Comfort Woman

Rating:
Summary: SURVIVING ONE'S DEMONS
Review: Akiko isn't her name but that doesn't matter to the Japanese soldiers. They only see her as a repository for their semen, sadistic pleasure and control. In their eyes she is nothing but an inferior Korean woman. She is a comfort woman.

In this moving fictional memoir we are taken behind the closed camps of the Japanese where young Korean girls are provided to the soldiers as prostitutes. Akiko, now old, tells her story of those times and her Americanized daughter, now an adult, attempts to try and make sense of her mother's life. Mother and daughter tell their stories that weave in and out of a time of confusion, insanity and misunderstandings.

How Akiko manages to survive through the turmoil of her life and maintain some semblance of sanity is the great challenge of this memoir. We get a taste of how a daughter is totally oblivious to her mother's life and is now forced to deal with some issues that she allowed to remain buried.

Comfort Woman deals with the heavy issues of Japanese exploitation of Korean women but it moves beyond that historical fact. It reaches into the spiritual and psychological imprint of a woman who must find someway to survive and not allow herself to succumb to the definitions imposed upon her by the Japanese, her American husband and yes, her daughter. Her story is not sad but very intriguing as you move along with this woman in her various stages of change.

The only "weakness" that can be said of this novel is that the two voices can be somewhat confusing as they go back and forth with their interchange. Akiko's voice should have predominated throughout the story with minimal input from the daughter. Akiko is a more intriguing character and you will be inspired by her courage.

Rating:
Summary: Better than the others think
Review: Comfort Woman is a beautifully written novel. The themes that run through most Asian American Women Literature are seen, but in an inventive way. The decentering of the story provides the story with an added dynamic play of not knowing who the protagonist is, and not needing to know. Postmodern in nature, this book rejects the typical beginning, middle, and end. Both the narratives of the mother and the daughter are necessary for this work. The daughter's are most important of all (I was shocked to read that someone thought they could be removed). This is not a fun read, it is shocking, moving, and requires much of the reader. If you are not willing to think while reading, then this book is not for you. It's a great book to use for discussion. I love the book, I own it, and I've bought it for many others.

Rating:
Summary: Accessible Prose; and a stiring tale
Review: Comfort Woman is a very good novel that at once questions widely held ideas about memory, history, and the relationship between outsiders and mainstream culture. At the same time the novel tells a more personal tale about a mother and a daughter.

The prose is simple, accessable, and at the same time beautiful.

Without knowing anything about Asian-American history or literature, anyone can enjoy this book.

Daniel Clausen
danielclausen.com

Rating:
Summary: Important subject matter, needs stronger writing
Review: Comfort Woman is at times a harrowing book, delineating the two lives of a mother and daughter, Akiko and Beccah seem to represent the yang and yin of human existence. Akiko, the mother, was forced to be enslaved as a comfort woman to the Japanese soldiers during World War II, a horrible existence graphically recounted in this work. The daughter Beccah, is a Korean-American trying to grow up in one piece, as she tries to fit in, while the spirit world seems to be taking over her mother. The first story is one that must be told ,the savagery must be shared by the world, just as the Holocaust must be shared by the world. To me the most sad thing concerning the comfort women was after they were so terribly treated as young ones, they were required to live with the ghosts of it the rest of their lives. So, was the mother lost in the spirit world or suffering from mental illness brought about by her awful memories? And will the spirit world/ mental unbalance take the daughter? Some have said the daughter's story wasn't as compelling, I disagree, her story is more immigrant universal, and so therefore will impact the larger audience I feel, coinciding with many feelings children of immigrant parents must have growing up in America. Unfortunately, Keller -tells- the story , more then showing it to us, and letting our own eyes uncover the horror for themslves, so we can make it our own. The daughter's story isn't on the same emotional level as her mother's, and therefore her story does suffer somewhat. Her mother had been used as a human body bag, while Beccah is simply coming of age in America, whooo "Toots" teases her at school, who hasn't been teased at school. Beccah does, though ,have to deal with her mother's incessant reality loss, which would be difficult on anyone, so there is also harshness to her story. I just wish the book had been written in a more novelish manner allowing the characters to reveal rather than simply tell this important story to us. The knowledge of the comfort women and their plight should be known by all, but this book shouldn't necessarily be read by all. It doesn't deal with Korea or the comfort women, but Lan Cao's book ,Monkey Bridge, about a mother-daughter from Vietnam ,is more compelling.

