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mwohlbrandt 's review for:
The Island of Sea Women
by Lisa See
Lisa See has a way of writing that makes her stories feel so real. It always feels like the people are real and the amount of research done to make the places and time periods feel accurate really shows. This novel in particular has had me incessantly looking up Korean history and talking about the Sea Women to those around me. As with life in general, this book was entirely bittersweet but it was also filled with hardships I'll hopefully never have to face.
The narrative style encourages thoughtful and maybe slower reading, but it wasn't at all boring. Any time I wasn't reading, I found myself wanting to get back to Young-sook and Mi-ja's stories. One of the main themes in this book is forgiveness and who we give it to which didn't so much resonate with me, but I can see how others would gain a lot from it.
Regardless of whether or not the story and characters resonate, this was a fantastic introduction to the history surrounding Jeju Island and the tradition of the haenyeo and was worth reading for that alone.
The narrative style encourages thoughtful and maybe slower reading, but it wasn't at all boring. Any time I wasn't reading, I found myself wanting to get back to Young-sook and Mi-ja's stories. One of the main themes in this book is forgiveness and who we give it to which didn't so much resonate with me, but I can see how others would gain a lot from it.
Spoiler
I do think forgiveness is entirely different than just not holding on to anger, and I don't know that I would have forgiven Mi-ja at the end the way Young-sook did, but this wasn't about me, was it?Regardless of whether or not the story and characters resonate, this was a fantastic introduction to the history surrounding Jeju Island and the tradition of the haenyeo and was worth reading for that alone.