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brice_mo's review
3.0
Thanks to NetGalley and Melville House Publishing for the ARC!
Margaret Juhae Lee’s Starry Field is a remarkably engaging family history that is only occasionally hampered by an unforthcoming memoir.
Lee works professionally as a journalist, and it shows in the best way. The journalistic approach is even more rewarding than one might expect, with Lee writing rich and affectionate profiles through interviews with her family members, thoughtfully curating which elements will be most interesting and relevant. I’m sure I speak for many readers when I say that I’ve been given an exceptionally short-sighted and biased view of Korean history, and Lee intuitively and preemptively accounts for such ignorance. The interviews themselves are also framed beautifully, allowing for all the wonderful idiosyncrasies of family—the extraneous details that are important because they are important to the person sharing them. Lee’s craft is admirable here, as these kinds of inclusions are exactly what allow her to plumb the deep complexities of both familial and cultural history.
Unfortunately, the memoir-tinged sections do not fare as well. I think memoir is about closing the distance between the real and imagined self, and doing so requires some level of interiority and ugly self-disclosure. Throughout Starry Field, the author often feels like an intruder in her own story, a little too preoccupied with unnecessary image control. For example, she repeatedly notes her political and religious stances almost defensively, and it struck me as odd each time because they don’t amount to much. In a memoir, I’m already on the narrator’s side, and I want to see what the writer explores when they have nothing to prove. In this book, it reads almost as if Margaret Juhae Lee is moving to establish her place in a lineage of political courage, and I just don’t know that it fully clicks. I think her journalistic prowess in reclaiming and reviving her family history does more than enough work in that regard.
Lest those criticisms sound harsh, I still think the book is exceptional in many ways, and it also makes me want to read a follow-up memoir if Lee explores her themes with more vulnerability. The final chapter and epilogue suggest it’s an exciting possibility, should the author choose. In the meantime, Starry Field is a fascinating look at how much is lost if families do not archive and memorialize their past, and I’m really excited to share this book with other people.
Margaret Juhae Lee’s Starry Field is a remarkably engaging family history that is only occasionally hampered by an unforthcoming memoir.
Lee works professionally as a journalist, and it shows in the best way. The journalistic approach is even more rewarding than one might expect, with Lee writing rich and affectionate profiles through interviews with her family members, thoughtfully curating which elements will be most interesting and relevant. I’m sure I speak for many readers when I say that I’ve been given an exceptionally short-sighted and biased view of Korean history, and Lee intuitively and preemptively accounts for such ignorance. The interviews themselves are also framed beautifully, allowing for all the wonderful idiosyncrasies of family—the extraneous details that are important because they are important to the person sharing them. Lee’s craft is admirable here, as these kinds of inclusions are exactly what allow her to plumb the deep complexities of both familial and cultural history.
Unfortunately, the memoir-tinged sections do not fare as well. I think memoir is about closing the distance between the real and imagined self, and doing so requires some level of interiority and ugly self-disclosure. Throughout Starry Field, the author often feels like an intruder in her own story, a little too preoccupied with unnecessary image control. For example, she repeatedly notes her political and religious stances almost defensively, and it struck me as odd each time because they don’t amount to much. In a memoir, I’m already on the narrator’s side, and I want to see what the writer explores when they have nothing to prove. In this book, it reads almost as if Margaret Juhae Lee is moving to establish her place in a lineage of political courage, and I just don’t know that it fully clicks. I think her journalistic prowess in reclaiming and reviving her family history does more than enough work in that regard.
Lest those criticisms sound harsh, I still think the book is exceptional in many ways, and it also makes me want to read a follow-up memoir if Lee explores her themes with more vulnerability. The final chapter and epilogue suggest it’s an exciting possibility, should the author choose. In the meantime, Starry Field is a fascinating look at how much is lost if families do not archive and memorialize their past, and I’m really excited to share this book with other people.
letstakeashelfie's review
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
"For my story is our story, and involves the reclamation of the lives forgotten and seemingly buried forever in our ancestral homeland."
Starry Field is Margaret Juhae Lee's retelling of her search to rediscover her family's history buried in documents and stories tied to Korea's dark past. Margaret recounts her multiple visits to Korea and her experiences and learnings while she's there. As time passes and she begins her journalism career she is focused on the life of her grandfather, Lee Chui Ha. A man that had a rebellious side and was later imprisoned. Margaret is determined to uncover the truth.
I enjoyed reading this memoir as it was intriguing to read about the lengths Margaret went to learn about her grandfather and the rest of her family along the way. Her stories pull readers in to feel all of the emotions expressed by her family members through their interviews and by Margaret herself as she remembers and dictates each of these memories.
I was once told, "Every family has a historian.". In my family, this is the role I play. Though not a trained journalist (or a writer for that matter), I've had to endure the difficulty of interviewing the older generations in my family. Sorting through fact vs fiction and pushing through the lack of desire to share stories was disheartening at times. But it's always rewarding when you piece together a story or add to a branch in the tree.
Thank you to Melville House and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy of Starry Field. Opinions are my own.
Starry Field is Margaret Juhae Lee's retelling of her search to rediscover her family's history buried in documents and stories tied to Korea's dark past. Margaret recounts her multiple visits to Korea and her experiences and learnings while she's there. As time passes and she begins her journalism career she is focused on the life of her grandfather, Lee Chui Ha. A man that had a rebellious side and was later imprisoned. Margaret is determined to uncover the truth.
I enjoyed reading this memoir as it was intriguing to read about the lengths Margaret went to learn about her grandfather and the rest of her family along the way. Her stories pull readers in to feel all of the emotions expressed by her family members through their interviews and by Margaret herself as she remembers and dictates each of these memories.
I was once told, "Every family has a historian.". In my family, this is the role I play. Though not a trained journalist (or a writer for that matter), I've had to endure the difficulty of interviewing the older generations in my family. Sorting through fact vs fiction and pushing through the lack of desire to share stories was disheartening at times. But it's always rewarding when you piece together a story or add to a branch in the tree.
Thank you to Melville House and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advanced digital copy of Starry Field. Opinions are my own.
melissagopp's review
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
In Starry Field, Margaret Juhae Lee goes on a mission to uncover the hidden history of her grandfather, who was imprisoned and died at an early age. Much of the narrative focuses on her research and interview process. The chapters I enjoyed the most were about her own life as a young adult in New York and her struggle to forge an identity of her own making rather than the vision her Korean parents had for her. The final chapters helped me understand the significance of her search for her family’s missing stories in her quest to move wholly and fully into her future. This was a slower read for me, but one full of meaning and history I otherwise may not have been exposed to.
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