A seamless narrative...beautifully crafted...remarkable...transcends Asian-American themes, the Korean War, or first novel anxieties.
Korean Quarterly - Bill Drucker
A seamless narrative...beautifully crafted...remarkable...transcends Asian-American themes, the Korean War, or first novel anxieties.
In this affecting first novel, a physically and spiritually wounded Korean War veteran returns to the Montana sheep ranch of his youth after 40 years. With only one good eye and much of his memory gone owing to a gunshot wound that may or may not have been a suicide attempt, Gabriel Guttman is trying to piece together his life and find some way to forgive himself for an atrocity he helped perpetrate in Korea. Once in Montana, he reunites with the Korean peasant woman he brought back with him from the war, whose love he no longer remembers, and Yahng Yi, her beautiful teenage daughter. People and place gradually reawaken the past, and with the help of Yahng Yi, Gabriel begins to rediscover the lost years and find a measure of redemption. The novel combines often rough action with quietly subtle emotions to create a fresh and memorable tale of a troubled man's return from war. Recommended for most public libraries.-Lawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, Andover, MA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Adult/High School-Gabriel Guttman, a 60ish Korean War veteran, returns to his boyhood home in rural Montana after 40 years of unaccountable absence. Scarred physically (one eye) and mentally (huge memory gaps), he is haunted by flashbacks to his role in the No Gun Ri massacre of Korean civilians. When he left Montana, not long after returning from Korea, he left behind Emily Cottage, his longtime sweetheart and probable wife-to-be if war had not intervened, and a Korean woman (he can't remember her name) whom he brought to America. When he returns, Emily is dead and the woman runs a small sheep ranch with her fiery, seductive, and highly capable teenage daughter, beautiful Yahng Yi. Gabriel remembers her mother, but can't recall if he ever loved her. Other characters also play significant roles in this complex plot: the Korean woman's son who dies at the same time as Emily, the landlord/neighbor who is deeply involved in the lives of Yahng Yi and her mother, and the landlord's troublemaking son. But the key to this moving tale is Gabriel's long, arduous struggle to regain some of life's inner beauty and peace of mind, which seem gone forever since No Gun Ri. This impressive first novel is graced with brilliant characterizations, superbly rendered settings and descriptive detail, and a deft weaving of past and present. Lee even manages to build suspense to a powerful climax. Many teens will love Yahng Yi, and they may learn about Montana ranching and the Korean War for the first time.-Robert Saunderson, Berkeley Public Library, CA Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.
A lyrically evocative, haunting first novel follows an aged Korean War vet and drifter as he returns to the sweet-bitter Montana home of his youth. With one good eye and little memory after receiving a gunshot wound to the head (probably self-inflicted, but he doesn't remember), Gabriel has found his way back to the ranch country of Thalo Valley after 40 years absence. Owning nothing but the clothes on his back, whiskey, and a satchel containing a letter from his past he can't read, Gabe aims to reclaim his place at the sheep ranch where he brought a Korean peasant girl home after the war as a way of making amends for being involved in the American "potshot" killing of fleeing refugees at No Gun Ri. Now in her mid-50s, tormented by spooky superstitions and a bossy, promiscuous teenaged daughter who runs the ranch, the Korean woman (called Yahng Yi's Mother because Gabe can't remember her name) has been waiting for Gabe all these years, determined that his return, like his saving her in Korea, is palcha-fate. Yet Gabe can't remember their love, but only an earlier time, before the war, when he loved the owner of the ranch, Emily Cottage, who has since died under suspicious circumstances. Complicating things is the hostility of hot-blooded daughter Yahng Yi, the scourge of the randy local cowherds, who makes him think, more sorrowfully than lustfully, of the young and lovely Emily. The writing here is deft and moving, offering vivid description of both the Montana setting and the remembered Korean landscape. As the details of Gabe's memory begin to fill in-the relationships among the inhabitants of Thalo Valley are murky and incestuous-the novel proves eerily suspenseful, ending on aredemptive note. A gracefully rendered, beautifully characterized tale about an unusual life: Jae-Suk Lee is a writer to watch. Author tour. Agent: Laura Strachan/Strachan Literary Agency