Rating:
Summary: Grim and real
Review: I can't say I liked this book, despite the 4 stars, because it is SO grim. The author captures the daughter's story well, the usual adolescent angst (aren't we all emberassed by our parents?) mixed w/ a child's acceptance of an actually bizarre situation. The mother's story is literally inconceivable to someone born into the comfortable middle-class American circumstances I was, but no less believable for that. The interweaving of the two stories is generally skillful, but sometimes a little confusing. A quick read that will stay with you.

Rating:
Summary: Blah
Review: Nora Okja Keller's book takes place in two voices: a Korean mother, and her American born daughter. The chapters are interspersed, and together, tell the story of how the mother left Korea, married the daughter's father, and how she fared in the US. The language is very beautiful, and the story of the mother is absolutely fascinating. However, the daughter's story is far less gripping, and those chapters could be easily skipped. I would recommend this book to people who enjoy a fun read; however, I would not recommend this book to people who are looking for "good fiction". The themes are the same themes that run through almost all Asian American Lit written by female authors. It's a memoir, not particularly different from any other memoir. I don't necessarily think that makes this book less entertaining, but don't buy this book if you're looking for anything new and different.

Rating:
Summary: Comfort Woman
Review: Nora Okja Keller's Comfort Woman provactively examines the mother/daughter relationship and the immigrant relationship to the ethnic community. Through Akiko's description of her role as a comfort woman (a sex slave to Japanese soldiers), the reader learns that she experienced much pain and trauma prior to the birth of her daughter. This experience coupled with her Korean ethnicity work to make Akiko the woman she is today. Akiko's daughter, Beccah, feels burdened by her ethnicity in the hierarchical community of Hawaii and is often embarrassed by her mother's connection to the spiritual world. However by the conclusion of the novel, events occur that enable Beccah to make peace with her ethnicity and her mother as well as gain self-awareness. She follows her heart and has learned to trust her relationship with her mother.
This book opened my eyes to the terrible sexual abuse that took place during the war, as well as conveyed the importance of the mother/daughter bond and one's relationship to their past. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it!

Rating:
Summary: Better than the others think
Review: Okay, I read this book when it first came out and it was interesting, but honestly, I had a hard time finishing it. I was, like, "who cares?" Neither characters are particularly sympathetic (but hey, I'm a man, right? I wouldn't understand...) though the mother's experience is nothing to laugh about. (spoiler)
This novel was recently studied in an Asian-American Literature class and the professor had many things to talk about, great fodder for discussion, "asian-american" issues galore, which is good, because the references and imagery are all out there on the table, garish, obvious, and like a black jack filled with short grain rice against your head while you're reading. Not very subtle at all. This comfort woman stuff is SO RICH. I mean, this is thematic material that begs to be taken to a higher level, which unfortunately Keller is incapable of. There is some good writing in it, and some fine moments, but the haphazard narrative is more confusing than a stylistic reflection or symbol of the story or of the mother's chaotic, scattered psyche. But then again, it's her first novel. If only all first novels were as decent. (spoiler) I guess there is some good feminist symbolism there, but seriously, it did not work for me. But then again, I'm a man. What the hell do I know?

Rating:
Summary: Comfort Woman review
Review: This is captivating book about a former comfort woman, Akiko, and her daughter Beccah. Keller artfully weaves the tales of Akiko's comfort camp traumas with her new life as the mother of a teenage girl. Comfort Woman explores Beccah's hardships growing up with a less than normal mother, as the text serves as a journey for Beccah to understand her mother's past life. While discovering facts about her mother, Beccah finds herself on a journey of her own, as she begins to create her own self. Strangely, she finds much more of Akiko in her than she would ever have thought. Though parts of this book are painfully realistic, it is a deeply moving book. It is beautifully written and is certain to both warm and tear at your heart.

Rating:
Summary: Emotional and haunting
Review: This was a book about a Korean woman enslaved and forced to become a prostitute to the Japanese army, which was a very real occurance during the occupation of Korea that has been forgotten by many. While I wanted to read this novel to learn more about the tragedies that happened to women placed in this situation, I felt that the book focused less on what happened to the mother during the war and more on her shamanism and on mysticism. The way it affected her daughter, and how her past affected their relationship, was believable but all of the spookiness that followed was a bit far-fetched. Overall, however, it was a very interesting read and the language used was compelling.