sum, Choi's entertaining, yet informative writing style should win her a best book nomination.

Source: Laura L. Lent, "A Review of A Year of Impossible Goodbyes," in Voice of Youth Advocates, Vol. 14, No. 5, December 1991, pp. 307-08.

SOURCES

Austin, Patricia, and James A. Bryant, Jr., Review of Year of Impossible Goodbyes, by Sook Nyul Choi, in Book Links, March 2004, Vol. 13, No. 4, p. 15.

Choi, Sook Nyul, Year of Impossible Goodbyes, Yearling, 1991.

Harris, Mark Edward, Inside North Korea, Chronicle Books, 2007.

Kim, Djun Kil, The History of Korea, Greenwood Press, 2005.

Larson, Gerry, Review of Year of Impossible Goodbyes, by Sook Nyul Choi, in School Library Journal, August 1998, Vol. 44, No. 8, p. 27.

Ling, Amy, "Sook Nyul Choi, Memoirist and Novelist," in Yellow Light: The Flowering of Asian American Arts, edited by Amy Ling, Temple University Press, 1999, pp. 46-54.

Mehren, Elizabeth, "Bridging the Generation Gap," in Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1991, p. 12.

Parravano, Martha V., Review of Year of Impossible Goodbyes, by Sook Nyul Choi, in Horn Book Magazine, January 1992, Vol. 68, No. 1, p. 69.

Review of Year of Impossible Goodbyes, by Sook Nyul Choi, in Journal of Reading, November 1993, Vol. 37, No. 3, p. 228.

Scanlon, Mara, "Sook Nyul Choi (1937-)," in Asian American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook, edited by Emmanuel S. Nelson, Greenwood Press, 2000, pp. 56-9.

Shapiro, Michael, Review of Year of Impossible Goodbyes, by Sook Nyul Choi, in New York Times, East Coast Late Edition, November 10, 1991, p. A42.

FURTHER READING

Hastings, Max, The Korean War, Pan Books, 2000.

The author provides a significant account of the Korean War, including through actual firsthand experiences of North Korean military veterans.

Lankov, Andrei, North of the DMZ: Essays on Daily Life in North Korea, McFarland, 2007.

This book contains a collection of essays on how the people of North Korea have learned to live under the totalitarian regime that has persisted into the twenty-first century. Many of the myths that the regime has created through its propaganda are dismissed by these personal accounts of real daily-life routines.

Pratt, Keith, Everlasting Flower: A History of Korea, Reaktion Books, 2007.

Although the differences today between North and South Korea are very apparent, the two countries share a common history. In this book, Professor Pratt covers the country's long history through the rule of emperors and dictators. In addition to the political history, readers learn about the religious practices, culture, and everyday lives of Korea's people.

Winchester, Simon, Korea: A Walk through the Land of Miracles, Harper Perennial, 2005.

The English author Winchester, after living for years in Hong Kong, took a walking tour through South Korea and recorded some of the talks he had with local residents, including military officers, a honeymooning couple, abalone divers, and Buddhist nuns. Through these discussions, readers gain a glimpse into the culture, language, and politics of modern-day South Korea.