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seorary's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
fast-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, War, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual violence, and Racism
bentohbox's review against another edition
5.0
This was a pretty heavy book, both in writing style and emotion. It reads very academically, which means it may not be accessible to everyone, and there were some passages that were difficult to get through because of the volume of terminology Cho uses or refers to.
However, I also think in this context, the book is incredibly well-done, relatively easy to read, and covers the generational and internal traumas we often don't hear of. I think Cho argues her points very well throughout (although there are some places where I think her logic can be a bit dubious), and provides strong historical context. Some people probably will take issue with her conclusions and framing but I think she does a good job of defending her position.
This book also just made me sad; being Korean American, not knowing much at all about the Korean War, and always struggling with my own sense of Han and familial history, I think I really connected with the books mission and specific focus on Korean women. It really embodies Lee Min Jin's opener for Pachinko that "it's a woman's lot to suffer."
However, I also think in this context, the book is incredibly well-done, relatively easy to read, and covers the generational and internal traumas we often don't hear of. I think Cho argues her points very well throughout (although there are some places where I think her logic can be a bit dubious), and provides strong historical context. Some people probably will take issue with her conclusions and framing but I think she does a good job of defending her position.
This book also just made me sad; being Korean American, not knowing much at all about the Korean War, and always struggling with my own sense of Han and familial history, I think I really connected with the books mission and specific focus on Korean women. It really embodies Lee Min Jin's opener for Pachinko that "it's a woman's lot to suffer."
stusahn's review against another edition
5.0
Cho’s chilling experiment with the residual memory, silence and trauma of the Forgotten War left me reeling in its wake. Taking an affective and psychoanalytical lens, Cho fuses creative and autoethnographic vignettes with sociological research to provide the field a new way of seeing the unseen. In doing so, she exorcises the ghosts of the shameful and unspeakable, revealing how the psychic aftershocks of past violence (both emotional and physical) bleed into the social present experienced by the Korean diaspora today. As the grandson of one of the Korean American families brought together by the war that Cho describes, I took a lot away from this book as it made me realize certain truths about my own family as we mourned the passing of halmeoni this month. The shared history and familial experience today must be something attributable to that which resides in the diasporic unconscious as Cho calls it. It was such a personal read that hit the soul. The book is a must read for children of the Korean diaspora grappling with family history and for social scientists seeking to rupture the rationalist and empiricist hegemony of modern social sciences through experiments with the figure of sociological ghosts as well as creative and affective ways of knowing.
* I’ve read the family’s discomfort with Cho’s portrayal of their family in this book and the ethical questions it raises for social science standards. This review is only based on my own reading as a student, understanding that the individuals represented in the book are fictional composites of real people who experienced real events. This means that they are personalities compiled together to sketch the sociological realities of the diaspora, giving space for exaggeration and inaccurate facts about real individuals.
* I’ve read the family’s discomfort with Cho’s portrayal of their family in this book and the ethical questions it raises for social science standards. This review is only based on my own reading as a student, understanding that the individuals represented in the book are fictional composites of real people who experienced real events. This means that they are personalities compiled together to sketch the sociological realities of the diaspora, giving space for exaggeration and inaccurate facts about real individuals.
crunden's review against another edition
A poignant, compassionate, haunting sociological study on the lingering effects of trauma that long outlast war itself and go on to impact later generations.
⤑ research tag: in an effort to organise my shelves, I’m going to be labelling the books I’m using for study purposes as I tend to dip in and out of these. For further reading on the Korean War, check out this (incomplete list) of other reviews I’ve posted to Goodreads: The Korean War: A History, Beyond the Shadow of Camptown: Korean Military Brides in America, Let The Good Times Roll: Prostitution And The U.S. Military In Asia, Women Marines in the Korean War Era, The Bridge at No Gun Ri: A Hidden Nightmare from the Korean War, Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations, Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War, “A Defense Weapon Known to Be of Value”: Servicewomen of the Korean War Era, Name, Rank, and Serial Number: Exploiting Korean War POWs at Home and Abroad, The Korean War at Sixty: New Approaches to the Study of the Korean War, We Will Not Be Strangers: Korean War Letters between a M.A.S.H Surgeon and His Wife and When Hell Froze Over: The Memoir of a Korean War Combat Physician Who Spent 1010 Days in a Communist Prison Camp.
⤑ research tag: in an effort to organise my shelves, I’m going to be labelling the books I’m using for study purposes as I tend to dip in and out of these. For further reading on the Korean War, check out this (incomplete list) of other reviews I’ve posted to Goodreads: The Korean War: A History, Beyond the Shadow of Camptown: Korean Military Brides in America, Let The Good Times Roll: Prostitution And The U.S. Military In Asia, Women Marines in the Korean War Era, The Bridge at No Gun Ri: A Hidden Nightmare from the Korean War, Sex Among Allies: Military Prostitution in U.S.-Korea Relations, Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War, “A Defense Weapon Known to Be of Value”: Servicewomen of the Korean War Era, Name, Rank, and Serial Number: Exploiting Korean War POWs at Home and Abroad, The Korean War at Sixty: New Approaches to the Study of the Korean War, We Will Not Be Strangers: Korean War Letters between a M.A.S.H Surgeon and His Wife and When Hell Froze Over: The Memoir of a Korean War Combat Physician Who Spent 1010 Days in a Communist Prison Camp.
kayaks's review against another edition
4.0
had to read this for my final project in asian religion.
i wished it was longer because this topic is so fascinating
i wished it was longer because this topic is so fascinating
latebush's review
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Violence
Moderate: Genocide
Minor: Blood
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