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abbie_ 's review for:
The Island of Sea Women
by Lisa See
Thank you @scribnerbooks for gifting me a copy of this novel to review! I’ve never read any of Lisa See’s previous novels, but I was very pleasantly surprised to see the amount of research she puts into her books - the acknowledgements show that she’s gone to great lengths to make sure it’s fairly historically accurate, even though it is fiction.
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Like with The Poppy War, there are some seriously disturbing scenes in this book, as it takes place on Jeju Island, off the coast of South Korea, under Japanese colonial rule, and then the subsequent American occupation after the Second World War, and See does not shy away from detailing the atrocities that occurred. Once again my ignorance and the lack of Eastern history education in western schools showed, as I had no idea about the Bukchon massacre or any of the other horrific mass killings that happened on Jeju Island.
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I also hadn’t heard much about the haeonyeo themselves - female sea divers who provided for their households while their husbands looked after the children, home and cooked, which was a fascinating role reversal! I loved reading about these fierce, strong women, and marvelling at the dangers they faced every day, diving in the sea in freezing temperatures without wetsuits or oxygen tanks to harvest from the forest floor. See really puts across the respect they had for the ocean, and comparing that to the present day sections was hard to stomach, as we have no respect for the oceans, using it as a personal dumping ground for all sorts of litter.
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But although the content was great, I didn’t really click with the style throughout. It read like a weird hybrid of fiction and non-fiction, and many of you will be aware of my plight with non-fiction. It was quite simple and straightforward, so it was easy to read, but it just didn’t lose me in the narrative and I found myself easily distracted while reading it.
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I still would recommend it though, as more people should be aware of these remarkable women, and the horrors the people of Jeju Island went through in the 20th century.
.
Like with The Poppy War, there are some seriously disturbing scenes in this book, as it takes place on Jeju Island, off the coast of South Korea, under Japanese colonial rule, and then the subsequent American occupation after the Second World War, and See does not shy away from detailing the atrocities that occurred. Once again my ignorance and the lack of Eastern history education in western schools showed, as I had no idea about the Bukchon massacre or any of the other horrific mass killings that happened on Jeju Island.
.
I also hadn’t heard much about the haeonyeo themselves - female sea divers who provided for their households while their husbands looked after the children, home and cooked, which was a fascinating role reversal! I loved reading about these fierce, strong women, and marvelling at the dangers they faced every day, diving in the sea in freezing temperatures without wetsuits or oxygen tanks to harvest from the forest floor. See really puts across the respect they had for the ocean, and comparing that to the present day sections was hard to stomach, as we have no respect for the oceans, using it as a personal dumping ground for all sorts of litter.
.
But although the content was great, I didn’t really click with the style throughout. It read like a weird hybrid of fiction and non-fiction, and many of you will be aware of my plight with non-fiction. It was quite simple and straightforward, so it was easy to read, but it just didn’t lose me in the narrative and I found myself easily distracted while reading it.
.
I still would recommend it though, as more people should be aware of these remarkable women, and the horrors the people of Jeju Island went through in the 20th century.